Fibers in the form of “pasta” at the origin of Parkinson disease. A Franco-Belgian team including researchers from the Institut des neurosciences Paris Saclay (CNRS / Université Paris-Sud) has identified the source of this neurodegenerative disease in the brain. The culprits are said to be spaghetti-shaped fibers that are said to be toxic to spread to the brain. More precisely, it is the aggregation of fibers in the form of ribbons of alpha-synuclein, a macromolecule which plays a role in the synapses, which would be at the origin of Parkinson’s.
Another finding, depending on the shape of these fibers (wide linguine-style pasta or cylindrical pasta similar to spaghetti), the neurodegenerative disease would be different. So, while “linguine” fibers would cause Parkinson’s disease, spaghetti fibers would cause another type of dementia, more rare, multi-system atrophy.
Towards a better diagnosis
The team made these discoveries by separately injecting these two types of fiber aggregates into the brain and blood of rats. “We should now see if the aggregates present in sick people have the properties that we have described”, underlines Ronald Melki, CNRS research director at the Institute of Neuroscience Paris Saclay, in the journal Nature, taken up by AFP.
These results could lead to the development of antibodies to fight Parkinson’s disease. “This also opens the door to new precise diagnostic tools for living individuals, since at present Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed with certainty only after death”, specifies the CNRS in a press release.
The researchers say “consider being able to diagnose, within five or ten years, the disease in individuals of 40 or 45 years “.
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