Best Evidence Yet That Parkinson's Could Be Autoimmune Disease

저자：   업로드：2017-06-26  조회수：

    Parkinson’s begins with abnormal clumping of a protein called synuclein in the brain. Neighbouring dopamine-producing neurons then die, causing tremors and difficulty moving.  Much of the etiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) was thought to be well established, with the noted exception of the hypothesis that has been kicked around for almost a century that PD is partly an autoimmune disorder. Unfortunately, previous studies were unable to directly link the immune system to the neurodegenerative disease.

    However, a group of scientists led by investigators at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology has found direct evidence that autoimmunity, in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues, plays a role in the neurodegenerative movement disorder.      

    "The idea that a malfunctioning immune system contributes to Parkinson's dates back almost 100 years," explained co-senior study investigator David Sulzer, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at CUMC. "But until now, no one has been able to connect the dots. Our findings show that two fragments of alpha-synuclein, a protein that accumulates in the brain cells of people with Parkinson's, can activate the T cells involved in autoimmune attacks.”

    Findings from the study were published recently in Nature through an article entitled “T cells of Parkinson's disease patients recognize alpha-synuclein peptides.”

    "It remains to be seen whether the immune response to alpha-synuclein is an initial cause of Parkinson's, or if it contributes to neuronal death and worsening symptoms after the onset of the disease," noted co-senior study investigator Alessandro Sette, Dr. Biol. Sci., professor in the Center for Infectious Disease at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. "These findings, however, could provide a much-needed diagnostic test for PD, and could help us to identify individuals at risk or in the early stages of the disease."

    Scientists had previously thought that neurons were protected from autoimmune attacks. However, in a 2014 study, Dr. Sulzer's lab demonstrated that dopamine neurons (those affected by PD) are vulnerable because they have proteins on the cell surface that help the immune system recognize foreign substances. As a result, the researchers surmised that T cells had the potential to mistake neurons damaged by PD for foreign invaders.

    The CUMC and La Jol

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