‘Disordered brain cells’ link for developing Parkinson’s

PEOPLE WHO develop Parkinson’s disease before the age of 50 may have been born with disordered brain cells, new research suggests.

Scientists say the abnormalities may have gone undetected for years.

They add that their findings may point to a drug which could potentially help correct the process.

Parkinson’s occurs when neurons in the brain that make dopamine – a substance that helps co-ordinate muscle movement – become impaired or die.

Symptoms include slowness of movement, rigid muscles, tremors and loss of balance.

In most cases, why the neuron fails is unknown, and there is no known cure.

Study senior author Dr Clive Svendsen, director of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and professor of biomedical sciences and medicine at CedarsSinai, said: “Our technique gave us a window back in time to see how well the dopamine neurons might have functioned from the very start of a patient’s life.”

Researchers generated special stem cells, known as pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), from cells of patients with young-onset Parkinson’s. This involved taking adult blood cells back to a primitive embryonic state.

The stem cells could then produce any cell type of the human body, all genetically identical to the patient’s own.

In the study, published in Nature Medicine, researchers used the iPSCs to produce dopamine neurons from the three patients, and then cultured them in a dish, and analysed the function of the neurons.