Commin Biol: new research is expected to analyze the cause of Parkinson's disease in the future

October 14, 2019 news / BIOON / -- one of the biggest difficulties in treating Parkinson's disease to understand when it begins to occur Now researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and the University of Virginia School of medicine in the United States have published a study in the journal communication biology that may help solve this problem For the first time, scientists have observed how the key protein "α - synuclein" in Parkinson's disease changes with time and can identify the initial stage of protein aggregation It is well known that the degeneration of neurons leading to the onset of symptoms such as tremor is related to the aggregation of α - synuclein (also known as amyloid filaments) in the brain Before the formation of such filaments, α - synuclein undergoes an intermediate stage called "oligomer", which also exists in the brain of Parkinson's disease patients However, there is no consensus on the mechanism of triggering oligomer aggregation and neuronal cell loss and degeneration (image source: www Pixabay Com) during the study, scientists compared the transformation of four α - synuclein variants over time, three of which were related to the early onset of the disease, and the other one was found in elderly patients They then observed significant differences in the aggregation of each protein and found that oligomers developed much more rapidly in the early stages of disease This result may explain why the patients carrying these mutants have symptoms early In order to carry out the research, the researchers used the most advanced biological imaging technology First, they used fluorescent probes to visualize the steps of each protein aggregation In addition, they optimized the observation conditions to detect previously undiscovered structures during α - synuclein polymerization The use of frozen electron microscopy is also important for this study By allowing resolution close to the atomic level, scientists observed the structure of amyloid filaments According to Oliveira, building on the structures they found could help develop new treatments for the disease "By rapidly freezing these samples and obtaining advanced electron microscope images, we can better understand the binding of these wrong proteins in their natural environment and the way to avoid their formation," he said Information source: deciding the early stages of Parkinson's disease is a matter of time original source: Guilherme A P de Oliveira, Jersey L Silva Alpha synuclein stepwise aggregation features of an early only station in Parkinson's disease Communications biology, 2019; 2 (1) doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0598-9