Last July 13th, Michael Aschner PhD, from the Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville (USA), gave the IDIBELL seminar “From worms to humans: mechanisms of manganese induced neurotoxicity and lessons for dopaminergic cell loss“ in the framework of the FENS Forum, hold in Barcelona. The main objective of the study leaded by Aschner is to analize which the cells are more sensitive of the manganese.

“The most relevant way to get polluted with manganese is the direct contact, some in manipulating chemical products or drinking polluted water. Some countries use a lot of Manganese and they are concern about this problem, like China, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, among others”.

“We are doing experiments in worms and, also in mice. We have some data in children, but we are not epidemiologists. There are some epidemiologists making some studies in children exposed to manganese in Mexico. Also there are some studies in Bangladesh, where there are some high level of manganese in water.

My group is doing research to find how make cells more resistant to manganese and find strategiesfor neuroprotection”, said Aschner.

“We think the effects of the manganese pollution are related with Parkinson disease then we can find some strategies or potential therapies that can be applicable to many other diseases”, concluded the researcher.