{"id":17692,"date":"2021-07-06T09:22:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T07:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/?p=17692"},"modified":"2021-07-06T11:09:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T09:09:32","slug":"identified-an-early-neuronal-dysfunction-in-parkinsons-that-could-help-early-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/2021\/07\/identified-an-early-neuronal-dysfunction-in-parkinsons-that-could-help-early-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Identified an early neuronal dysfunction in Parkinson’s that could help early diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"
Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the death of dopaminergic neurons. This neuronal death leads to a series of motor manifestations characteristic of the disease, such as tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement, or postural instability. In most cases, the cause of the disease is unknown, however, mutations in the LRRK2 gene are responsible for 5% of cases.<\/p>\n
Current therapies against Parkinson’s are focus on alleviating the symptoms but do not stop its progression. It is thought that early interventions before the appearance of the first symptoms that prevent neuronal death could slow down or even stop the evolution of the disease. However, currently, the diagnosis is based on the appearance of symptoms, when 70% of the neurons have already been lost.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nDr. Antonella Consiglio (right) with work co-authors Lucas Blasco-Agell, Irene Fern\u00e1ndez-Carasa, Meritxell Pons-Espinal, Valentina Baruffi (right-left).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A group of researchers from IDIBELL and the University of Barcelona (UB), led by Dr. Antonella Consiglio<\/strong> (group leader at IDIBELL, ICREA Academy researcher, and professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and IBUB\/Institute of Biomedicine of the UB), Dr. Angel Raya<\/strong> (coordinator of the IDIBELL Regenerative Medicine program and ICREA researcher) and Dr. Jordi Soriano<\/strong> (group leader and professor at the UB and the Institute of Complex Systems from the University of Barcelona), with other national and international collaborators, have identified early functional deficiencies, before death, in neurons derived from patients with genetic Parkinson’s<\/strong>. According to Dr. Consiglio “, these discoveries open the door to early diagnosis, which would allow us to carry out a premature intervention that would slow down neuronal death, and therefore, would stop the evolution of the disease<\/em>“.<\/p>\n
In this work, dopaminergic neurons, the most vulnerable in Parkinson’s, differentiated from stem cells (iPSC) of healthy individuals and patients with genetic Parkinson’s, have been used as a model. Researchers have observed that these dopaminergic neurons are capable of maturing and forming functional neural networks in culture, in both control and Parkinson’s disease conditions.<\/p>\n
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