Featured Article
Academic Journal
Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 09 Feb 2012 - 0:00 PST
email to a friend printer friendly opinions
Current Article Ratings:
Patient / Public:
5 (4 votes)
Healthcare Prof:
By reverse engineering human skin cells to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and then coaxing them to become neural dopamine cells, scientists in the US have developed a way to study a genetic cause of Parkinson's disease in lab-made neurons. Their findings, which they write about in the 7 February issue of Nature Communications, reveal some potential new drug targets for Parkinson's and a new platform to screen treatments that might mimic the protective functions of parkin, the gene they investigated.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that results from the death of dopamine-secreting neurons in a region of the brain that controls movement. In the US there are 500,000 people with Parkinson's disease, and 50,000 new cases every year. There is no cure.
Most cases have no specific cause, but around 1 in 10 can be attributed to known genetic factors. One of these is mutations in the parkin gene.
To study the effect of the parkin gene in brain cells, you have to study live human neurons. But they are hard to study because they live in complex networks in the brain, ruling out the possibility of extracting them.
And you can't use animals, because when they lack the parkin gene, they don't develop Parkinson's disease: human neurons are thought to have "unique vulnerabilities" in this respect.
(The suggestion is that the larger human brain uses more dopamine to support the neural computation that is needed to enable us to walk on two legs, compared to the four-legged movement of almost all other animals.)
But in 2007, scientists in Japan described how they made human stem cells (iPSCs) without using embryos, and since then, lead author of the Nature Communications study, Dr Jian Feng from the University at Buffalo (UB) in New York, and colleagues, have been looking for a way to use the technology to study neurons with mutations in the parkin gene.
Feng, a professor of physiology and biophysics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said in a press statement that the advent of iPSCs was a "game-changer" for their field of work:
"Before this, we didn't even think about being able to study the disease in human neurons."
"The brain is so fully integrated. It's impossible to obtain live human neurons to study," he added.
For their study, Feng and colleagues reverse engineered human skin cells to make iPSCs. The skin cells came from four people: two with a rare type of Parkinson's disease where parkin causes the disease, and two healthy people who served as controls.
"Once parkin is mutated, it can no longer precisely control the action of dopamine, which supports the neural computation required for our movement," said Feng.
Feng and colleagues also found that mutations in parkin stop it being able to tightly control the production of monoamine oxidase (MAO), which catalyzes dopamine oxidation.
"Normally, parkin makes sure that MAO, which can be toxic, is expressed at a very low level so that dopamine oxidation is under control," said Feng.
But they found that when it is mutated, parkin loses the ability to regulate MAO, so the level goes up.
"The nerve cells from our Parkinson's patients had much higher levels of MAO expression than those from our controls. We suggest in our study that it might be possible to design a new class of drugs that would dial down the expression level of MAO," explained Feng, who noted that one of the drugs currently used to treat Parkinson's disease slows the activity of MAO and in trials has been shown to slow disease progression.
Fend said they discovered that a key reason for the death of dopamine neurons was oxidative stress due to there being too much MAO around. But before the neurons die, the precise action of dopamine in helping the neural computations that support movement, is disrupted by mutations in parkin.
"This paper provides the first clues about what the parkin gene is doing in healthy controls and what it fails to achieve in Parkinson's patients," said Feng.
When the researchers delivered normal parkin into the neurons with the mutations, the defects were reversed. This is what makes them think such neurons could be used as a platform for screening new drug candidates that could mimic the protective effect of normal parkin.
The University of Buffalo has applied for patent protection on the screening platform.
Although parkin mutations are responsible for a small proportion of Parkinson's cases, the researchers believe that understanding how the gene works could be relevant to all cases of the disease.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Visit our parkinson's disease section for the latest news on this subject. "Parkin controls dopamine utilization in human midbrain dopaminergic neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells"; Houbo Jiang, Yong Ren, Eunice Y. Yuen, Ping Zhong, Mahboobe Ghaedi, Zhixing Hu, Gissou Azabdaftari, Kazuhiro Nakaso, Zhen Yan & Jian Feng; Nature Communications 3:668; Published online 07 Feb 2012; DOI:10.1038/ncomms1669; Link to Abstract.
Additional source: University at Buffalo Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:
MLA
Catharine Paddock PhD. "Lab-Made Neurons Allow Scientists To Study A Genetic Cause Of Parkinson's." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 9 Feb. 2012. Web.
12 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241373.php>
APA
Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.
Rate this article:
(Hover over the stars then click to rate) Patient / Public:
or Health Professional:
Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.
All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)
Contact Our News Editors
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.
Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:
Note: Any medical information published on this website is not
intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.
Follow this link:
Lab-Made Neurons Allow Scientists To Study A Genetic Cause Of Parkinson's
- The Feedback Loop: Ecological Damage Soon Beyond Control [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2011]
- Human Genetic Engineering [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 10th, 2011]
- GENETICS ENGINEERING RESEARCH AT IUSOM - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 13th, 2011]
- Genetic Manipulation And Its Impact On The Human Species 5/8 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 13th, 2011]
- Genetic Engineering: Do or Die (Chapter 1) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2011]
- Genetic Minipulation Replacments Humans and Disclosure. - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2011]
- Genetic Engineering - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2011]
- Homo Sapiens are a Product of Alien Genetic Engineering - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 16th, 2011]
- China Engineers Genetically Modified Cows To Produce Human Breast Milk - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 17th, 2011]
- Genetic Engineering on Children has already begun - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 22nd, 2011]
- The Coming Replacement Humans - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 22nd, 2011]
- Genetically Engineering Intelligent Babies - Horizon: Are We Still Evolving? Preview - BBC Two - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 22nd, 2011]
- Prof. Stuart Newman on human genetic modification (Pt.2) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 22nd, 2011]
- The Ethics of Genetically Engineering Children - Arthur Caplan - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2011]
- 2012 UFO's ALIEN HUMANS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED BY ALIEN RACE LLOYD PYE - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2011]
- First Human Drug from Genetically Engineered Animals Approved - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2011]
- The Known Genome Of Species - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- Engineering Our Children - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2011]
- GENETIC ENGINEERING HUMANITY INTO A LIVING HELL (3 OF 4) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- Monsanto's Crimes Against Humanity with Jeffrey M. Smith P 1-2 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Genetic Modification - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- Papers On Ethical Issues, ethical issues , the office ethical , The Office Ethics - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 1st, 2011]
- Lloyd Pye - Ancient Genetic Engineering - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 3rd, 2011]
- GENETIC ENGINEERING HUMANITY INTO A LIVING HELL(1 OF 4) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 7th, 2011]
- NWO SUPER HUMANS - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 10th, 2011]
- Damn Dirty Humans (Apes-vs-Robots @ Movie Smackdown!) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Alex Jones - David Icke: The Blue Bloods [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Genetically modified cow for human breast milk (10 Jun 2011) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Barcode Babies And The Bio-Engineering of Humanity - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City - Kill Leon S. Kennedy Trailer [1080p HD PS3, Xbox 360, PC] - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City - E3 2011 gameplay part 2 Trailer [1080p HD PS3, Xbox 360, PC] - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Animal/human hybrid experimentation in ancient times - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: November 25th, 2011]
- Genetic Engineering - Knowledge Base | Lecture 1.0 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2011]
- PANDEMONIUM'S ENGINE - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2011]
- Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City - E3 2011 gameplay part 1 Trailer [1080p HD PS3, Xbox 360, PC] - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2011]
- Interview with James M. Wilson, MD, Ph.D. (U. Penn) - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2011]
- Marshall Klarfeld - The Extraterrestrial Origins of Humanity - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 3rd, 2011]
- # 834 10 Ways the Scientific Dictatorship Aims to Modify Human Beings - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- Human Genetic Engineering 1.mov - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 10th, 2011]
- Human Genetic Engineering English Final Bryan Hatchell - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 10th, 2011]
- Genetic Engineering for Human Enhancement.mp4 - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 16th, 2011]
- Human Genetic Manipulation - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: December 19th, 2011]
- The Truth About Lost Mittens - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2012]
- Human Hybrids - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 14th, 2012]
- Human Genetics: Human Accelerated Regions in the Genome - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City - Story and gameplay Trailer [1080p HD PS3, Xbox 360, PC] - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- # 831 We Need to Wake Up to This Too! Human/Alien Hybridization - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Alex Jones - The Globalist Biological Warfare Plan for All Humanity 1_4! - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Alex Jones - The Globalist Biological Warfare Plan for All Humanity 2_4! - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Spare Parts for Humans: Tissue Engineers Aim for Lab-Grown Limbs, Lungs and More - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Grey Aliens - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Human Giants [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2012]
- Has the modern science found evidence that the homo-sapiens species was jumpstarted by aliens? - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 19th, 2012]
- Viruses con bacteria into working for them [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 29th, 2012]
- New Genetics and Microbiology Resources Published at ScienceIndex.com [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 29th, 2012]
- CURL: The end of the GOP as we knew it [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2012]
- Delphi Genetics: The New DNAVAC Research Project Targets the Removal of Antibiotics in Veterinary DNA-Vaccine ... [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2012]
- Experts Weigh in on Bird Flu Research [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2012]
- Cellectis Plant Sciences Announces the Signature of a Strategic Partnership with SESVanderHave in Sugar Beet [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2012]
- Plant Physiologist Helen Stafford leaves Reed College Biology Dept. $1M [Tomorrow's Table] [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 1st, 2012]
- Hepatitis Research May Benefit From Stem Cells [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 5th, 2012]
- James A. Shapiro: Purposeful, Targeted Genetic Engineering in Immune System Evolution [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]
- EDITORIAL Focus on what’s important [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]
- Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City - Triple threat cinematic Trailer [1080p HD PS3, Xbox 360, PC] - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]
- COMMUNICATION WITHOUT WORDS - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]
- Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City - Heroes mode Trailer [1080p HD PS3, Xbox 360, PC] - Video [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]
- Global Food Crisis to Spur Sturdy Growth of Genetically Engineered Crops, According to New Report by Global Industry ... [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2012]
- Hybrids [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2012]
- Cure of ADPKD by selection for spontaneous genetic repair events in Pkd1-mutated iPS cells [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2012]
- Not as Easy as it Sounds [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2012]
- Siemens partners with drugmakers [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2012]
- Scientists concerned about antibiotic resistance in wastewater [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2012]
- U-M human embryonic stem cell line placed on national registry [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2012]
- U-M Human Embryonic Stem Cell Line Placed On National Registry for Researchers [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2012]
- UM Human Embryonic Stem Cell Line Placed On National Registry [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 15th, 2012]
- World Economic Forum lists top 10 emerging technologies for 2012 [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2012]
- Nanosurgery and the fight against cancer: major breakthrough at Polytechnique Montréal [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2012]
- The splice of life: Proteins cooperate to regulate gene splicing [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2012]
- Proteins cooperate to regulate gene splicing [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 16th, 2012]
- Killer Virus Creation Spurs Debate [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: February 19th, 2012]