Genetic change prevents cell death in mouse model of Parkinson’s disease
By shifting a normal protective mechanism into overdrive, A University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist has completely shielded mice from a toxic chemical that would otherwise cause Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease is a disabling and sometimes fatal disease that afflicts 1.5 million Americans, with about 60,000 new cases annually. Its major symptoms, including tremors and sluggish movement, have been traced to death of small numbers of nerve cells in the substantia nigra, a brain region that helps regulate movement.
In a study published in today’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jeffrey Johnson, a professor in the School of Pharmacy, reported that adding extra copies of a gene that makes a protective protein prevented a toxic chemical from devastating the substantia nigra.
Read the full article at http://www.news.wisc.edu/16230