New insights into Parkinson Disease and Sclerosis.

Parkinson Diease and Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis are caused by degeneration of neurons with long axon projects. Parts of the axon guidance pathway genome can be used to predict the susceptibility and onset of the diseases. Source PLoS Biology Vol. 4, No. 2, e29 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040029.

Parkinson disease (PD) affects the central nervous system and results in deterioration of motor and speech skills. Usually visible tremors and lack of fine motor control appears in the later stages. Parkinson disease mainly affects elderly people. Around one in 500 will catch the disease, which at the moment is untreatable. However, research to find a cure has been intensified in the last decades. An important aspect is to be able to predict the onset of the disease. Recently an American research group found that variation in some nucleotides in the genome of the axon guidance pathways can predict both the bearer’s susceptibility to PD and probable age of onset the disease. Now the same group has used this approach on another neurologic disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

ALS, like PS, first affects the muscles and the motor skills and later the speech. ALS is, furthermore, usually fatal. Both diseases are characterised by a degeneration of neurons with long axon projections. The researchers found that the same nucleotides of axon guidance pathway genome can predict not only PD, but also susceptibility and onset of ALS.

The results suggest that the same or similar genes are involved in the onset of both Parkinson Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.   

Sources

Lesnick TG, Papapetropoulos S, Mash DC, Ffrench-Mullen J, Shehadeh L, et al. (2007) A genomic pathway approach to a complex disease: axon guidance and Parkinson disease. PLoS Genet 3: e98

Lesnick TG, Sorenson EJ, Ahlskog JE, Henley JR, Shehadeh L, et al (2008) Beyond Parkinson Disease: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and the Axon Guidance Pathway. PLoS ONE 3(1): e1449. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001449

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