How to protect the brain from Parkinson's disease
Despite the existence of a number of drugs that alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, to date, doctors do not have a single drug at their disposal that can slow the progression of this disease. In 2013, a molecule known as ganglioside GM1 demonstrated good results in relieving symptoms and slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease in patients.
Ganglioside GM1 is synthesized by nerve cells of the brain, while the level of its secretion is significantly reduced in patients with Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
At the present stage, the only available method of producing GM1 ganglioside is its isolation from the brain tissue of cows, which is associated not only with technological difficulties, but also with certain issues of biological safety. Moreover, for technical reasons, it turned out to be difficult to regularly inject the drug ganglioside GM1 into the brain of patients for a long time.
Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University, working under the guidance of Professor Jay S. Schneider, decided to devote their research to finding an alternative solution to the problem. Analyzing the data available in the literature, they found out that the enzyme sialidase is able to convert other gangliosides naturally synthesized in the body into ganglioside GM1. To test the feasibility of using this enzyme, they implanted a pump into the brain of mice that constantly releases sialidase, after which they induced the development of simulated Parkinson's disease in animals. As a result, the protection of neurons provided by sialidase was not inferior to the protection provided by direct administration of GM1 ganglioside into the brain of animals.
The authors are very inspired by the results obtained, which can be useful in the treatment of not only Parkinson's disease, but also other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. However, they note that the long-term introduction of the enzyme into the brain requires the implantation of an alluvial system, which is very difficult in practice. Therefore, work is already underway on alternative gene therapy approaches to increase the level of GM1 ganglioside in the brain.
Article by Jay S. Schneider et al. Intraventricular Sialidase Administration Enhances GM1 Ganglioside Expression and Is Partially Neuroprotective in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
07.12.2015