News Releases & Research Results Microstructural analysis of the patient’s brain suggests a new disease concept of Parkinson’s disease ― Is Parkinson’s disease a type of amyloidosis as an intractable diseases!? ―

Results of collaborative research and development led by a specially appointed researcher, Katsuya Araki, and Professor Hideki Mochizuki (Department of Neurology) of the Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine and a special researcher, Naoto Yagi of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI).

• In the autopsy brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease, protein filaments with a distinctive structure (amyloid fibrils) was confirmed for the first time in the abnormal protein aggregates (Lewy body).
• Microstructural analysis of the protein aggregates in a brain section was achieved through collaborative research with the large synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8.
• This is expected to be applied to development of diagnosis and treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

This research and development was conducted with the support of the Medical Research and Development Programs Focused on Technology Transfer (Development of Advanced Measurement and Analysis Systems and Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies), etc. from AMED.

Araki K , et al. Parkinson’s disease is a type of amyloidosis featuring accumulation of amyloid fibrils of α-synuclein, PNAS
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1906124116