News Releases & Research Results Study identifies the mechanism in which the alteration of brain lipid composition contributes to Parkinson’s disease ―Successfully prevents neuronal death by administering a specific fatty acid―

News Releases & Research Results

Outline

Results of R&D by a research group of Professor Nobutaka Hattori, Research Assistant Akio Mori of the Department of Neurology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Associate Professor Yuzuru Imai of the Department of Research for Parkinson’s Disease, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, and others.

Key points of the study results

  • The loss of "PLA2G6", one of the genes that cause Parkinson’s disease, in the animal model (Drosophila) resulted in changes in the composition of membrane phospholipids, which triggered the aggregation of protein "α-synuclein", inducing neuronal death.
  • In addition, the administration of diet containing linoleic acid to the animal model was found to suppress the aggregation of "α-synuclein", leading to the prevention of neuronal death.
  • A nutritional approach can be made possible as an effective way to prevent and treat Parkinson’s disease.

This R&D was conducted with the support of Research on Measures for Intractable Diseases, Advanced Research & Development Programs for Medical Innovation by AMED.

The results of this R&D were published on September 23 in the online/early release version of PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, an American scientific academy bulletin.

Article

09/27/19

Last updated 09/27/19