Researchers have discovered a process that appears to explain how a well known enzyme mutation triggers the neural deterioration seen in Parkinson’s disease. According to a [s]News-Medical[/s] report, Dr Ted Dawson and colleagues from the [b]Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering[/b] explain in research, published in [s]Cell[/s], how mutations in LRKK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) may lead to the degeneration of dopamine neurons. Dawson says that nobody had anticipated that LRKK2 could be instrumental at a level as fundamental as protein manufacture. The researchers are now conducting further studies to unravel exactly how excess protein production might contribute to the degeneration.
[link url=http://www.news-medical.net/news/20140410/Scientists-discover-potential-cause-of-Parkinsone28099s-disease.aspx]Full News-Medical report[/link]
[link url=http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(14)00212-8]Cell abstract[/link]