Maryse:
I seem to remember that there was a reported connection to PD a long
time ago. Not sure what's new.
K. F. Cg  Carline


M.Schild wrote:
> Light shed on Parkinson's culprit
>
> 02 October 2007
>
> European scientists have developed a new technique to detect attogram
> quantities of iron in living cells. - providing further evidence of the role
> the metal plays in Parkinson's disease.
> Iron is thought to form bulky chelate complexes with the neurotransmitter
> dopamine in diseased cells, preventing it from being stored or transported
> properly. But to date this has only been confirmed in the test tube because
> conventional imaging techniques are not powerful enough to pick up the tiny
> traces of iron.
> Now, a team led Richard Ortega at the University of Bordeaux, France, has used
> powerful X-ray radiation from a synchrotron to track iron in cells cultured
> from rats.
> By using a highly focused beam of X-rays with a wavelength of 88nm, the team
> excited the iron in the cell and recorded the radiation released by the
> metal -detecting amounts as small as one attogram (10-18g). They then mapped
> dopamine in the same cell using ultraviolet fluorescence spectroscopy and
> superimposed the images from the two techniques.
> When they compared the images they got from normal cells and cells treated to
> mimic the onset of Parkinson's disease, they found iron accumulating inside
> the dopamine storing vesicles of the cell.
> scientists
> Ortega's team detects Parkinson's culprit using new X-ray technique
>
> The new X-ray setup opens up many possibilities for similar research, Ortega
> told Chemistry World. 'This research is in an early stage [but] the work
> provides a new way of thinking about treatment of Parkinson's disease.'
> Olivier Hignette of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), who
> helped develop the equipment used in the research, said stronger more
> energetic X-rays could allow many more metals in cells to be probed.
> 'We are not yet at the limit of this technology,' he said. 'Upon improvement
> of the apparatus, 40 or even 30nm radiation with similar photon fluxes may be
> achieved.'
> Commenting on the work, David Dexter of Imperial College London, who works on
> the role of iron in neurodegenerative diseases, said, 'This does strengthen
> the idea of the contribution of iron to neurodegenerative diseases. It
> certainly adds a new dimension to the whole problem.'
> Jonathan Edwards
>
>
>

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