New Parkinson's Disease Research - Compare Genetic Cases with Environmental -
Symptoms and Treatments With Drugs
April 28th 2006
New Parkinson's Disease Research - Compare Genetic Cases with Environmental -
Symptoms and Treatments With Drugs Health
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic compared patients with Parkinson’s disease
which stems from genetic causes with patients who have no known cause. These
cases that have no known genetic cause make up 98% of all Parkinson’s cases.
They label these cases “sporadic”. Parkinson’s disease affects approximately
1 million Americans causing tremors, stiffness, slowness of movement and
instability.
They found that the disease affects men twice as often as women. The
researchers speculate that this may be because women have a “protective
effect” or mechanism. For example, the hormone estrogen may act to protect
women.
It has been thought that Parkinson’s may be caused by environmental exposure
to pesticides or chemicals, but researchers have also found six genetic
mutations responsible for causing Parkinson's disease in about 2 percent of
all cases.
Parkinson’s disease is a motor-system disorder that usually affects one
side of the body more than the other. Earlier research found that
Parkinson's disease symptoms are overwhelmingly asymmetric (i.e. affects one
side more than the other) in the sporadic cases they studied. The
researchers were surprise that 90% of the genetic cases have asymmetric
symptoms as well.
According to Dr. Ryan Uitti, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and lead investigator,
“I really thought their Parkinson's disease symptoms would be pretty much the
same on both sides of the body. If there's a genetic cause for a
neurological problem, given the fact that genes are in every cell, in both
the right side of the brain and the left side, why would there be differences
in symptoms between the two sides of the body?"
The asymmetric symptoms may have something to do with the “handedness” of the
patient. "This is an area that's completely open to speculation," Uitti says.
"One thought is that this is completely hard-wired. Just like one side of the
brain controls language in most people, one side of the brain creates
handedness, and maybe that circuit is more vulnerable to the causes of
Parkinson's disease." It may be possible that overuse of a motor circuit,
similar to what occurs with writer's cramp, leads to damaging the circuit and
predisposing symptoms to develop on one's predominant side.
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