Dr Vania Broccoli, Director of the Stem Cell and Neurogenesis Unit of San Raffaele Institute in Milan, Italy, together with his team of researchers, has developed a new method based on genetic engineering, which enables the transformation of skin cells (fibroblasts) into dopaminergic nervous cells  (neurons) – the ones that patients with Parkinson’s disease lack. The method consists in the genetic reprogramming of the cell by inserting three genes  (Mash1, Nurr1 e Lmx1a), which trigger the transformation into induced dopaminergic neurons  (iDA).

Researchers of Louisiana University have presented data that suggest that Helicobacter pylori may have a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease at the meeting of the American Society of Microbiology.  This bacterium occurs in the stomach of about half of the general population and has proved to be responsible for gastric and duodenal ulcers. 

]]> alessandro@alessandrogagliardi.it (Administrator) frontpage Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:49:53 +0000 http://www.wpda.org/the-news/2036-mechanisms-discovered-that-are-potentially-connected-to-the-development-of-psp-a-severe-form-of-parkinsonism-.html http://www.wpda.org/the-news/2036-mechanisms-discovered-that-are-potentially-connected-to-the-development-of-psp-a-severe-form-of-parkinsonism-.html Thousands of patients submitted to DNA analysis and outcome published in  Nature Genetics

Within the context of an international research project, researchers analyzed the genome (genetic make-up) of more than  2000 patients suffering from a severe and rare form of parkinsonism, called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).  The results were compared with those obtained in 7000 control subjects without the disease.  The analysis was carried out in two phases, starting from an initial sample of 1114 subjects who had died, in whom the diagnosis was certain, based on the outcome of their autopsy.