PHILADELPHIA Using fruit fly models of Parkinsons disease, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that a class of proteins known as "molecular chaperones" can block the progression of neurodegenerative disease in Drosophila melanogaster. In addition, the group has found evidence that similar pathways may operate in Parkinsons disease and possibly other neurodegenerative disorders in humans.
The findings will be published in the journal Science, as part of its Science Express web site, on Dec. 20. They suggest that activation of molecular chaperones may be an effective approach in the treatment of several human neurodegenerative diseases, senior author Nancy M. Bonini said.
"Our work indicates that up-regulation of a molecular chaperone called Hsp70 can prevent neuronal decay in a fruit fly model of Parkinsons disease," said Bonini, Penn professor of biology and investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Weve also found some of the same molecular chaperone pathology in tissue taken from people with Parkinsons disease, suggesting that these molecules may play the same role in humans as in flies."
Bonini and colleagues in Penns School of Medicine also found molecular chaperones in tissue from people afflicted with other neurodegenerative diseases associated with similar protein pathology, including a variant of Alzheimers disease.
"These data suggest that altered chaperone activity may be involved in the progression of Parkinsons disease, and that chaperones such as Hsp70 may be a critical part of the neuronal arsenal that fights neurodegenerative disease," said Pavan K. Auluck, a Penn M.D./Ph.D. student who is lead author on the Science paper.
Parkinsons disease is the second most common human neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by tremors, postural rigidity and progressive deterioration of dopaminergic neurons in specific areas of the brain. Despite the evolutionary gulf separating h
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Contact: Steve Bradt
bradt@pobox.upenn.edu
215-573-6604
University of Pennsylvania
20-Dec-2001