On Nature Communications the study of UCBM, Tor Vergata and Santa Lucia Foundation
September 2, 2019 - The development of Parkinson's disease could be slowed down thanks to resolvins, molecules produced by our body to shut down inflammatory processes and repair the tissues damaged by these processes. Research has been focusing the spotlight on the possible relationship between inflammatory states and neurodegenerative diseases for some time. In the new study published today on Nature Communications., researchers of theUniversity of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS e Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, first detected a reduced level of a specific Resolvin, Resolvin D1, in patients affected by the disease and then intervened experimentally on laboratory models to rebalance the presence of this important molecule in the animal organism. The research group has thus managed to slow down the neurodegenerative process that characterizes Parkinson's disease.
"I study - Explains Nicholas Mercuri, Professor of Neurology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Head of the Research Line of Experimental Neurosciences of the IRCCS Santa Lucia and coordinator of the study – allowed us to demonstrate that the alpha-synuclein protein, known for its key role in the development of Parkinson's disease, causes a very early malfunction of dopaminergic neurons. The consequences are motor and cognitive disorders, but also an increased neuroinflammation associated with reduced levels of Resolvin D1 that we observed in the blood and in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Parkinson's, being treated at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic".
Starting from this observation, the researchers administered Resolvin D1 in laboratory models and after two months of treatment they were able to observe a progressive reduction of the inflammatory state and of the degenerative process which in Parkinson's disease causes the well-known destruction of the neurons responsible for the production of dopamine . With them, the motor and behavioral symptoms characteristic of the disease have also decreased.
“To date, the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease occurs late, when more than half of the dopaminergic neurons have already been destroyed and we have no therapies to regenerate them - highlights Marcellus D'Amelio, Professor of Human Physiology of the Bio-Medico Campus of Rome and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurosciences of the IRCCS Santa Lucia – Being able to intervene in the laboratory on an inflammatory process linked to this neurodegeneration before the dopaminergic neurons are lost forever bodes well for future clinical trials capable of slowing down or hopefully stopping the development of the disease".
The results of the study, underline the researchers, offer new ideas not only for the identification of effective therapies but also in anticipating the diagnosis of the disease. “It is reasonable to hypothesize that the reduced presence of Resolvin in Parkinson's patients may in the future also serve as an early marker of the disease” - Explains Valerio Chiurchiù, Researcher of the Biochemistry Unit ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and IRCCS Santa Lucia.
The study (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11928-w) also saw the collaboration of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, the University of Perugia, the University of Tübingen in Germany and Harvard University in the United States of America.
