Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder which affects motion, balance, speech, smell, vision, pleasure, cognitive abilities and other functions. It is characterized by the death of nerve cells in the substantia nigra of the brain that produces the significant Parkinson's Disease neurotransmitter dopamine.
A French study,entitled Infiltration of CD4+ lymphocytes into the brain contributes toneurodegeneration in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease; Immune Cells contribute to the development of Parkinson's disease was publicly released on December 22, 2008.
This study of diseased mice at Inserm Institute in Paris revealed a substantial number of T cells accumulating in postmortem human brain tissue from individuals with PD and from mice with a Parkinson-like disease. Importantly, the mice lacking all T cells developed a substantially less severe disease in the mouse model of Parkinson's.
Although the loss of dopamine containing nerves is accompanied by an accumulation of immune cells known as T cells, these accumulating T cells were not previously thought to have a role in the development of disease.
However, Stephan Hunot, Etienne C. Hirsch and colleagues, at INSERM Institute, Paris France have shown that CD4+ T cells make a significant contribution to the development of disease in a mouse model of Parkinson's. CD4+ cells and CD8+ T cells are subsets of antigen-specific T cells which aid the immune system with "memory" of previous infection.
In this study, protection was specifically associated with a lack of CD4+ T cells expressing the protein FasL (Fas-ligand) which is known to play an important role in immune homeostasis. The authors suggested that targeting the immune system might provide a new therapeutic approach to treating Parkinson's disease. However, in an accompanying commentary, Stanley H Appel at Methodist Neurological Institute, Houston, warns that although these data provide a rationale for immune-based strategies, there are a large number of questions that need to be answered before such approaches can be considered in the clinic.
Read Original article Click Here |
