A research team from UCLouvain has highlighted the function of the PARK7 enzyme, which seems to play a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease. This discovery opens the way to new treatments, “which would target the origin of this neurodegenerative disease rather than its symptoms”, announced Monday the establishment in a press release. Scientists from the Duve Institute (UCLouvain), led by Professor Guido Bommer, have discovered that the PARK7 enzyme prevents damage caused to cells during the metabolism of sugars by glycolysis, i.e. all of the reactions that make it possible to break down glucose for the purpose of producing energy.
However, the PARK7 enzyme is inactive in some patients with Parkinson’s disease. The researchers therefore assume that there is an explanation for the appearance of this very debilitating disease, the development of which is still unknown today.
“Inactivation of PARK7 causes accumulation of damage in systems as diverse as human cells, mice, and even flies. Some cases of Parkinson’s disease are due to genetic inactivation of the PARK7 enzyme,” observes the research team. “Knowing that PARK7 is easily inactivated by oxidative stress that can be triggered for multiple reasons, the same damage could also play a role in patients whose PARK7 gene is intact,” she adds.
This breakthrough in the study of Parkinson’s disease gives new hope for the treatment of this brain disease which affects seven to ten million people worldwide. Scientists therefore hope that this better understanding of the mechanisms at the origin of the disease may lead to new treatments.
At present, there is still no curative treatment to combat this disease, which results among other things in a slowing down of movements, muscle tension, tremors at rest, but also difficulties with balance and loss of facial mobility.
“It is exceptional, nowadays, to make such a fundamental discovery on a subject that has been studied so much in the past”, welcomes Professor Bommer, who points out in passing that the last discovery relating to glycolysis dates from 1982.
The UCLouvain study was published in the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).