Disputed theory on Parkinson’s origin strengthened

Parkinson’s disease is strongly linked to the degeneration of the brain’s movement center. In the last decade, the question of where the disease begins has led researchers to a different part of the human anatomy. In 2003, the German neuropathologist Heiko Braak presented a theory suggesting that the disease begins in the gut and spreads to the brain. The idea has since, despite vocal critics, gained a lot of ground. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden now present the first direct evidence that the disease can actually migrate from the gut to the brain.

The so-called Braak’s hypothesis proposes that the disease process begins in the digestive tract and in the brain’s center of smell. The theory is supported by the fact that symptoms associated with digestion and smell occur very early on in the disease.

Researchers at Lund University have previously mapped the spread of Parkinson’s in the brain. The disease progression is believed to be driven by a misfolded protein that clumps together and “infects” neighboring cells. Professor Jia-Yi Li’s research team has now been able to track this process further, from the gut to the brain in rat models. The experiment shows how the toxic protein, alpha-synuclein, is transported from one cell to another before ultimately reaching the brain’s movement center, giving rise to the characteristic movement disorders in Parkinson’s disease.

“We have now been able to prove that the disease process actually can travel from the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system, in this case from the wall of the gut to the brain. In the longer term, this may give us new therapeutic targets to try to slow or stop the disease at an earlier stage”, says Professor Jia-Yi Li, research group leader for Neural Plasticity and Repair at Lund University.

The research team will now carry out further studies in which the mechanisms behind the transport of the harmful protein will be examined in detail. The current study suggests that the protein is transferred during nerve cell communication. It is at this point of interaction that the researchers want to intervene in order to put a stop to the further spread of the disease.

Study Describes New Models for Testing Parkinson’s Disease Immune-based Drugs

Using powerful, newly developed cell culture and mouse models of sporadic Parkinson’s disease (PD), a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has demonstrated that immunotherapy with specifically targeted antibodies may block the development and spread of PD pathology in the brain. By intercepting the distorted and misfolded alpha-synuclein (α-syn) proteins that enter and propagate in neurons, creating aggregates, the researchers prevented the development of pathology and also reversed some of the effects of already-existing disease. The α-syn clumps, called Lewy bodies, eventually kill affected neurons, which leads to clinical PD. Their work appears this week in Cell Reports.

Earlier studies by senior author Virginia M.Y. Lee, PhD, and her colleagues at Penn’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) had demonstrated a novel pathology of PD in which misfolded α-syn fibrils initiate and propagate Lewy bodies via cell-to-cell transmission. This was accomplished using synthetically created α-syn fibrils that allowed them to observe how Parkinson’s pathology developed and spread in a mouse and in neurons in a dish. The present study is a proof-of-concept of how these models might be used to develop new PD therapies.

"Once we created these models, the first thing that came to mind is immunotherapy," says Lee, CNDR director and professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. "If you can develop antibodies that would stop the spreading, you may have a way to at least retard the progression of PD." The current work, she explains, uses antibodies that were generated and characterized at CNDR previously to see if they would reduce the pathology both in cell culture and in animal models.

Lee’s team focused on anti-α-syn monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). “In animal models,” Lee explains, “the question we want to ask is, can we reduce the pathology and also rescue cell loss to improve the behavioral deficits?”

Using their previously established sporadic PD mouse model, the researchers conducted both prevention and intervention preclinical studies. For prevention studies, they injected mouse α-syn synthetic preformed fibrils into wild-type, normal mice, as a control, and then immediately treated the mice with Syn303, one of the MAbs used (or IgG, another type of common antibody, for the control mice).

The control group without MAb administration showed PD pathology in multiple brain areas over time, while the mice treated with Syn303 showed significantly reduced pathology in the same areas. For intervention studies, they treated PD mice with Syn303 several days after fibril injections when Lewy bodies were already present. They found that the progression of pathology was markedly reduced in the Syn303-treated mice versus mice that did not receive Syn303.

"But there are some limitations to experiments in live mice since it is difficult to directly study the mechanism of how it works," Lee says. "To do that, we went back to the cell culture model to ask whether or not the antibody basically prevents the uptake of misfolded α-syn." The cell culture experiments showed that MAbs prevented the uptake of misfolded α-syn fibrils by neurons and sharply reduced the recruitment of natural α-syn into new Lewy body aggregates. 

Next steps for the team will be to refine the immunotherapeutic approach. “We need to make better antibodies that have high affinity for pathology and not the normal protein,” says Lee.

The team’s models also open up new opportunities for studying and treating PD. “The system really allows us to identify new targets for treating PD,” Lee says. “The cell model could be a platform to look for small molecular drugs that would inhibit pathology.” Their approach could also serve as a foundation for genetically based studies to identify specific genes involved in PD pathology. 

“Hopefully more people will use the model to look for new targets or screen for treatments for PD. That would be terrific,” concludes Lee.

New headway in battle against neurodegenerative diseases

Conditions which may accelerate the spread of Parkinson’s disease, and a potential means of enhancing naturally-occurring defences against neurodegenerative disorders, have been identified in two new studies.

Two significant breakthroughs which could inform future treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, have been announced by scientists.

The research, published in two separate studies this week, advances understanding of the early development of such disorders and how they might be prevented – in particular by identifying the biological areas and processes that could be pinpointed by future drugs.

Both sets of results have emerged from collaborations between the research groups led by Chris Dobson, Tuomas Knowles and Michele Vendruscolo at the University of Cambridge, who focus on understanding protein “misfolding” diseases. These include Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as numerous others.

The first study provides evidence that the early spread of the protein aggregates associated with Parkinson’s appears to happen at an accelerated rate in mildly acidic conditions. This suggests that particular compartments within brain cells, which are slightly more acidic than others, may turn out to be appropriate targets for future treatments fighting the disease.

Meanwhile, researchers behind the second study appear to have identified a way in which the effectiveness of so-called molecular “chaperones”, responsible for limiting the damage caused by misfolded proteins, can be significantly enhanced.

The papers appear in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

As the term suggests, protein misfolding diseases stem from the fact that proteins, which need to fold into a particular shape to carry out their assigned function in the body, can sometimes misfold. In certain cases these misfolded proteins then clump together into fibre-like threads, called amyloid fibrils, potentially becoming toxic to other cells.

How this formation begins at a molecular level is still not completely understood, but comprehending the process will be fundamental to the development of future therapies and is the subject of extensive current research.

The first of the new studies builds on research published in 2013, which showed that in Alzheimer’s sufferers, the initial “nucleation” between proteins, which leads to amyloid formation, is followed by an amplification process called secondary nucleation. In these secondary events, the existing amyloid structures facilitate the formation of new aggregates, leading to their exponential increase. This process is likely to be at the heart of the development and spread of the disease in affected brains.

Using the same techniques, the researchers behind the latest study identified a similar process that is relevant in the early stage development of Parkinson’s Disease. Their work focused on a protein called α-synuclein, which is associated with the disorder, and simulated different conditions in which this protein might misfold and form clumps.

As with the previous study on Alzheimer’s, the research identified that Parkinson’s could spread through a series of secondary nucleation events. In addition, however, it showed that in the case of α-synuclein, this happens at a highly accelerated rate only in solutions which are mildly acidic, with a pH below 5.8. The finding is important because certain sub-compartments within cells are more acidic than others, meaning that these may be particularly productive areas for future treatments to target.

Dr Tuomas Knowles, from the Department of Chemistry and a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, said: “This tells us much more about the molecular mechanisms underlying protein aggregation in Parkinson’s and suggests that mildly acidic microenvironments within cells may enhance that process by several orders of magnitude. Not every sub-cellular compartment offers these conditions, so it takes us much closer to understanding how the disease might spread.”

The second study meanwhile suggests a potential route to improving the effectiveness of a particular molecular “chaperone” – a loose classification for proteins which assist in the folding of others, thereby preventing them from causing damage when they misfold.

The researchers focused on a chaperone called α2-macroglobulin (α2M), which is found outside cells themselves. This is important because neurodegenerative diseases often stem from a process which begins with extracellular misfolding. The α2M was tested on a substrate of the amyloid-beta peptide associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Typically, the potency of α2M is limited. The new study, however, found that when it comes into contact with the oxidant hypochlorite – the same chemical found in household bleach, which also naturally occurs in our immune systems – its structure is modified in a manner that makes it into a much more dynamic defence.

In their report, the researchers suggest that this increased effectiveness stems from the fact that α2M, which is usually found in a four-part, “tetrameric” form, breaks down into “dimeric”, two-part forms when it comes into contact with hypochlorite.

The chaperone usually plays its role by preventing a misfolded protein from interacting with the membranes that surround and protect cells. Once in its dimeric form, however, receptor binding sites within the α2M are exposed, leading to specific interactions with receptors on the cell itself. If the α2M has already interacted with misfolded proteins, this connection triggers the cell to break the potentially harmful protein down.

“It’s almost like a warning flag for the cell, telling it that something is wrong,” Dr Janet Kumita, from the Department of Chemistry, explained. “It triggers the cell to react in a way that subjects the cargo of misfolded protein to a degradation pathway.”

“Increasing its potency in this way is an exciting prospect. If we could find a way of developing a drug that introduces the same structural alterations, we would have a therapeutic intervention capable of increasing this protective activity in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Professor Christopher Dobson, from the University’s Department of Chemistry and Master of St John’s College, said: “These studies add very substantially to our detailed understanding of the molecular origins of neurodegenerative diseases, which are now becoming one of the greatest threats to healthcare in the modern world.”

“We are beginning to understand exactly how a single, aberrant event can lead to the proliferation and spreading of toxic species throughout the brain, and the manner in which our sophisticated defence mechanisms do their best to suppress such phenomena. It will undoubtedly provide vital clues to the development in due course of new and effective drugs to combat these debilitating and increasingly common disorders.”

Physicists push new Parkinson’s treatment toward clinical trials

The most effective way to tackle debilitating diseases is to punch them at the start and keep them from growing.

Research at Michigan State University, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, shows that a small “molecular tweezer” keeps proteins from clumping, or aggregating, the first step of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease.

The results are pushing the promising molecule toward clinical trials and actually becoming a new drug, said Lisa Lapidus, MSU associate professor of physics and astronomy and co-author of the paper.

“By the time patients show symptoms and go to a doctor, aggregation already has a stronghold in their brains,” she said. “In the lab, however, we can see the first steps, at the very place where the drugs could be the most effective. This could be a strong model for fighting Parkinson’s and other diseases that involve neurotoxic aggregation.”

Lapidus’ lab uses lasers to study the speed of protein reconfiguration before aggregation, a technique Lapidus pioneered. Proteins are chains of amino acids that do most of the work in cells. Scientists understand protein structure, but they don’t know how they are built – a process known as folding.

Lapidus’ lab has shed light on the process by correlating the speed at which an unfolded protein changes shape, or reconfigures, with its tendency to clump or bind with other proteins. If reconfiguration is much faster or slower than the speed at which proteins bump into each other, aggregation is slow, but if reconfiguration is the same speed, aggregation is fast.

Srabasti Acharya, lead author and doctoral candidate in Lapidus’ lab, tested the molecule, CLR01, which was patented jointly by researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) and UCLA. CLR01 binds to the protein and prevents aggregation by speeding up reconfiguration. It’s like a claw that attaches to the amino acid lysine, which is part of the protein.

This work was preceded by Lapidus’ research involving the spice curcumin. While the spice molecules put the researchers on a solid path, the molecules weren’t viable drug candidates because they cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, or BBB, the filter that controls what chemicals reach the brain.

It’s the BBB, in fact, that disproves the notion that people should simply eat more spicy food to stave off Parkinson’s disease.

Spicy misconceptions notwithstanding, CLR01 mimics curcumin molecules’ ability to prevent aggregation. But unlike the spice, CLR01 can crossover the BBB and treat its targeted site. Not only do they go to the right place, but CLR01 molecules also work even better because they speed up reconfiguration even more than curcumin. Additionally Acharya showed that CLR01 slows the first step of aggregation, and the results from the study map out a clear road map for moving the drug to clinical trials.

Hearing about a nontraditional physics lab that was advancing medicine is what brought Acharya to work with Lapidus.

“I knew I wanted to study physics when I came to MSU, but when I heard Dr. Lapidus’ presentation during orientation, I knew this is what I wanted to do,” Acharya said. “We are using physics to better understand biology to help cure actual diseases.”

To help move the research to the next phase, Gal Bitan, co-author and professor at UCLA, is using crowdsourcing to raise funds for the clinical trials. Log on to the indiegogo.com website for more information.

Research yields first detailed view of morphing Parkinson’s protein

Researchers have taken detailed images and measurements of the morphing structure of a brain protein thought to play a role in Parkinson’s disease, information that could aid the development of medications to treat the condition.

The protein, called alpha synuclein (pronounced sine-yoo-cline), ordinarily exists in a globular shape. However, the protein morphs into harmful structures known as amyloid fibrils, which are linked to protein molecules that form in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

"The abnormal protein formation characterizes a considerable number of human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases and type II diabetes," said Lia Stanciu, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue University.

Until now, the transition from globular to fibrils had not been captured and measured.

Researchers incubated the protein in a laboratory and then used an electron microscope and a technique called cryoelectron microscopy to snap thousands of pictures over 24 hours, capturing its changing shape. The protein was frozen at specific time intervals with liquid nitrogen.

Findings reveal that the protein morphs from its globular shape into “protofibril” strands that assemble into pore-like rings. These rings then open up, forming pairs of protofibrils that assemble into fibrils through hydrogen bonds.

"We found a correlation between protofibrils in these rings and the fibrils, for the first time to our knowledge, by measuring their true sizes and visualizing the aggregation steps," Stanciu said. "A better understanding of the mechanism yields fresh insight into the pathogenesis of amyloid-related diseases and may provide us the opportunity to develop additional therapeutic strategies."

Parkinson’s disease affects 1 percent to 2 percent of people older than 60, and an increase in its prevalence is anticipated in coming decades.

The findings were detailed in a research paper appearing in the June issue of the Biophysical Journal. The paper was authored by doctoral student Hangyu Zhang; former postdoctoral research associate Amy Griggs; Jean-Christophe Rochet, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology; and Stanciu.

The researchers caused the protein to morph into fibrils by exposing it to copper, mimicking what happens when people are exposed to lead and other heavy metals. The contaminants interfere with the protein, changing the oxidation states of ions in its structure.

Reference:

Hangyu Zhang, Amy Griggs, Jean-Christophe Rochet, and Lia A. Stanciu. In Vitro Study of a-Synuclein Protofibrils by Cryo-EM Suggests a Cu2D-Dependent Aggregation Pathway. Biophysical Journal, 2013 (in press)