Research that Gives You the Shakes! Or Cures Them!

If you could prevent Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, would you? More than likely; with the current research carried out in control of the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinases) neurochemical pathway in your brain, these and other diseases can be examined and eventually treated directly. These diseases are all linked through different pathways that the same MAPK works in your brain. It is important to note that when it comes to the brain, the inner workings are very complicated, interconnected, and overlap with one another even with the same chemicals like MAPK.
The belief in Alzheimer’s disease in relation to MAPK is that brain cells are being told to die off faster than in a healthy adult. Oxidative stress tells the brain to have its cells self-destruct. From stress in the brain, a cascade of activities occurs involving MAPK, ultimately leading down to cells telling them to self-destruct. Loss of brain cells from this pathway has contributed to Alzheimer’s disease significantly with the obvious loss of areas of the brain in memory. Current research has been looking into blockage of the MAPK pathway that is telling these cells to die off, and lead to Alzheimer’s.
Parkinson’s disease is another detrimental one that is due to loss of control in motor function in the brain. MAPK pathways lead to inflammation of the brain and its cells that lead to death of the brain cells. In Parkinson’s patients, areas of the brain that regulate motor control are experiencing cell death from inflammation. The precise pathway for control is not yet known, but has been researched extensively, especially through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease Research. Understanding of this pathway will help in understanding of how to regulate it and stop the progression of Parkinson’s and even help in early detection of its early symptoms.
Lastly, Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is due to mutated genes that lend ultimately to cell death. The areas affected are mainly motor control areas as well. The start is due to mutated genes that start signaling the MAPK pathways that will give rise to motor neuron death. The outcome becomes muscle loss, paralysis, and eventually death. Prevention of Lou Gehrig’s disease could be best understood through drugs that could stop different particular steps in the MAPK pathways.
These diseases are very detrimental to those that they affect, and that they may all be linked through very closely related paths is of extreme significance. Research on any of these diseases may affect each other; advances in one area can be important or influence treatment methods in another area. With further research, we can start to see what drugs will halt cell self-destruction and inflammation that lead to these diseases, and which ones will have the fewest complicating side effects in the brain. As with most treatments, one area that is fixed can lead to complications in other areas. The more we can understand MAPK and how it works in the complicated thing we call the brain, the more we can prevent and treat these diseases.
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