When I think about Parkinson’s Disease, the first thing that comes to my mind is Back to the Future. Weird, I know–but Michael J. Fox is one of the most visible people with Parkinson’s and a huge advocate for the cause. This past week we investigated an article regarding PD called Targeting dysregulation of brain iron homeostasis in Parkinson’s disease by iron chelators. Not only reading this article, but all of the research that went along with understanding it, gave me a far greater understanding of Parkinson’s Disease and it’s pathology.
As the article’s title suggests, there is a connection between PD and iron. This was new information for me, and struck me as quite interesting. Iron levels in a person with Parkinson’s differ quite a lot compared to someone without Parkinson’s. Those with Parkinson’s have much higher levels of iron. In addition to iron levels, PD staples include loss of dopaminergic neurons, the aggregation of -synuclein to create lewy bodies, and neurofibrillary tangles.
I thought the article was really awesome because it added to the current research being done on Parkinson’s, but the thing I found most interesting was the parts about iron homeostasis in the brain. I was responsible for researching the mechanism for regulating iron in cells and found some pretty awesome stuff. Iron is bound in the cell by two different receptors: IRP1 and IRP2. The IRPs serve as a dual mechanism in which iron can be regulated. A quick and dirty explanation is as follows: if iron levels are adequate in the cell, it is sequestered and stored for later use; if iron level are too low, the IRP binds to ferritin (this binding inhibits iron sequestering), that way there is more iron available inside the cell. Iron has many properties, one of which is it’s ability to oxidize/reduce molecules in the cell. If the regulation of iron is out of whack, then the oxidation/reduction within the cell will cause problems. This brings us back to -synuclein aggregation and lewy bodies, which are caused by oxidative stress. In other words, this new-found information about Parkinson’s helps explain the things that were already known about the disease. Nifty!
So the question remains: what do we do about all of this iron dysregulation? The answer is in the title of the paper, iron chelators. Iron-chelators bind iron in the cell and help reduce the high levels in individuals with Parkinson’s. This remedy to iron dysregulation is a great option because it will reduce oxidative stress on the cells and lower the amount of -synuclein aggregation and lewy bodies.
This article was really informative and made new connections in the big picture of Parkinson’s research. I think it’s safe to say that next time someone brings up Parkinson’s Disease I won’t immediately think of Back to the Future.
