Based on the experience of Sandra Gerschwitz, a patient diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, a group of Australian researchers could shed light on the triggering mysteries neurodegenerative disease.
The woman has always wondered what caused the disorder; however, the latest research has ruled out the environment, plastics and pollution as factors. To date, the scientific community he still has many doubts on why a similar pathology occurs.
Idiopathic parkinsonism is a neurodegenerative condition in which the nerve cells in the brain do not produce enough dopamine, with obvious consequences in movement systems of the human being, causing muscle rigidity, slowing of movement and the most famous tremors.
Gerschwitz was only 37 when the first symptom appeared: She became stuck hanging out laundry, unable to manage both a sheet and clothespins at the same time. People with Parkinson’s disease before the age of 50are known to suffer from early Parkinson’s.
It is from this story that Dr. Kishore Kumar, of the Translational Neurogenomics Group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, began a search together with his team. The goal is to analyze the DNA from 1,000 Australians who have early Parkinson’s disease or who have a relative in their family tree who has suffered from the disease.
“We don’t know much about why Parkinson’s occurs. There are large gaps in our knowledge and we hope to fill these gaps by understanding genetics.”, explains the author. That the genetic approach is The right way to discover the secrets of Parkinson’s?