2010-01-25
A problem with currently used animal models for Parkinson’s disease is that they don’t re-create all the cellular changes characteristic of the disease.
Anders Björklund and Deniz Kirik have, together with partners at Karolinska Institutet, now received a 33 million Swedish kronor (3,2 million euro) grant from SSF, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, for developing a more realistic animal model for Parkinson’s disease.
– Experiments in animal models are necessary in the development of new drugs and treatments. The problem today is that results obtained in animal tests don’t always hold true when substances or methods are tested on patients in clinical trials. This is a big problem, especially for the drug industry, says Anders Björklund, professor and chief of Section for Neurobiology at Lund University.
Today, the standard method for obtaining Parkinson-like symptoms in animal models is to inject a toxin in the part of the brain where the dopamine-producing cells are located. This results in a state that resembles the disease, but it doesn’t reproduce the progressive cellular disease process that is characteristic of Parkinson’s disease.
Since 2002, Anders Björklund and Deniz Kirik have been working on developing a model in which the protein alpha-synuclein, that causes the disease, is overexpressed. By introducing the alpha-synuclein gene in the dopamine-producing cells, a disease process similar to that of Parkinson’s disease is initiated.
– With his method, it is possible to re-create the entire spectrum of cellular changes and symptoms shown by Parkinson patients, says Anders Björklund.
Especially the non-motor symptoms of the disease have been in part neglected in the research. These include problems with balance, sleep disruptions, fall in blood pressure, and stomach problems, as well as depression and dementia.
– Current therapies are good when it comes to restoring motor functions, but it has become increasingly obvious that the other symptoms are important for the patient’s wellbeing, says Anders Björklund.
The method is also a way of re-creating the disease in an early stage, when all the neurons in the area haven’t died yet. This way, the model can be used in research on therapies for newly diagnosed patients.
The project is run in collaboration with two research groups at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, led by Thomas Perlmann and Per Svenningsson. The three groups share the grant, which is distributed over a five-year period.
Page Manager: Christel Thunell
Last modified: 2010-01-25
