New Studies Link The Environment To Parkinson's Disease

 The Parkinson's Institute has announced that new findings concerning the role
 of environmental factors in the development of Parkinson's disease will be
 reported at Asilomar (Pacific Grove, CA) as part of the final meeting of the
 Collaborative Centers for Parkinson's Disease Environmental Research (CCPDER).

 Highlights of the research include:

 * The role of pesticides (eg. Paraquat and Dieldrin) as potential risk factors
 for Parkinson's disease, a role suggested by both epidemiological statistics
 and laboratory evidence.

 * The threat of toxic agents to damage neurons by causing the accumulation of
 harmful proteins.

 * Intraneuronal protein aggregates as markers of Parkinson's pathology, based
 on work carried out at The Parkinson's Institute indicating that these aggregates
 could be formed as a consequence of toxic exposure.

 * The importance of targeting a specific protein, alpha-synuclein, in order to
 achieve neuroprotection in Parkinson's

 * The role of inflammation in the development of Parkinson's disease and the
 possibility that anti-inflammatory drugs could be beneficial to patients.

 * The possibility that nicotine may act as a neuroprotective agent.

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 For more information about The Parkinson's Institute,
 please visit http://www.thepi.org/.

 Contact: Alicia Swanson
 The Parkinson's Institute

 Article Date: 11 Apr 2007 - 22:00 PDT

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=67408

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