World Parkinson’s Day 2024 – Towards improved screening tools for Parkinson’s disease
🌍Today is World Parkinson’s Day, dedicated to increase public awareness and understanding of this disease which affects over 10 million people worldwide, making it the second leading of neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. It is also the second most common cause of motor disability after stroke. It is considered that almost 1 in 50 people will be directly affected by this disease during their lifetime. Although widespread, there is currently no cure for the disease.
In the Parkinson’s disease field, the notion of the origins of the pathology is still debated. Some studies contend that neuronal dysfunction and injury cannot occur without the demonstrable presence of inclusions, while other studies report the potential harm that alpha-synuclein oligomers can have.
This is reminiscent of another neurodegenerative pathology: Alzheimer’s disease. For decades, it was thought that amyloid beta deposited into plaques was the most harmful to neurons. However, more recent evidence points to diffusible, soluble small amyloid beta moieties as being the major neurotoxic form.
Many observations indicate that alpha-synuclein inclusion formation is not the major driver in the early phases of PD-like neurodegeneration, but that diffusible, oligomeric alpha-synuclein species, which drive synaptic degeneration, trigger neuroinflammation and ultimately induces loss of dopaminergic neurons. This could have important implications for the design of therapeutic interventions during the early stages of the disease.
🧠Always guided by our commitment to improving patients’ quality of life, at ETAP-Lab we develop state-of-the-art in vitro models being more translational to meet the needs of ou customers – pharmaceutical companies – and patients suffering from pathologies…
For example, our expert teams work on subsidized research project such as BIO-DIAMOND that help accelerate the modeling of diseases like Parkinson’s, and make possible the lab testing of tomorrow’s drugs.
Find out more information on all our services in neurodegenerative diseases at the following link: https://www.etap-lab.com/neurodegenerative-diseases/
BIO-DIAMOND project has emerged as a winner of the “Innovations in biotherapies and bioproduction” call for projects funded by the French government as part of France 2030.
