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Research linking Parkinson’s with the gut’s appendix receives top award
May 13, 2015
The journal Movement Disorders has recognized a team led by Dr.
John Woulfe
with its inaugural Research Paper of the Year Award for a study that makes an intriguing connection between Parkinson’s disease and the appendix. The paper builds on a hypothesis that suggests that Parkinson’s starts in nerve cells in the gut after an environmental trigger causes “clumping” of a protein called alpha-synuclein. It is suggested that these clumps travel from one nerve to the next until they reach the brain. Dr. Woulfe’s team was interested in where in the gut this process might begin, reasoning that areas with very high levels of the protein would be attractive candidates. To their surprise, using tissue samples from surgical patients at The Ottawa Hospital, they found that alpha-synuclein is present in high levels in nerve fibers in the appendix. This is particularly interesting because the appendix is an immune organ and immune/inflammatory mechanisms (including viruses) have been implicated in the development of Parkinson’s. The award will be presented at the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society’s annual meeting in June 2015. Read the paper
here
.
Co-authors:
Madison T. Gray, David G. Munoz, Douglas A. Gray, Michael G. Schlossmacher.
Funders:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Parkinson Research Consortium, Parkinson's Society Canada, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, Bhargava Research Chair in Neurodegeneration, Canada Research Chair in Parkinson's Disease and Translational Neuroscience, Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
The
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
is the research arm of
The Ottawa Hospital
and is an affiliated institute of the
University of Ottawa
, closely associated with its faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute includes more than 1,700 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease. Support our research. Give to the
Tender Loving Research
campaign.
For further information, please contact
Lois Ross
Senior Communications Specialist
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Office: 613-737-8899 x73687
Cell: 613-297-8315
loross@ohri.ca