University of Helsinki | The researchers learned about the probable causes of Parkinson’s disease

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Helsinki university researchers believe they have shown that certain strains of Desulfovibrio bacteria are likely to cause Parkinson’s disease in the majority of cases.

Around eight million people worldwide suffer from Parkinson’s disease.

“Our results are significant, because the cause of Parkinson’s disease is unknown, even though efforts have been made to identify it for 200 years,” says the professor Per Saris In the announcement of the University of Helsinki.

The study was published on May 1 Frontier in Cellular and Infection Microbiology – in the scientific publication.

Professor The goal of Saris’ research group was to find out experimentally whether the Desulfovibrio bacteria strains found in patients can cause the development towards Parkinson’s disease.

The main finding of the group’s just-published study was that Desulfovibrio bacterial strains from patients with Parkinson’s disease cause a statistically significant clumping of the alphasynuclein protein in the Parkinson’s disease model organism. The worm Caenorhabditis elegans was used as a model organism.

The research may enable screening to identify people who carry the harmful Desulfovibrio bacteria.

With screenings, the disease can possibly be prevented in the future. Once the bacterial strains could be evicted from the intestines of the carriers, the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease could possibly be alleviated and slowed down.

According to the release, most cases of Parkinson’s disease are caused by a person getting the Desulfovibrio bacteria strain that causes Parkinson’s from their environment. Only a small part, or about 10 percent, of Parkinson’s disease is caused by an individual’s hereditary factors, the release says.

Read more: Finnish researchers believe they have found the root cause of Parkinson’s disease, and it lies in intestinal bacteria

Correction 5.5. at 2:46 p.m.: The article previously incorrectly stated that the study was published on January 1 in the scientific journal Frontier in Cellular and Infection Microbiology. However, the study was published on May 1.

Correction 10.5. at 10:51 a.m.: The article previously read that researchers found the probable cause of Parkinson’s disease. In addition, the article stated that the discovery enables the screening of people carrying the Desulfovibrio bacterial strain and thus the prevention of the disease. The wording of the story has been softened throughout so that it is clear from the text that the research results are preliminary. In addition, information has been added to the article that the worm Caenorhabditis elegans was used as the model organism of the study.