Genetic analyses for MIGUT and JPND projects
Development of novel therapies aimed at slowing disease progression is hampered by the lack of detailed knowledge of the underlying disease mechanisms.
Main applicants: Prof. Marcel Verbeek and Dr. Rick Helmich
Affiliation(s): Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen (NL); Donders Center of Medical Neurosciences, Nijmegen (NL)
Abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the fastest growing neurological disease worldwide. Drug treatment with levodopa is the mainstay of treatment, but offers only partial symptomatic relief. Moreover, disease progression cannot be stopped. Development of novel therapies aimed at slowing disease progression is hampered by the lack of detailed knowledge of the underlying disease mechanisms. Importantly, multiple mechanisms likely contribute to causing PD and its disease propagation, but we do not know how these different mechanisms interact within an individual patient.
In the MIGUT project, a new approach to tackle the complexity of PD is offered, by studying multiple disease mechanisms simultaneously, as well as their interaction. We aim to determine the function of the energy-generating machinery of our body: the mitochondria. We will also study the composition of bacteria in the gut, and the presence of signals of metabolism in blood of PD patients. With these analyses, we will obtain detailed information about the disease mechanisms underlying PD, and how these mechanisms interact within an individual patient.
In the JPND consortium, we are interested in understanding why some patients have very widespread dysfunction of the brain, while in others the abnormalities are restricted to a few brain regions. Patients are asked to perform different cognitive tasks; the responses of the patients inform us about which brain areas are affected. This information will be integrated with clinical, genetic, and brain imaging information to determine how these various factors play a role in the degree of brain dysfunction that is observed in individual PD patients.
We expect that these studies can offer a basis for new and timely personalized treatments for PD patients.