A group of associate professor Yoshiro Saito, Department of Systems and Life Sciences, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Doshisha University, has developed a method for measuring proteins that increase in red blood cells of Parkinson's disease patients and succeeded in identifying them as biomarkers.It is expected that early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease will lead to early treatment to remove reactive oxygen species, and the research results were published in the British scientific journal "Scientific Reports".

 Parkinson's disease, in which limbs tremor and posture cannot be maintained, is a neurodegenerative disease with the second largest number of patients after Alzheimer's disease.It is mainly due to aging, and it is said that 60 in 100 people over the age of 1 develop the disease.

 It is said that a few percent of the oxygen consumed by living organisms is reactive oxygen species, and previous studies have shown that this highly reactive reactive oxygen species is deeply involved in the development of Parkinson's disease.However, there are still many unclear points about the details, and the technology for removing reactive oxygen species has not yet been applied to the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
On the other hand, the protein "DJ-1", which removes the generated active oxygen species and protects the body, produces a protein called "oxidized DJ-1" when oxidized by the active oxygen species. We found elevated levels of oxidized DJ-1 in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease.

 This time, the research group succeeded in developing a measurement method for oxidized DJ-1. A study of blood oxidized DJ-150 levels in 1 Parkinson's disease patients found an increase in oxidized DJ-1 in the blood of early-stage patients prior to the start of treatment.A similar increase in oxidized DJ-1 levels in the blood was also confirmed in Parkinson's disease model animals.

 Early diagnosis and early treatment are important for overcoming Parkinson's disease.From this study, it is expected that the disease will be diagnosed at an early stage using the oxidized DJ-1 level in the blood as an index, and that Parkinson's disease, which removes reactive oxygen species, will be treated at an early stage.

 This research was carried out using a research grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which supports Parkinson's disease research, and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Doshisha University

Inherit the "conscience of a country".One ambition and striving for the next generation

In 1875, Doshisha English School, the predecessor of Doshisha University, was founded by Joseph Hardy Neesima. We have practiced conscience education with the educational principles of "Christianity," "liberalism," and "internationalism."The virtue of loving the truth and making humanity serious, the spirit of respecting individuality and valuing each person, the power to grasp the world from a broad perspective, these […]

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