Parkinson's disease causes progressive changes in brain's blood vessels: Study

Researchers in Australia have found that Parkinsons disease causes significant and progressive changes in the brains blood vessels changing the understanding of the diseaseWhile Parkinsons disease is characterised by alphasynuclein protein deposits the research demonstrated that regionspecific changes to blood vessels in the brain underlie disease progression Xinhua news agency reportedTraditionally Parkinsons researchers have focused on protein accumulation and neuronal loss but we have shown the impacts on our cerebrovasculature the blood vessels in our brain said Derya Dik postdoctoral student at Neuroscience Research Australia NeuRAOur research identified regionspecific changes in the brains blood vessels including an increased presence of string vessels which are nonfunctional remnants of capillaries Dik addedNeuRA researchers in collaboration with the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney also observed changes relating to how blood flows in the brain and how the bloodbrain barrier operatesThe findings published in the journal Brain may also help open up new treatment avenuesResearchers believe that targeting these progressive regionspecific changes may be able to slow disease progression and improve outcomes for patients suffering from Parkinsons diseaseIn addition to exploring what these findings mean for people with Parkinsons disease the researchers are considering impacts for other neurodegenerative disordersWe are now investigating whether similar cerebrovascular changes are present in postmortem brain tissue from individuals with Alzheimers disease and dementia with Lewy bodies tissue Dik saidThis study may lead to new treatment options for people with Parkinsons disease but we also want to better understand the contribution of vascular pathology in these other neurodegenerative disorders and explore whether this can reveal new targets for therapies and treatments for people with those conditions also the researcher saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever