Study shows less studied areas of Parkinson´s disease

In a new study, researchers from Luleå University of Technology have investigated one of the most detrimental diseases of mankind, Parkinson’s disease (PD).
“We found that one area which is less studied is the alterations of ion channels/gap junctions which disturb the ionic equilibria across different brain cells and thus result in PD”, says Vaibhav Sharma, Post Doctor and Fredrik Nikolajeff, Professor.

Around 6 million people suffered from PD worldwide in 2016, a three-fold increase in comparison to the year 1990. In Sweden, every year around 2000 people are diagnosed with PD.
“These numbers of diagnosed Parkinson`s desease are continuously increasing which result in a huge burden on our healthcare systems as well as family members” says Vaibhav Sharma, one of the leading authors of this work.

Different factors

The current work showcased an overview of mechanistic details, causative factors, and current treatment modalities for this deadly disease.
“Despite the fact of associated genetics in some cases, there are a number of other factors that can cause Parkinson's disease. One such area which is less studied is the alterations of ion channels/gap junctions which disturb the ionic equilibria across different brain cells and thus result in PD” says Fredrik Nikolajeff, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, who supervised this work.

Published report

A report on the research was published on June 1 in npJ Parkinson’s disease External link.
The work was a result of a fruitful collaboration between Luleå University of technology and All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. The collaborator from India, Saroj Kumar External link, opens in new window., is an adjunct lecturer at the university developing novel early diagnosis strategies for various neurodegenerative disorders.
Vaibhav Sharma is a postdoctoral researcher in the Nikolajeff group is currently working on devising novel strategies of molecular diagnosis that can detect early events in diseases before actual physical symptoms start to appear.