Role of Autoimmunity in Parkinson’s Disease

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Role of Autoimmunity in Parkinson’s Disease

Immunogenetics: Open access journal focuses on the genetic research areas of autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, diabetes mellitus type 1, systemic lupus erythematous, etc.

Immunogenetics is the branch of medical genetics that explores the relationship between the immune system and genetics. Here we are explaining about a study suggest role of autoimmunity in Parkinson's disease.

The new findings shed light on the timeline of T cell reactivity and disease progression. The researchers looked at blood samples from a large group of Parkinson's disease patients and compared their T cells to a healthy, age-matched control group. They found that the T cells that react to alpha-synuclein are most abundant when patients are first diagnosed with the disease. These T cells tend to disappear as the disease progresses, and few patients still have them ten years after diagnosis.

The researchers also did an in-depth analysis of one Parkinson's disease patient who happened to have blood samples preserved going back long before his diagnosis. This case study showed that the patient had a strong T cell response to alpha-synuclein ten years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Again, these T cells faded away in the years following diagnosis.

"This tells us that detection of T cell responses could help in the diagnosis of people at risk or in early stages of disease development, when many of the symptoms have not been detected yet," says Sette. "Importantly, we could dream of a scenario where early interference with T cell responses could prevent the disease from manifesting itself or progressing."

Sulzer added, "One of the most important findings is that the flavor of the T cells changes during the course of the disease, starting with more aggressive cells, moving to less aggressive cells that may inhibit the immune response, and after about 10 years, disappearing altogether. It is almost as if immune responses in Parkinson's disease are like those that occur during seasonal flu, except that the changes take place over ten years instead of a week."

In fact, already therapies exist to treat inflammation from autoreactive T cells, and these TNF therapies are associated with lower incidence of Parkinson's disease. Going forward, the researchers are especially interested in using a tool called a T cell-based assay to monitor patients already at risk for Parkinson's to see if they could benefit from TNF therapies. These patients include people with REM sleep disorders and certain genetic mutations.

The researchers hope to study more Parkinson's patients and follow them over longer time periods to better understand how T cell reactivity changes as the disease progresses.

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