Parkinson’s disease may originate in the gastrointestinal tract
Researchers injected misfolded alpha-synuclein, a protein linked to Parkinson’s disease, into the guts of healthy mice, then tracked it
One month later, it had turned up in the brainstem, while after three months it had traveled to the brain’s amygdala and midbrain; within seven and 10 months, it had turned up in even more regions of the brain
The researchers also injected the misfolded proteins into the guts of mice that had a severed vagus nerve; after seven months, no signs of cell death were present in the mice brains, and it appeared that the proteins were not able to advance to the brain
Problems with memory and anxiety also appeared in the intact vagus nerve mice that received the misfolded proteins in their guts, which were not seen in the other groups of mice
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