Parkinson's may be an autoimmune disease

According to a study published in Nature, Parkinson's may be "autoimmune", that is, the immune system itself would attack patients' brain cells

The  Parkinson's disease that causes progressive brain damage, tremors and movement causing difficulties in patients, may be a disease autoimmune 

. The hypothesis, which first emerged almost a century ago, was confirmed by a study published in the journal Nature . According to the scientists, the immune system would attack brain cells in people suffering from the disease,

To reach this conclusion, researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, both in the United States, analyzed the blood of 67 Parkinson's patients. 

The results showed that T cells, which are part of the immune system, attack alpha-synuclein , a protein accumulated at high levels in the brains of people with Parkinson's.

Immune system in attack

This means that the immune system of the sufferer identifies this protein as a foreign invader, such as a virus or a bacterium, and attacks it to defend the body.

 Scientists believe that in this process, the immune system also ends up killing good brain cells that accumulate these proteins.

"The idea is that a flaw in the immune system contributes to Parkinson's disease. This was something that had been suspected for almost a hundred years. So far, however, no one had managed to connect the dots. We suspect that T-cells first identify alpha-synuclein in the nervous system of the gut, which causes no problems. The problem begins when T-cells enter the brain,

New treatments

Alessandro Sette, of the La Jolla Institute, believes that the results "suggest the possibility of using a strategy with immunotherapy to increase the tolerance of the immune system to alpha-synuclein, which could help improve or prevent worsening of symptoms Of Parkinson's disease.

David Dexter, of the UK-based Parkinson UK charity, says the discovery corroborates the idea that Parkinson's may involve a "flaw" or "confusion" of the immune system, which damages damaged brain cells to fight the Identifies as invasive.

"We need to understand a lot more about how this immune system can be involved in the complex chain of events that contribute to Parkinson's disease," he adds.

 "The discovery" presents a new way to explore the development of new Treatments that may soften or even control the progress of the disease. "