SFU’s Verheyen lab has found that increasing the amount of the fruit fly gene Cdk8 in flies with Parkinson’s disease reverses symptoms of the disease.
“One of the big problems with familial Parkinson’s disease is a genetic mutation that causes malfunction in the mitochondria (the energy-producing cells in the body), which can make the cells sick or die, contributing to a lot of cognitive loss and other symptoms of the disease,” explains Esther Verheyen, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at SFU.
The study shows that the fruit fly gene Cdk8, and its human counterpart CDK19, play a role in regulating mitochondria.
“We found that Cdk8 can bypass the defect in cells that carry the mutation that causes Parkinson’s disease,” Verhein says. “This function involves helping cells clear up errors in their mitochondria, a function that is disrupted in Parkinson’s disease.”
“We can do genetic tricks to put more of the human Cdk8 or CDK19 gene into the cells, and we can make them healthy again,” she added.
Verheyen’s lab uses molecular, genetic and biochemical approaches to understand the development of organisms and diseases, such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Fruit flies are their primary vehicle for such studies, as about 75% of human disease genes have counterparts in fruit flies.
Verheyen explains that fruit flies are being manipulated to carry mutations that human patients might have, including mutations linked to cancer or Parkinson’s disease, to begin to unpack what’s happening at the cellular level.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Medical Express
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2024-07-28 18:33:13
