Unlock the Power to Halt Parkinson’s: How Stopping Sarcopenia Can Revolutionize Disease Management
Preventing Sarcopenia Slows Parkinson’s Disease Progression
Health & Wellness News
Professor Heo Young-eun’s team from the Department of Neurology at CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA Medical University, announced that they have identified sarcopenia as an important cause of drug-induced dyskinesia in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Therefore, it is expected that strength training to improve sarcopenia, sufficient intake of high-quality protein, leucine and vitamin D supplementation, and the development of pharmacological treatments to alleviate sarcopenia will become new treatment methods to delay the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
Understanding Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia is a disease in which muscle mass decreases and muscle function deteriorates. It is known to be the cause of several diseases such as falls, dementia and diabetes and its importance has recently been highlighted.
An association between sarcopenia and Parkinson’s disease has also been suggested, but traditional observational epidemiological studies are vulnerable to confounding and reverse causality. Due to limitations, a clear causal relationship has not been revealed so far.
Mendelian Random Analysis Method
Professor Heo’s team introduced the “Mendelian random analysis method” to overcome these limitations. Mendelian random analysis is a research method that uses genetic variation as an instrumental variable to derive causal relationships between risk factors and diseases by excluding confounding factors and reverse causality.
Key Mechanism Explaining Causal Correlation
Neuronal synaptic plasticity through polygenic scoring and pathway enrichment analysis has been suggested as a key mechanism explaining the causal correlation between sarcopenia and Parkinson’s disease.
Implications for Treatment
Parkinson’s disease is a disease for which there is currently no treatment that substantially prevents the onset and progression of the disease, but this study suggests that sarcopenia is a new therapeutic target to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
Professor Heo Young-eun said, “This is a significant study because sarcopenia represents a new therapeutic target to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, where there is currently no cure to prevent the cause and progression of the disease.”
Future Research Directions
This study was conducted in collaboration with the AI team at Northwest University of Technology in China, and the research results were published in the latest issue of the international journal ‘NPJ Parkinson’s Disease (IF=7.0)’.