The risks associated with the suffering of diabetes continue to grow in number and importance as various studies on the disease advance.One of the most recent developments indicates that patients in this condition face a higher risk of developing Parkinson.
The alert is the result of an international study headed by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) based in Spain.
"Although epidemiological analysis carried out for several years pointed out that the preexistence of diabetes can increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, so far the effects of diabetes on the brain were completely unknown to explain the association of both diseases," he saysThe report.
It is concluded that diabetes produces alterations at the molecular level in dopamine neurotransmission processes in brain neurons responsible for movement control, whose degeneration is what causes Parkinson's disease.
“The increase in blood glucose levels favors the development of oxidative stress, an adverse effect possibly linked to the alteration of dopamine levels in the brain.There is also an important decrease in the expression of some proteins that regulate the release and reuptake of dopamine in synapses and axonal varicose, ”says Mario Vallejo, one of the researchers who participated in the study.
He explains that the affected neurons have their somas or cell bodies in an area of the brain called black substance and project their prolongations or axons to the striated nucleus, a region of the brain in charge of the motor function and the movement of the body of the body
The entity maintains in its report that the researchers observed that, although the effects of diabetes are not enough to induce motor alterations, they do increase the vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons making them more sensitive to degenerate by a harmful stimulus and give rise to the appearanceof motor symptoms.
"Interestingly, these effects seem to be associated with hyperglycemia or the absence of insulin signaling, but not to the existence of obesity, normally linked to type II diabetes, the most frequent type in humans," they indicate.
They add that, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Oxford, the researchers found that, in response to an electrical stimulus, some neurons of the diabetic mice released more neurotransmitters than those of non -diabetics, and confirmed thus confirmed that the alterations observed at the level at levelMolecular affect the neurotransmission processes in the striated core of the brain.
“The results open new research paths to identify the molecular mechanisms through which diabetes affects neurotransmission processes in the brain.In the following steps we will focus on analyzing whether the alterations observed occur throughout the brain, if they are a consequence of the presence of high glucose levels or if the functional insulin deficit also intervenes and, finally, if they can be prevented with any treatment”, Said researcher Vallejo.
In addition to the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), considered the largest Spanish Public Research Center, researchers from the Biomedical Research Center of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM) and the University of Oxford participated in this study.