{"id":6709,"date":"2012-07-03T14:56:14","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm-news\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2012-07-03T14:56:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T18:56:14","slug":"busm-researchers-identify-role-of-foxo1-gene-in-parkinsons-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2012\/07\/03\/busm-researchers-identify-role-of-foxo1-gene-in-parkinsons-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"BUSM Researchers Identify Role of FOXO1 Gene in Parkinson\u2019s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) revealed that the FOXO1<\/em> gene may play an important role in the pathological mechanisms of Parkinson\u2019s disease. These findings are published online in PLoS Genetics,<\/em> a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science.<\/p>\n

The study was led by Alexandra Dumitriu, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the department of neurology at BUSM. Richard Myers, PhD, professor of neurology at BUSM, is the study\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n

According to the Parkinson\u2019s Disease Foundation, 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease each year and approximately one million Americans are currently living with the disease.<\/p>\n

Parkinson\u2019s disease is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a buildup of proteins in nerve cells that lead to their inability to communicate with one another, causing motor function issues, including tremors and slowness in movement, as well as dementia. The substantia nigra<\/em> is an area of the midbrain that helps control movement, and previous research has shown that this area of the brain loses neurons as Parkinson\u2019s disease progresses.<\/p>\n

The researchers analyzed gene expression differences in brain tissue between 27 samples with known Parkinson\u2019s disease and 26 samples from neurologically healthy controls. This data set represents the largest number of brain samples used in a whole-genome expression study of Parkinson\u2019s disease to date. The novel aspect of this study is represented by the researchers\u2019 emphasis on removing possible sources of variation by minimizing the differences among samples. They used only male brain tissue samples that showed no significant marks of Alzheimer\u2019s disease pathology, one of the frequently co-occurring neurological diseases in Parkinson\u2019s disease patients. The samples also had similar tissue quality and were from the brain\u2019s prefrontal cortex, one of the less studied areas for the disease. The prefrontal cortex does not show neuronal death to the same extent as the substantia nigra<\/em>, although it displays molecular and pathological modifications during the disease process, while also being responsible for the dementia present in a large proportion of Parkinson\u2019s disease patients.<\/p>\n

Results of the expression experiment showed that the gene FOXO1<\/em> had increased expression in the brain tissue samples with known Parkinson\u2019s disease. FOXO1<\/em> is a transcriptional regulator that can modify the expression of other genes. Further examination of the FOXO1<\/em> gene showed that two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or DNA sequence variations, were significantly associated with age at onset of Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hypothesis is that FOXO1<\/em> acts in a protective manner by activating genes and pathways that fight the neurodegeneration processes,\u201d said Dumitriu. \u201cIf this is correct, there could be potential to explore FOXO1<\/em> as a therapeutic drug target for Parkinson\u2019s disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke under award number 1R01NS076843-01, the Cogan Family Foundation, the Robert P. & Judith N. Goldberg Foundation and the William N. and Bernice E. Bumpus Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) revealed that the FOXO1 gene may play an important role in the pathological mechanisms of Parkinson\u2019s disease. These findings are published online in PLoS Genetics, a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science. The study was led by Alexandra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}