Feature
Nipping Parkinson's in the Bud
February 19, 2007
IU researcher Tatiana Foroud searches for the genes behind Parkinson's disease
IU School of Medicine researcher Tatiana Foroud leads a research collaboration searching for the genes behind Parkinson's disease.
When it comes to studying complex, poorly understood illnesses like Parkinson's disease, collaboration is key. Few Parkinson's researchers have been better at building collaboration among scientists and research centers than Tatiana Foroud, the P. Michael Conneall Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the IU School of Medicine and an expert on the genetic components of diseases including Parkinson's, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's, bipolar disorder, and alcoholism.
In 1998, Foroud received $6 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to form Parkinson's Research: The Organized Genetic Initiative (PROGENI) — a research collaboration involving 58 Parkinson's research centers across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Over the past nine years, PROGENI has enrolled hundreds sibling pairs with Parkinson's and received additional NIH funding to analyze their DNA, all with a single goal in mind: to find the genes that put people at risk for Parkinsons.
It's only relatively recently that Parkinson's was believed to have a genetic component. Now that the genetic link has been established, thanks largely to PROGENI research, actually finding the genes involved is no small feat. As Foroud explained, it means combing through countless DNA samples taken from siblings with Parkinson's and looking for genetic abnormalities that may be related to the onset of Parkinson's disease.
"We've identified a gene, called the parkin gene, that plays a role, and we're trying to find if there are subsets of patients with similar types of abnormalities in their parkin genes" she said. "Now we're trying to figure out what the parkin gene does and look for a similar gene on chromosome two that's common among families where two or more people have Parkinson's."
Foroud's work depends heavily on the cooperation of far-flung Parkinson's centers and other research facilities. Centers in the U.S., Canada, and Peurto Rico enroll patients in the study and collect blood samples. Researchers at the University of Rochester, UC San Diego, and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital extract DNA from the samples and analyze it for what are known as "biomarkers," or warning signs, of Parkinson's disease.
Nearly half a million Americans suffer from Parkinson's, a brain disorder involving the death of nerve cells that produce dopamine, a chemical important for controlling movement. Although the disease is often associated with old age, symptoms including tremors, slowness of movement, stiffness, and depression can occur at any time. Treatments do exist, but according to Foroud even the most successful have drawbacks. For example, the commonly used and highly effective Parkinson's drug L-dopa tends to be less effective over time, and can cause harrowing side effects including low blood pressure, abnormal heart thythms, anxiety, confusion, and hallucinations.
"The real issues are how do we come up with better, novel treatments and how do we figures who's at risk in the first place?" Foroud said. It is genetics, she added, "that holds the promise of solving both problems."
Knowing more about which genes may put a person at risk for Parkinson's and how those genes work could give doctors a way to identify which patients are most likely to develop symptoms and take steps to prevent or curb the onset of nerve damage in the brain before it reaches a critical stage.
"With the right tools and knowledge," Foroud said, "one day we'll be able to delay the onset of Parkinson's or even stop it altogether."
