The key facts

  • ABCA1, a protein involved in cholesterol transport in the brain, contributes in Parkinson's disease to cholesterol accumulation in neuronal lysosomes and cell damage.
  • Suppressing the Abca1 gene in mice reduced the death of dopaminergic neurons and motor impairments; magnesium citrate also reduced nerve cell loss in animals.
  • The results were obtained in cells and animals — the effectiveness and safety of the approach for humans have not yet been tested.

What the scientists discovered

Chinese researchers from Nanjing Medical University have established that ABCA1, a protein involved in transporting cholesterol in the brain, may contribute to neuronal damage in Parkinson's disease. The findings were published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, ; Gazeta.Ru reports on them. The scientists examined postmortem brain samples from people with Parkinson's disease, mice with an analog of the condition, and cells in the laboratory, and found elevated ABCA1 activity in the substantia nigra — the brain region where dopamine-producing neurons die in Parkinson's disease.

The mechanism and the mouse experiment

As the authors explained, the protein affects cholesterol metabolism differently in different brain cells: in astrocytes, which support neuronal function, ABCA1 enhances cholesterol release, while in neurons it promotes cholesterol's entry into lysosomes — cellular structures that process unneeded substances. As a result, cholesterol accumulates inside them and disrupts the cell's waste-disposal system. «This is accompanied by the accumulation of alpha-synuclein — a protein that in Parkinson's disease can misfold and form clumps that damage nerve cells,» the scientists said. In the experiment, suppressing the activity of the Abca1 gene in mice with a Parkinson's disease model reduced the death of dopaminergic neurons and the severity of motor impairments. While searching for substances that block ABCA1, the researchers also found that magnesium citrate reduces the loss of nerve cells in animals.

What this means and what remains unknown

The authors believe ABCA1 could become a new target for Parkinson's disease therapy. However, as the publication emphasizes, the results have so far been obtained only in cells and animals: the effectiveness of magnesium citrate and the safety of this approach for humans still need to be tested. Thus, this concerns a potential research direction, not a ready-made treatment. Separately, Gazeta.Ru mentions an earlier story about the unexpected role of water revealed in the development of Alzheimer's disease — that is a different study and is not directly related to the work on Parkinson's disease.