Cholesterol-transporting protein ABCA1 found to be linked to neuronal death in Parkinson's disease
Scientists at Nanjing Medical University have found that in Parkinson's disease the ABCA1 protein disrupts cholesterol processing in neurons, accompanied by the accumulation of alpha-synuclein. Suppressing its activity in mice reduced the death of dopaminergic neurons and motor impairments; magnesium citrate also reduced cell loss. The results are published in Nature Neuroscience, but have so far been obtained only in animals and cells.
Aziz Karimov