Treatment with aniron-transporting protein called transferrin could help reverse iron elevationin the Parkinsonian brain. David Finkelstein and colleagues from Australia'sUniversity of Melbourne compared post-mortem samples from 10 people withParkinson's disease and 10 individuals with no history of neurologicalproblems. They found that the substantia nigra region of the brain ofParkinson's patients had a 42% average elevation in iron deposits and a 35%average decrease in transferrin levels compared to the controls. In culturedneurons, adding transferrin helped traffic iron out of the cells. And in amouse model of Parkinson's, transferrin injections under the skin helped loweriron levels in the brain and improve motor symptoms of the disease. However,transferrin also caused iron depletion in the blood, leading to anemia, whichcould limit its therapeutic application in patients.
A new model for assessing disease progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) may improve the therapeutic responses of patients. The onset and progression of AMD — a leading cause of vision loss in seniors in developed countries — are linked to multiple genetic and environmental risk factors, including smoking and body mass index (BMI). Kang Zhang of University of California, San Diego with colleagues in the USA and China, has developed a prediction model by collecting data from three groups: patients with advanced AMD, those with intermediate AMD and a normal group. The researchers combined data for genetic variations within 15 genes previously linked to AMD risk with smoking status and BMI of individuals in the three groups. This resulted in a highly predictive model for AMD progression that is promising for improving personalized therapy of patients.
