Parkinson's disease

07.12.2023

Parkinson's disease , Daily Current Affairs , RACE IAS : Best IAS Coaching in Lcuknow 

Why in the news?

Recently, researchers at Oxford have developed a blood test to identify people likely to develop Parkinson's disease.

Important points:

• This test can detect early signs of the disease long before symptoms appear.
• Parkinson's disease begins as early as 10 years before symptoms appear.
• Changes in a protein called alpha-synuclein can identify people who are likely to develop Parkinson's disease.
• In the first study of its kind, the team looked at hundreds of individuals and found that those at highest risk of developing Parkinson's had two-fold increased levels of alpha-synuclein.

About Parkinson's disease:

• Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder that affects the nervous system and the parts of the body controlled by nerves.
• Its symptoms start gradually.
• The risk of developing it increases with age.
• Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease affecting seven million people worldwide and cases are projected to double by 2040.

symptoms:

• Parkinson's disease begins more than ten years before patients come to the clinic with symptoms because their brain cells fail to handle a small protein called alpha-synuclein.
• This leads to the formation of abnormal clumps of alpha-synuclein that damage vulnerable nerve cells.
• The following symptoms may be seen.
  • uncontrollable shivering and shaking
  • Slow gait (bradykinesia)
  • Balance the difficulties and problems that ultimately arise
  • stiffness in limbs
  • speech changes
  • writing change
  • loss of automatic activities

Cause of Parkinson’s Disease

• It is caused by the degeneration of nerve cells in the part of the brain called the substantia nigra, which controls movement.
• These nerve cells die or become impaired, losing the ability to produce an important chemical called dopamine.
• Dopamine operates with other neurotransmitters to help coordinate the millions of nerve and muscle cells involved in the movement.

Treatment:

• There is no cure for Parkinson's disease; by the time people are diagnosed, damage to nerve cells has already occurred.
• Medicines, surgical treatments, and other treatments can usually provide some relief.
• Medications: Medications can help treat Parkinson's symptoms:
  • increased levels of dopamine in the brain
  • Affects other chemicals in the brain, such as neurotransmitters, which transfer information between brain cells
  • Helping control non-motor symptoms
• Therapy: The main therapy for Parkinson's is levodopa.
  • Nerve cells use levodopa to make dopamine to replenish the brain's depleted supply.

Deep brain stimulation: For people with Parkinson's disease who do not respond well to medications, doctors may recommend deep brain stimulation.