Neuromelanin - Any thoughts?

[JayPwP]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neu...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/245...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

nature.com/articles/srep01395

[pvw2]

It seems like many PD theories don't have a good way of validating.

[JayPwP in reply to pvw2]

True

[Rhyothemis]

A good review article on neuromelanin and PD:

movementdisorders.onlinelib...

The Science of Parkinson's blog post on neuromelanin

scienceofparkinsons.com/201...

Note that only humans appear to accumulate a lot of neuromelanin with aging, so this is an issue for animal model research (also I think it puts the kibosh on the idea that the human brain can survive indefinitely without additional interventions if the body can be rejuvenated - an idea from mouse research, nationalgeographic.com/scie... )

I asked in the comments on another post whether turquoise killifish accumulate neuromelanin and Simon relied he would check into it, but have not heard anything since.

[JayPwP in reply to Rhyothemis]

Thanks. The researches contradict

[sharoncrayn]

discussed previously on HU. probably cytotoxic. an old research issue dating back to the 1990s. been there; done that.

"the identification of ionic iron in dopamine neurons of Parkinson's disease zona compacta and its association with neuromelanin has conferred a cytotoxic property to neuromelanin. "

Sharon

[JayPwP in reply to sharoncrayn]

Some research says it is protective, others say say toxic

[sharoncrayn in reply to JayPwP]

it all depends on the context, not on the research per se. . On the one hand it can act as an antioxidant, but in the presence of transitional metals (primarily, iron) and drugs it promotes the formation of reactive oxygen free radicals, which is not good.

read: Alpha-synuclein redistributes to neuromelanin lipid in the substantia nigra early in Parkinson's disease

"(in the lipid density) changes may trigger a cascade of events leading to larger intracellular aggregates of alpha-synuclein and the dispersement of protective pigment to precipitate cell death in Parkinson's disease. "

Sharon