Researchers discover proteins which run like an electrical cable from the stomach to the brain can trigger disease
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The study builds on a discovery of proteins clumped in parts of the nervous system controlling the gut, as well as in the brain, of Parkinson’s sufferers.
Following his breakthrough in 2003, German neuroanatomist Heiko Braak hypothesized the proteins traveled up the nerves into the brain like a ladder – where they clump up and cause nerve tissues to die – causing the symptoms of Parkinson’s.
Dr Hanseok Ko, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, then found this was consistent with early stage Parkinson’s links with constipation.