With this knowledge, researchers analyzed data from approximately 1.7 million Swedish men and women followed up to 52 years to determine if the appendix played any part in this early symptom development. They found that individuals who had their appendix removed had a 19.3% lower incidence of Parkinson's Disease compared to the general population. For individuals who had an appendectomy, the prevalence of Parkinson's was 16.9% lower than the general population. Going even further, Killinger and his team found that individuals who had an appendectomy and still developed Parkinson's Disease developed the symptoms of the disease later than individuals who had not had an appendectomy.
Without trying to get too in depth (which is hard because this research is blowing my mind currently) one major characteristic of Parkinson's Disease is the development of what are known as Lewy bodies, aggregated clumps of a protein called α-synuclein. Researchers found that the appendix of healthy individuals in their study contained these same clumped α-synuclein protein products characteristic of Parkinson's Disease. Based on all of these findings, his team has hypothesized that the appendix actually contains pathogenic forms of α-synuclein and they suspect that the removal of the appendix is what caused the decrease in prevalence and incidence of Parkinson's in their study.
Extremely interesting research! I had my appendix removed just a few years ago and after experiencing some adverse side effects, I thought maybe we should look further into what the appendix does. I thought for sure I was about to read how people who have their appendix removed were at a higher risk for Parkinson's rather than what I learned as I read further. After looking up this research and reading more about it, I find it interesting how much the gut and the proteins/microbes that it harbors play such a vital role in our health. This will be something to continue to follow to see if they can truly discover what causes this debilitating disease but for now I guess my chances of being diagnosed with Parkinson's has decreased!
ReplyDeletePerhaps appendix screening for Lewy bodies could be used in some cases as a pre-screening method for Parkinson's Disease (PD) and also considered a prodromal feature of the disorder. There are many different prodromal features of PD with constipation and loss of smell being two of the most common. These prodromal features often lead clinicians to pursue other definitive tests such as DaTscans to diagnose PD. Perhaps if a patient presents with constipation and one or more PD prodromal feature we could analyze the appendix for alpha-synuclein pathology and remove it before it spreads to the substantia nigra and causes significant motor symptoms.
ReplyDeleteI actually worked on this clinical trial looking at squalamine for the treatment of constipation in PD patients as the primary outcome but these researchers at Enterin pharmaceuticals also believed squalamine has disease modifying properties as well. They were very confident that squalamine's interaction with the gut's enteric nervous system was the key to reversing PD.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03047629
There is data that supports squalamine may decrease the toxicity of Lewy bodies in animal models, but we will have to wait and see if this upholds in clinical trials.
Colledge, W. H. (2017). Faculty of 1000 evaluation for A natural product inhibits the initiation of α-synuclein aggregation and suppresses its toxicity. F1000 - Post-publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature. doi:10.3410/f.727215352.793532552