New Genetic Model For Parkinson's Disease

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are homing in on mechanisms that may explain one set of causes for Parkinson's disease. In mice they have mimicked disturbances of mitochondria thought to be one cause of disease. By genetic means the disturbance of mitochondria - the energy factories of cells - were directed to those nerve cells that produce the transmitter substance dopamine and that die in Parkinson's disease.