Parkinson’s UK have launched a campaign to raise money for research into worms. What have worms got to do with Parkinson’s?
The problem with studying the human brain is its bewildering
complexity; it has around 100 billion nerve cells and is said to be the most
complicated structure in the known universe! This creates a difficulty when
trying to understand the basic causes of diseases like Parkinson’s; because the
brain is so complex and contains a vast number of processes and individual
components, it is very difficult to identify in humans those components
responsible for Parkinson’s. Future treatment will target these malfunctioning
components so it is crucial to identify them and study their effect on
individual cells and also networks of nerve cells.
What is needed initially is less complexity. Luckily for us,
we are related to an organism with a simple nervous system that shares many of
the components found in our brains. This relative is C.elegans, a 1mm long
worm! C.elegans has only 302 nerve cells (including dopamine producing nerve
cells) and we know the “tube map” of what each cell connects to and its role in
controlling the movement of the worm.
If something goes wrong with a nerve cell in C.elegans it
develops movement symptoms; because of the worms relative simplicity the
symptoms can be more easily traced back to the nerve cell and specifically to
the component that has gone wrong. Also, the effect of the malfunction can be
followed along the tube tracks of the nervous system of C.elegans to understand
why the symptoms develop. Not bad for a 1mm long worm!
Basic research such as that in C.elegans is crucial in
understanding the basis of diseases such as Parkinson’s, it forms the
foundation of knowledge and sets the questions to be answered in more complex
organisms, including humans.
Parkinson’s UK recognises the value of basic research and
has launched a campaign to raise £250,000 for C.elegans research by sponsoring
one of our worm relatives. Follow the links for further information and to help
cure Parkinson’s:
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