Parkinson's breakthrough: Malaga researchers discover hormone that protects cells from the disease

Researchers at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Malaga (IBIMA Plataforma Bionand) and the University of Malaga (UMA) have discovered that a hormone which all humans have in their bodies that protects the neurons that Parkinson's disease tries to damage.

The researchers have been studying it closely since 2007 in order to find out how it can be used to fight neurodegenerative diseases. This finding, published in the Journal of Advanced Research, opens a new door to treatments that not only alleviate the symptoms, but also slow the progression of the disease.

Parkinson's is a condition that mainly affects people over the age of 65 that causes tremors, muscle stiffness and slowness of movement. It occurs because certain neurons in the brain stop working and gradually die. There is no cure at the moment and existing therapies only help to control the symptoms.

The hormone, which is similar to insulin and is created by our bodies, acts as a shield for neurons. In the laboratory it has been shown that when nerve cells are exposed to this hormone, they are much more resistant to damage that would normally destroy them.

IGF-II protects the energy of neurons, so it improves the functioning of mitochondria, which are the "batteries of the cells", explains IBIMA; it also defends the DNA, so it activates repair mechanisms of the genetic material, which helps to avoid serious failures that can cause the cell to die; and it prevents cell death, slowing down the processes that lead to the self-destruction of neurons when they are damaged. For this to work, the hormone must be constantly present and act through a specific receptor in the cells.

The team, made up of scientists from the Basic and Applied Aspects of Neuropsychiatric and Neurodegenerative Diseases Group and the Endocrinology and Nutrition Group, demonstrated in 2021 in animals that this hormone could protect the brain. This new step is relevant because they have now understood how it is done at the cellular level.

"We want to know all the details of how this hormone acts in neurons. Our aim is that in the future it could be used as a treatment to slow down diseases such as Parkinson's disease," explained Dr. María García-Fernández, one of the researchers involved in the study.

The research has been carried out in collaboration with experts from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy and has been financed by the UMA, the Ministry of Science and Innovation and European funds.

These results add to earlier work published in the Redox Biology journal and a patent has already been registered for the use of IFG-II as a potential treatment for Parkinson's disease.