Скачать или смотреть Per Borghammer - Investigate whether Parkinson’s begins in the gut

Lundbeck Foundation grants DKK 10 million for a research project to investigate whether Parkinson’s disease starts in the gut many years before it affects the brain.

As early as ten to twenty years before patients are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, many have problems with digestion, for example constipation. This may be a very early sign that the nerve pathways that regulate gut function have been damaged. New research indicates that Parkinson’s disease may start in the gut and, from there, spread to the brain via the nerve fibres that connect the gut to the brain.

Per Borghammer, consultant at the Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Centre at Aarhus University Hospital, has recently received a five-year fellowship of DKK 10 million from Lundbeck Foundation to test this hypothesis thoroughly.

“We’ve developed the world’s first method to take pictures of the nerve pathways which control, among other things, gut function. Consequently, we’re now able to see whether the nerve pathways were already damaged several years before patients develop symptoms of Parkinson’s disease,” says Per Borghammer.