Heroin addicts who accidentally injected the chemical MPTP in the 1980s developed it, and a mutated UCHL1 gene has been shown to cause it in exactly one family.
Heroin addicts who accidentally injected the chemical MPTP in the 1980s developed it, and a mutated UCHL1 gene has been shown to cause it in exactly one family. Its symptoms are similar to those found in Hallervorden-Spatz disease, and its ideopathic variety always features the presence of Lewy bodies and neuron loss. Directly caused by a loss of certain neurons in the substantia nigra, treatments for it include injection of GDNF to slow neuron death, and ingestion of L-DOPA to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain and alleviate symptoms such as bradykinesia and rigity. FTP, name this disease first publicized by its English namesake in 1817 in An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, which famously afflicts Michael J. Fox.
Heroin addicts who accidentally injected the chemical MPTP in the 1980s developed it, and a mutated UCHL1 gene has been shown to cause it in exactly one family.
{Parkinson}'s Disease