Even for individuals with a gene anomaly connected to Parkinson’s illness, coffee intake might be related to a lower threat of in fact establishing the illness, according to a current research study released in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
“These results are promising and encourage future research exploring caffeine and caffeine-related therapies to lessen the chance that people with this gene develop Parkinson’s,” stated research study author Grace Crotty, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “It’s also possible that caffeine levels in the blood could be used as a biomarker to help identify which people with this gene will develop the disease, assuming caffeine levels remain relatively stable.”
Earlier research studies have actually revealed that coffee intake might secure versus the advancement of Parkinson’s illness in individuals who have no hereditary threat aspects for the illness. This research study took a look at individuals with a hereditary anomaly that increases the threat of Parkinson’s. The anomaly remains in a gene called LRRK2 for leucine-rich repeat kinase 2. But having the unusual gene does not ensure that individuals will establish the illness, so scientists are intending to recognize other hereditary or ecological aspects that impact whether individuals establish the illness.
The research study compared 188 individuals who had Parkinson’s illness to 180 individuals who did not have the illness; both groups had individuals with the LRRK2 gene anomaly and those without it. Researchers took a look at the quantity of caffeine in the blood, in addition to other chemicals that are produced as caffeine is metabolized in the body, and how it differed amongst the groups. An overall of 212 of the individuals likewise finished surveys about just how much caffeine they took in every day.
Among individuals bring the LRRK2 gene anomaly, those who had Parkinson’s had a 76% lower concentration of caffeine in their blood than those who did not have Parkinson’s. People with Parkinson’s with a typical copy of the gene had a 31% lower concentration of caffeine in their blood than non-carriers without Parkinson’s.
Carriers of the gene anomaly who had Parkinson’s likewise had lower intake of caffeine in their diet plan. The gene providers with Parkinson’s taken in 41% less caffeine daily than individuals who did not have Parkinson’s, both with and without the gene anomaly.
“We don’t know yet whether people who are predisposed to Parkinson’s may tend to avoid drinking coffee or if some mutation carriers drink a lot of coffee and benefit from its neuroprotective effects,” Crotty stated.
Crotty kept in mind that the research study took a look at individuals at one time, so it does not assist scientists comprehend any result caffeine has more than time on the threat for Parkinson’s or how it might impact the illness’s development. It likewise does not show that caffeine intake straight triggers a lower threat of Parkinson’s; it just reveals an association.
Reference: “Association of caffeine and related analytes with resistance to Parkinson’s disease among LRRK2 mutation carriers: A metabolomic study” by Grace F Crotty, Romeo Maciuca, Eric A Macklin, Junhua Wang, Manuel Montalban, Sonnet S. Davis, Jamal I. Alkabsh, Rachit Bakshi, Xiqun Chen, Alberto Ascherio, Giuseppe Astarita, Sarah Huntwork-Rodriguez and Michael A Schwarzschild, 30 September 2020, Neurology.
DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000010863
The research study was supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Farmer Family Foundation Initiative for Parkinson’s Disease Research, Jane & Alan Batkin Research Fellowship, Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders and the National Institutes of Health. Several research study authors are staff members of Denali Therapeutics, which is establishing a drug that would target LRRK2 gene function.
