Scientists track Parkinson's journey from gut to brain in mice

Scientists track Parkinson's journey from gut to brain in mice

Catherine Paddock

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, MD, conducted their investigation in a new mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

The new model replicates a number of early and late signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including some that are not movement-related.

The team found that they could get the mice to develop these features by injecting their guts with "preformed fibrils" of alpha-synuclein, the protein that forms toxic clumps in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease.

[Laird]

Not to turn this into a thread on ethics, but: What a cruel thing to do to a mouse.

Not to turn this into a thread on ethics, but: What a cruel thing to do to a mouse.

I have to admit I do sometimes wonder if we pay the price for these practices, yet admittedly there is the reality that without these tests many of our loved ones would pass on sooner than we'd like...

[Laird]

Do mice not have loved ones?

Do mice not have loved ones?

Good question, I honestly don't know the answer.

If they do it would definitely make the life review of many people more...uncomfortable...

[Laird]

Good question, I honestly don't know the answer.

Here's a hint at an answer (unfortunately from another study with questionable ethics):

In the first study of its kind, researchers show that rats engage in empathy-driven behavior, helping to free a trapped cagemate for no reward other than relieving its fellow rat’s distress. Rats chose to help each other out of traps, even when a stash of delicious chocolate chips was on the line.

In the study, same-sex rats were first housed in pairs in the same cage for two weeks. Then, during the testing sessions, one rat was allowed to run free, while the other was trapped in a plastic restraining tube. The restraining device was designed so that the free rat could liberate the trapped one, if it could figure out how to tip over the door. In control conditions, the restrainer was either empty or contained a toy rat.

In the rat experiments, researchers observed that the free rats immediately liberated their trapped partners, once they figured out how to open the restraint — which took about a week. Rats that were exposed to empty restrainers or a trapped toy rat ignored them.

In an ingenious twist, researchers then placed free rats in a cage with two restraining tubes. One contained a fellow rat, while the other held chocolate chips. Rats, like most of humans, love chocolate. Would the rats go for the chips and leave their friend locked up, or open both doors and share the goodies?

As it turns out, about half the time, rats chose to free their cagemates and share. They also didn’t take longer to release their cagemates when the chocolate was available. Even though control rats that had a choice between a restrainer containing chips and an empty one ate all the chips most of the time, in 51% of trials where rats could share with friends, they did.

Freeing a friend you've been paired with for a fortnight and then sharing chocolate with them that could have been yours alone sounds... well, kind of loving, no?

Sorry to have taken your thread off-topic but this is something I feel strongly about.

Freeing a friend you've been paired with for a fortnight and then sharing chocolate with them that could have been yours alone sounds... well, kind of loving, no?

Depends on how well they got on together previously. If there were constant arguments or fights, I can imagine one rat eating all the chocolate while the rival can only watch.

[Laird]

Depends on how well they got on together previously. If there were constant arguments or fights, I can imagine one rat eating all the chocolate while the rival can only watch.

Which sounds "human, all too human"... and so in any case the ethical distinction is blurred.