Re:Eye test may detect Parkinson’s before symptoms appear
by coetzeesg on Sunday August 21, 2016 @12:16AM
(#12329331)
Yea, I can only work with tissues that I have chromatin marks for, and retinal tissue is not one that is easily available. But it's possible that the retinal features are an early detector of disregulation (in some pathway to Parkinson’s), and it would be interesting to see precisely what it’s detecting, perhaps shedding more light on inherited risk.
Re:Eye test may detect Parkinson’s before symptoms appear
by nickledave on Sunday August 21, 2016 @02:07AM
(#12329643)
Ah, it's chromatin marks you need. Well I guess you could get a lot of retinal tissue from the rat model they use and try to find some.
Interesting that this finding is in an animal that doesn't depend as much on vision as we do. Might be worth determining if the result holds up in e.g. a macaque model.
Accumulating mutations could cause Parkinson's--some sort of inflammatory syndrome from altered metabolic pathways, you can probably explain it better than me--but the study in OP seems to be suggesting retinal degeneration is a symptom, right? Maybe retinal tissue could be a "canary in the coal mine" because it's more sensitive to these changes in metabolism? I'd be interested to know what you think.