APDA-funded Researcher Dr. Vikram Khurara Discusses New Findings

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, led by APDA’s George C. Cotzias Fellowship awardee Dr. Vikram Khurana, demonstrated a new role for the protein involved in Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathology, alpha-synuclein. Watch this video to hear Dr. Khurana and Dr. Hallacli explain their exciting research and what it means for the PD community. More info: In addition to alpha-synuclein interacting with vesicles, or small transport structures within the cell, this new study shows that alpha-synuclein also binds to structures known as P-bodies which are part of the cell machinery that regulates messenger RNA (mRNA), the intermediary molecule between DNA and the protein that it encodes. Normal binding of alpha-synuclein to the P-body helps to stabilize the mRNA. When too much alpha-synuclein is in the cell, this stability is compromised. This finding is extremely important as it not only gives us new insight into what is going wrong in the neurons of people with PD but identifies new targets for potential treatments. This work was published on June 9, 2022 in the medical journal Cell. APDA is proud to fund Dr. Khurana in is his mission to uncover the mysteries of PD.