Three top city hospitals part of nationwide study on Parkinsonu2019s

Arita Sarkar arita. sarkar@ mid- day. com FOR the first time, a nationwide study is being carried out on the genetic causes of Parkinsonu2019s Disease, and three of the cityu2019s top hospitals are participating in it. The study will include blood samples collected from 20 hospitals from across the country and is being funded by the US- based Michael J Fox Foundation.

u2018 A long- term benefitu2019 In Mumbai, Jaslok, Global and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani ( KDA) Hospitals will be part of the study. Dr Pankaj Agarwal, consultant neurologist, Global Hospitals, said that the study will have a long- term benefit.

We need to understand what causes the degeneration and for that we want to study the genetic factors that cause the likelihood of Parkinsonu2019s Disease. There are eight to 20 genetic variants and we can study them using the computational method to see their protein and cellular function,u201d she said.

Data to be published As part of the study, more than 40,000 blood samples will be collected, half of those from Parkinsonu2019s patients and half from healthy people ( not blood relatives of Parkinsonu2019s patients). These samples will then be sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad for DNA analysis. u201c At hospitals, we will capture the clinical data. Once the DNA analysis is done, we will discuss and then publish the data which can then be used for future studies on target therapy,u201d said Dr Pettarusp Wadia, consultant and coordinator of the Neurology Department at Jaslok Hospital. The R 15 crore grant was awarded on the basis of a project report submitted by Dr Manu Sharma of the University Tuebingen, Germany and Professor Asha Kishore, director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Kerala. They will be part of the study. While Global Hospital has already started collecting the samples, Kokilaben is starting later this week while Jaslok will start next week.

Three top city hospitals part of nationwide study on Parkinsonu2019s Jaslok, Global and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospitals will help in the research on the genetic causes of the disease, which is funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation u2018 The disease is inherited in less than 10 per cent of the cases. We need to understand what causes the degeneration and for that we want to study the genetic factors that cause the likelihood of Parkinsonu2019s Disease. There are eight to 20 genetic variants and we can study them using the computational method to see their protein and cellular functionu2019 Dr Annu Aggarwal, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital u2018 We are trying to understand why this disease happens.

Once we have a better understanding of the cellular mechanisms that lead to degeneration in this disease, scientists will be able to develop more targeted drugs that could act on those mechanismsu2019 Dr Pankaj Agarwal, Global Hospitals R 15 cr The grant given for the study 40,000 No. of samples to be collected