An enzyme called PGK1 has an unexpectedly critical role in the production of chemical energy in brain cells, according to a preclinical study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The investigators found that boosting its activity may help the brain resist the energy deficits that can lead to Parkinson’s disease. The study, published Aug.
21 in Science Advances, presented evidence that PGK1 is a “rate-limiting” enzyme in energy production in the output-signaling branches, or axons, of the dopamine neurons that are affected in Parkinson’s disease. This means that even a modest boost to PGK1 activity can have an outsized effect at restoring the neuronal energy supply in low-fuel conditions – and the researchers showed that this could prevent the axon dysfunction and degeneration normally seen in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. “Our findings show that PGK1 can really make a big difference in Parkinson’s disease, in ways we didn't anticipate,” said study senior author Timothy Ryan, Ph.
D. ’89, the Tri-Institutional Professor of Biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medicine. “I’m very optimistic that this line of research has the potential to generate new Parkinson’s treatments.
” The study’s first author was Alexandros Kokotos, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ryan Laboratory. Parkinson’s afflicts about 1 million Americans and is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s. The disease hits key populations of dopami.