Dr Sarah Marzi receives $1.4m from a Collaborative Research Network grant awarded by Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) to study link between toxicants and Parkinson's disease.
An international collaboration between researchers from King's College London, The University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University, University of Alabama, and company Acurex, has been awarded $9m to study why certain environmental toxicants are associated with increased risk of Parkinson's disease.
This team of researchers will join the Collaborative Research Network (CRN), an international, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional network working to address high-priority research questions about Parkinson's disease, through a grant awarded by Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP), in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF).
Environmental risk factors
Risk of Parkinson's disease is thought to result from an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Exposure to certain toxicants, such as rotenone, paraquat and trichloroethylene have been associated with increased risk of Parkinson's. These chemicals are known neurotoxins that damage neurons through different mechanisms. A common link between these toxicants and Parkinson's disease remains unidentified.
A shared mechanism
The grant will fund research into a molecule that is produced when neurons are exposed to rotenone, paraquat and trichloroethylene. Researchers will investigate whether this molecule acts as a shared key trigger for development of Parkinson's pathology.
Dr Marzi will focus on understanding how genes are regulated by studying epigenetic modifications after exposure to environmental toxicants. Her previous work, as part of the same collaboration with Professor Timothy Greenamyre and Dr Emily Rocha at The University of Pittsburgh, showed that rotenone exposure changes how genes are regulated and processed. She now aims to understand how different cells react to and regulate their gene expression in response to rotenone, paraquat and trichloroethylene.
Her research group will also investigate how genes interact with changes triggered by environmental toxicants using statistical genetic analysis. This will highlight how genes and environmental factors may interact to increase an individual's risk of developing Parkinson's.
I am delighted that ASAP is supporting our collaborative effort to better understand how environmental exposures contribute to Parkinson's disease. This grant will allow us to combine experimental models with detailed epigenetic analyses to define how specific toxicants leave a lasting mark on gene regulation in vulnerable brain cells.
Dr Sarah Marzi, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Group Leader at the UK DRI Centre at King's College London.
"By investigating how the environment and a person's unique genetics interact to drive Parkinson's, this team is uncovering the diverse biological drivers of the disease," said Sonya Dumanis, PhD, managing director of ASAP.
"This is exactly the kind of bold, integrative science the Collaborative Research Network is designed to accelerate. With a better understanding of these disease mechanisms, we can lay the groundwork for new, personalized therapeutics and better outcomes for Parkinson's patients."
Targets for treatment
Identifying a common link between how different environmental toxicants may increase risk of Parkinson's could help to ultimately find treatments that work for many people affected by Parkinson's.
"By identifying shared mechanisms triggered by different toxicants, we hope to move closer to a more complete picture of Parkinson's aetiology and, ultimately, to strategies that can reduce risk and inform the development of disease-modifying therapies, " commented Dr Sarah Marzi, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Group Leader at the UK DRI Centre at King's College London.
