Hunger hormone could signal treatments for Parkinson’s

As Americans anticipate their Thanksgiving dinners, the gnawing sensation of hunger prepares them to eat perhaps too much turkey or pumpkin pie. The same hormone that produces that sensation of hunger could be the secret to a new therapy protecting Parkinson’s patients from disease-related cell death, according to research presented Nov. 16 during the Society of Neuroscience’s annual meeting in Chicago.

Scientists found, in a recent preclinical study conducted at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, that a calorie-restricted diet and its effect on the hormone ghrelin had a protective effect on the brain in mice subjects. Researchers wondered if a dose of the hunger drug, and not necessarily food restriction, was the key to staving off the hallmark dopamine cell death associated with Parkinson’s. To prove this, special mice without the ability to produce ghrelin were placed on a similarly restricted diet and no such protective effect was found, which proved that it was ghrelin, not dieting, that eased Parkinson’s neurodegeneration. The scientists gauged disease-related neurodegeneration by measuring tyrosine hydroxylase using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Taking the study a step further, researchers injected mice with ghrelin and found evidence of slowing cell death. These results could lead to similar studies in humans with Parkinson’s disease.

“Understanding the role of ghrelin, or the ‘hunger hormone,’ could allow us to develop new treatments that produce the benefits of a calorie-restricted diet without the necessity of drastically reducing an individual’s caloric intake, which can be hard to maintain,” said Jacqueline Bayliss, a PhD candidate from Monash University, in a press release.

Researchers estimate that 6.3 million people are living with Parkinson’s disease. By 2030, this statistic is expected to exceed 12 million.