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Sigalon - The Swedish FrogDecades after the 1918 influenza pandemic, epidemiologists noted an uptick in the number of people with diminished mobility and other neurological symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson's disease. But despite this and other hints, the idea that viruses can trigger neurodegenerative disease has remained controversial. Now researchers report new evidence for such a link: Mice infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus lose the same dopamine-releasing neurons that are destroyed by Parkinson's disease.
The new study was inspired in part by video footage of chickens, geese, and ducks collected in Laos by researchers working with the World Health Organization's surveillance program, says senior author Richard Smeyne, a developmental neurobiologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "The birds looked like they had Parkinson's disease," Smeyne says. "They were tremoring, falling side to side, and having difficulty with movements." So far there have been no reports of Parkinson's disease in human survivors of the H5N1 flu, Smeyne says, but because only a few years have passed since the first cases were reported, it's too early to know whether those infected are at increased risk.
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