‘Mount Everest air’ may be able to slow or reverse Parkinson’s symptoms

The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows faulty cellular processes in the brain cause a build-up of excess oxygen molecules, leading to symptoms associated with Parkinson's.

The excess oxygen seems to drive the breakdown of cells in the brain, suggesting that limiting oxygen intake could help slow or reverse symptoms, researchers from Harvard Medical School have said.

Study author Fumito Ichinose said: "Based on this evidence, we became very interested in the effect of hypoxia on Parkinson’s disease."

Vamsi Mootha, another author of the study, added: "We first saw that low oxygen could alleviate brain-related symptoms in some rare diseases where mitochondria are affected, such as Leigh syndrome and Friedreich’s ataxia... That raised the question: Could the same be true in more common neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s?"

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Parkinson’s patients experience a progressive loss of neurons in the brain, resulting in tremors and slowed movements.

Neurons affected by Parkinson’s also tend to accumulate toxic protein clumps called Lewy bodies, with some research suggesting these clumps interfere with the function of mitochondria.

In the research, scientists induced Parkinson’s-like conditions in mice by injecting them with clumps of the α-synuclein proteins that seed the formation of Lewy bodies.

The mice were then split into two groups - one breathing normal air with 21 per cent oxygen, and the other continuously kept in chambers with 11 per cent oxygen, comparable to living at an altitude of about 4,800 metres.

After just three months, researchers found the mice kept in low-oxygen conditions did not lose any neurons and showed no movement problems, even though they developed Lewy bodies.

In stark contrast, mice in the other group had high levels of Lewy bodies, dead neurons, and severe movement problems.

The results show that while hypoxia could not stop the formation of Lewy bodies, it was protecting neurons from the damaging effects of these protein clumps.

Scientists are working on "hypoxia in a pill" drugs which mimic the effects of low oxygen.

Although the results are encouraging, researchers have warned more research is needed before the findings can be directly used to treat Parkinson’s in humans.

"It may not be a treatment for all types of neurodegeneration...but it’s a powerful concept – one that might shift how we think about treating some of these diseases," Dr Mootha said.