Even if scientists have shown that hour.

Tina Hesman Saey,

Science News ORLEANSBrain cells may be the next victim of bacterial bad guy already charged with causing ulcers and stomach cancer. Helicobacter Pylori, the bacteria that lives in the stomach about half the people in the world, can help trigger Parkinson's disease, researchers reported in the May 22 meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder that kills dopamine-producing cells in certain parts of the brain. People with this disease have problems controlling their movements. Approximately 60,000 new cases diagnosed annually in the United States. Some previous studies have shown that people with Parkinson's disease more often than healthy people who had ulcers at some point in their lives and are likely infected with H.pylori. But so far these relationships between bacteria and disease amounted to indirect evidence. Now, researchers collected evidence that could put at least part of the blame for Parkinson's disease notorious for bacteria. Middle-aged mice infected with bacteria-ulcer agent developed abnormal movements for a few months of infection, said Tracy Testerman, microbiologist

in Shryvport. Young mice infected with bacteria without showing any signs of movement problems. Testermans colleague, neuroscientist Michael Salvatore, found that

Helicobacter-infected mice make less dopamine in the brain that control movement, perhaps, that the dopamine-making cells die as order strattera they do in patients with Parkinson's disease . The bacteria should be alive to cause problems. Feeding mice to kill H. pylori

had the same effect, indicating that some biochemical components of the bacteria responsible. Candidate for the pathogenic molecule varies cholesterol. Helicobacter can make your cholesterol, so it steals cholesterol from its host and then stick the sugar molecules on it. Structure change in cholesterol like toxin from tropical Cycad, people on the island of Guam that eat seeds have developed a disease called ALS-parkinsonism dementia complex. Testerman and her colleagues are trying to determine whether the change in cholesterol alone can lead to Parkinson's symptoms are similar to mice or other factors of bacteria is also necessary. Even if scientists have shown that H. pylori

may cause or contribute to Parkinson's disease, it is not clear whether the body get rid of it would be good. Although the bacterium causes ulcers and stomach cancer, but also helps protect against allergies, asthma and esophageal cancer and other diseases of acid reflux. It's hard to know for now how allowing

Helicobacter stay or does it go will affect the individual, says microbiologist from Little Stanley. But it is clear that the possible link between Parkinson's disease and gastric bacteria can not be ignored. Theres enough reliable data that would be wrong not to look at it more closely, Little said. Follow the U. S. News Science at. .>