2/15/25
New research suggests that the risk of developing Parkinson's disease is twice as high in men than in women, possibly due to the immune system mistakenly attacking brain cells that express the PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1) protein. The study, led by a team from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California, found that the damage caused by the immune system's T cells is more widespread and aggressive in the brains of men than women. The researchers found that in male Parkinson's patients, there was a six-fold increase in T cells targeting PINK1-tagged brain cells compared to healthy brains, while in female patients, there was only a 0.7-fold increase.
By: Evan Redmond, Pharm.D.
