A new study suggests that a brain chemical that causes people to feel sleepy also plays a significant role in making deep brain stimulation a success, thereby easing the symptoms of Parkinsons disease and other brain disorders in patients.
Lead researcher Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center, says that the chemical called adenosine is very important for the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS), which is used to treat people affected by Parkinsons disease and is being tested in patients with severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
During the treatment, a small device called brain pacemaker is implanted in the patients brains, so that electrical signals could be delivered to a very precise point in the organ.
The researchers said that their study had unexpectedly given importance to the role of adenosine and to cells called astrocytes, which had been overlooked by neuroscientists for a long time.
Certainly the electrical effect of the stimulation on neurons is central to the effect of deep brain stimulation. But we also found a very important role for adenosine, which is surprising, Nature Medicine quoted Nedergaard as saying.
Adenosine is mainly a by-product of the chemical ATP, which is the source of energy for all our cells. As the day ends, its level in the brain normally increases, and ultimately it plays a huge role in making us sleepy.