Certain forms of Parkinson’s disease are linked to a brain protein, alpha-synucléine
In news that may make promising progress in the early diagnosis of typical forms of Parkinson’s disease, an American study under the supervision of American neurologist Andrew Siderowf reported that the accumulation of alpha-synucléine protein in the brain is associated with certain forms of Parkinson’s disease.
This American study published in the Lancet Neurology, the first of its kind conducted on hundreds of patients, concluded that the presence of elevated levels of the protein alpha-synucléine in the cerebrospinal fluid “helps with great accuracy in identifying the typical forms of Parkinson’s disease in which the patient loses the ability to move.”
But patients who carry a gene mutation known as LRRK2, which is usually associated with certain forms of Parkinson’s disease, do not systematically have clumps of alpha-synuclein in their brains. What is particularly interesting is that the researchers also detected a high concentration of this protein in patients who had early signs of Parkinson’s disease, particularly a decreased sense of smell, but this has not yet been proven.
At the moment, we are still a long way from having a “biological” test for Parkinson’s disease, which can currently only be diagnosed by its symptoms. The US study will lay the foundations for a biological diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, but it will be necessary to determine whether the alpha-synuclein search technique works well with blood tests rather than more complex cerebrospinal fluid tests.
A new generation of 3D printed rockets
The American start-up company “Relativity Space” will abandon its Terran 1 rocket model, made for the first time with 3D printing technology, after it failed at the end of last March to reach orbit due to the difficulty represented by the fact that the valves opened very slowly, and the engines did not, therefore, reach their full power. However, the American company intends to develop a larger model of its successfully launched missile, but this missile will be a new generation Terran R. The “Terran R” is supposed to be 80 meters high with the ability to reach low orbit with a payload of about 23.5 tons. The process of producing a missile using 3D printing technology is easy, takes 60 days, and is less expensive than conventional missiles.
The Terran R will compete with the Falcon 9 rockets of SpaceX, which is currently the market leader in large-scale rockets.
The first model of the Terran R rocket will be launched in 2026, according to Relativity Space, which reports that the 3D-printed rockets are structurally sound and able to withstand the harsh conditions of the launch process. The Terran R missiles will be tasked with delivering satellite constellations.
The Jupiter Explorer probe “Juice” is on standby
On Friday, April 14, the Jupiter explorer probe, Juice, is expected to take off on an Ariane 5 rocket, after it was scheduled to launch yesterday from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, but the launch was postponed until today for reasons related to unfavorable weather conditions.
With the energy of the solar panels carried by the Juice probe, which has an area of 85 square meters, it will reach Jupiter in the year 2031, also depending on the thrust it will receive from the gravity of other planets in the solar system. When this probe reaches its final destination, located about 628 million km from Earth, traversing a distance of two billion km, it will study whether life forms exist on the three icy moons of Jupiter, namely Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
The JOS probe, with a total cost of 1.6 billion euros, is the first European mission to enter the outer solar system, which begins after Mars.
The launch of the probe comes in the midst of a space missile crisis afflicting Europe, as it almost no longer has the ability to conduct independent flights into space, given the withdrawal of the Russian “Soyuz” missiles from Kourou, the delay of “Ariane 6” and the failure of the first commercial “Vega” flight.