Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have discovered that eating fish can prevent formation of some protein structures associated with Parkinson’s disease.
During their study, the team found a link between the parvalbumin protein and amyloid formation of ‘Parkinson’s protein’ called alpha-synuclein.
Parvalbumin is common in many types of fish, including herring, cod, carp, sockeye salmon and red snapper.
Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that increasing the amount of fish in our diet may help in preventing Parkinson’s disease.
The team is planning to explore whether the discovery can be used to help prevent other neurodegenerative diseases that involve amyloid structure formation such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.
Chalmers University biology and biological engineering department assistant professor Nathalie Scheers said: “There’s going to be an explosion of these diseases in the future–and the scary part is that we currently have no cures. So we need to follow up on anything that looks promising.
“It will be very interesting to study how parvalbumin distributes within human tissues in more depth. There could be some really exciting results.”
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