First monkey genetically engineered to have Parkinson’s created

The world’s first monkey genetically engineered to have Parkinson’s disease has been created by researchers in Japan. Other monkeys created as part of the same project mimic Alzheimer’s disease and motor neurone disease.

While many scientists were encouraged by the possibility of gaining unique insight into hard-to-treat brain disorders, the news will alarm those who feel it is wrong to use primates in research.

Thanks to our close evolutionary history, the brains of primates are far more similar to ours than those of the mice, flies and worms that currently dominate brain research. Marmosets, for instance, have one partner, several offspring and make eye contact with each other.

Lack of public support has limited primate research in Europe and the US. Most neurological research in these countries focuses on mice – but it is limited in its scope. For example, hundreds of compounds that showed promise in mice with a version of Alzheimer’s have failed completely when they are given to people with the disease.

In Japan and China, opposition is muted by comparison. Last month, Hideyuki Okano at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo revealed his team’s marmoset model of Parkinson’s at the State of the Brain meeting in Alpbach, Austria.

The team modified marmosets to have mutated copies of a human gene called SNCA, which is linked to Parkinson’s disease. When this gene is faulty, a protein called alpha-synuclein builds up in the brain, disrupting and then killing the brain cells that make dopamine, a signalling chemical vital for movement.