AD/PD 2026 | Factors contributing to neurodegeneration in PD and strategies being explored for prevention
Fabrizio Stocchi, MD, PhD, IRCCS San Raffaele Rome, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, discusses strategies being explored for the prevention of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Prof. Stocchi highlights the complex interplay of factors contributing to the onset of neurodegeneration in PD, including environmental, epigenetic, and genetic factors. This interview took place at the AD/PD™ 2026 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Transcript
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and, of course, the neurodegeneration starts because a number of factors come together, which could be environmental, epigenetic, genetic, and other factors that actually may play a role. So, first of all, we should actually look at which factor can determine the start of neurodegeneration. So, we know, for example, that pesticides could actually increase the risk of having PD, like pre-diabetes, like microplastics, like hyper-processed food...
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and, of course, the neurodegeneration starts because a number of factors come together, which could be environmental, epigenetic, genetic, and other factors that actually may play a role. So, first of all, we should actually look at which factor can determine the start of neurodegeneration. So, we know, for example, that pesticides could actually increase the risk of having PD, like pre-diabetes, like microplastics, like hyper-processed food. Of course, all of these factors cannot play by themselves, so epigenetics play quite an important role. And there are a number of studies today looking at that. So, for example, the hyperactivity of one of the enzymes called LARK is definitely responsible for the neurodegeneration, at least in 30-40% of patients. There are, of course, other patients carrying a mutation. The most common one being GBA. So, if we look at the GBA carrier and we stop the GBA degradation and we increase the effect of the GBA enzyme, we may prevent or stop the disease. So, we can intervene early in this group, in these people, but of course, the main important aspect is how to recognize PD as soon as possible, and for this particular problem, there are biomarkers in development, but so far, there is nothing approved or nothing that is 100% reliable or easy to do and cheap.
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