Diba Ahmadi Rastegar, Laura P. Hughes, Gayathri Perera, Shikara Keshiya, Siying Zhong, Jianqun Gao, Glenda M. Halliday, Birgitt Schüle and Nicolas Dzamko (2022), “Effect of LRRK2 protein and activity on stimulated cytokines in human monocytes and macrophages” npj Parkinson's Disease volume 8, Article number: 34 (2022),
Laura Hughes, a PhD student in Nicolas Dzamko’s lab group published a joint first author paper along with former PhD student Dr. Diba Ahmadi Rastegar in npj Parkinson's disease. This study utilised stem cell-derived monocytes to investigate the effect of mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), which is the most common risk gene for Parkinson’s disease and a potential therapeutic target, on inflammation. It was found that the LRRK2 G2019S mutation potentiated inflammation as shown by significantly higher levels of cytokines in tissue culture media following innate immune pathway stimulation, thereby supporting the emerging concept that peripheral immune dysfunction may contribute to PD and implicating a role for LRRK2 in PD pathogenesis.