Parkinson's disease: from molecular pathways in disease to therapeutic approaches - PubMed (original) (raw)

Editorial

Parkinson's disease: from molecular pathways in disease to therapeutic approaches

Bobby Thomas. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2009 Sep.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex multifactor disease marked by extensive neuropathology in the brain with selective yet prominent and progressive loss of midbrain dopamine neurons. Clinically PD is characterized by motor abnormalities including resting tremor, bradykinesia, altered gait, muscular rigidity, postural instability, together with autonomic dysfunctions. The etiological factors involved in the development of PD are still elusive, but there is considerable evidence that a combination of genetic susceptibilities and environmental factors plays a critical role in disease pathogenesis. The identification of single genes in the past decade linked to heritable forms of PD has challenged the previously held view of a nongenetic etiology for this progressive movement disorder. These genetic breakthroughs have revolutionized the research by providing unique opportunities to pursue novel mechanisms and identified new clues to disease pathogenesis in PD. This forum review provides an update on current hypotheses and recent findings in mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative damage, innate and adaptive immune systems, protein misfolding and aggregation, and advances in translational approaches to PD. These aspects are reviewed with an aim to promote better understanding of molecular pathways prevalent in parkinsonian brain that will eventually aide in development of promising therapeutic strategies.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Banerjee R. Starkov AA. Beal MF. Thomas B. Mitochondrial dysfunction in the limelight of Parkinson's disease pathogenesis. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2009;1792:651–663. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benecke R. Strümper P. Weiss H. Electron transfer complexes I and IV of platelets are abnormal in Parkinson's disease but normal in Parkinson-plus syndromes. Brain. 1993;116:1451–1463. - PubMed
    1. Calkins MJ. Johnson DA. Townsend JA. Vargas MR. Dowell JA. Williamson TP. Kraft AD. Lee J-M. Li J. Johnson JA. The Nrf2/ARE pathway as a potential therapeutic target in neurodegenerative disease. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2009;11:497–508. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cristóvão AC. Choi DH. Baltazar G. Beal MF. Kim YS. Role of NADPH oxidase-1 in paraquat mediated dopaminergic cell death. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2009;11:2105–2118. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dexter DT. Sian J. Rose S. Hindmarsh JG. Mann VM. Cooper JM. Wells FR. Daniel SE. Lees AJ. Schapira AH, et al. Indices of oxidative stress and mitochondrial function in individuals with incidental Lewy body disease. Ann Neurol. 1994;35:38–44. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources