Parkinson’s disease is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, following Alzheimer’s Disease. The average age of those who develop Parkinson’s is 60 years old.
The most common symptoms of Parkinson’s are slowness in movement, rigidity, tremors, and instability in posture.
However, a better understanding of Parkinson’s has revealed that there are more than just motor symptoms. Non-motor symptoms, such as depression, sleep disturbances, sensory abnormalities, autonomic dysfunction, and cognitive decline have also been associated with Parkinson’s.
Loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra area of the brain is known to be a leading factor in the development of Parkinson’s. Protein aggregates, known as Lewy bodies, are also a classic calling card of Parkinson’s. As these Lewy bodies spread throughout the brain, the loss of dopaminergic neurons begins.
Oxidative stress, partly due to mitochondrial dysfunction, is one of the leading causes of neuronal death, and thus is a major component of Parkinson’s disease. The ability to degrade misfolded, or damaged proteins is also inhibited in Parkinson’s disease. Thus alpha-synuclein, a protein that makes up Lewy bodies is not broken down via the normal methods leading to cell death.
Overactive inflammatory signals, leading to production of reactive oxygen species contribute to cell death as well. In addition to this excitotoxicity, is thought to play a role in cell death in Parkinson’s, but there is less direct evidence to support this claim.
The effort to cure Parkinson’s has led to many different potential treatments, however there is no cure. Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAO-B), have shown to help slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, slowing the loss of dopaminergic neurons. Some of the other potential treatments are being explored, but with less success.
Furthermore, there has been difficulty in developing treatments to help suppress the non-motor symptoms. As the treatments have not changed much in the past 30 years, I am hopeful that further research into this disease will help bring about some treatments that could help raise the quality of life of those with this disease.
For more information, and the source of information for this blog post, you can read the article, “Parkinson’s disease: from pathology to molecular disease mechanisms” by David T Dexter and Peter Jenner.