Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

Molecular pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease.

Moore DJ, West AB, Dawson VL, Dawson TM

Institute for Cell Engineering, Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. dmoore20@jhmi.edu

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder that results primarily from the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Although the etiology of PD is incompletely understood, the recent discovery of genes associated with rare monogenic forms of the disease, together with earlier studies and new experimental animal models, has provided important and novel insight into the molecular pathways involved in disease pathogenesis. Increasing evidence indicates that deficits in mitochondrial function, oxidative and nitrosative stress, the accumulation of aberrant or misfolded proteins, and ubiquitin-proteasome system dysfunction may represent the principal molecular pathways or events that commonly underlie the pathogenesis of sporadic and familial forms of PD .

Published 18 July 2005 in Annu Rev Neurosci, 28: 57-87.
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