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The Parkinson 's Disease ( Pd )

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Introduction

The Parkinson 's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer 's disease (Lang and Lozano, 1998). It affects about 1% of the population with different ethnic backgrounds throughout the world over the age of 65 (Tanner and Goldman, 1996). The aetiology of Parkinson 's disease is not well understood; however, genetic and environmental factors are thought to play a role (Checkoway and Nelson, 1999). Pathologically, PD is characterised by mitochondrial DNA dysfunction leading to degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (Fig.1) and subsequent reduction in striatal dopamine levels (Longmore, 2014).
The clinical features of PD are mainly motor including resting …show more content…

This protein is one of the main components of Lewy bodies (Fig. 2) found in the degenerating neurons in the pars compacta of the basal ganglia (Lang and Lozano, 1998). Exposure to environmental toxins, such as herbicides, pesticides and well water, may also result in PD (Semchuk et al., 1992). On the other hand, smoking and caffeine consumption are thought to reduce the risk of developing PD (Kandel, 2013).
The main pathological feature of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease is the progressive degeneration of selected but heterogeneous populations of neurons (Fig. 1) , including the dopaminergic cells of the pars compacta of the substantia nigra that primarly project to the striatum (caudate nucleus and putamen) and also to other basal ganglia nuclei (Lang and Lozano, 1998). Subsequently, dopamine loss in these sites prevents brain cells from performing their normal inhibitory effect within the basal ganglia, leading to most of the movement abnormalities in PD, as they improve with dopamine replacement; whereas non-motor features show a poor or no response to dopamine replacement (Kandel, 2013).
Another characteristic pathological finding is the presence of eosinophilic inclusions (Lewy bodies) (Fig. 2) in the surviving dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta with their main component of aggregations of the protein alpha-synuclein (Baba et

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