Parkinson's Disease Analysis

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is regarded as the second most common neurodegenerative disease and is a result of the loss of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra (Robakis and Fahn, 2015). This deficiency of dopamine produces symptoms such as: tremors, rigidity and bradykinesia in affected patients (de Lau and Breteler, 2006). It is thought that the mitochondrial enzyme, monoamine oxidase (MAO), is involved in the neuropathology of PD. MAO is a flavoenzyme that catalyzes the oxidative deamination of amines including: dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and many others (Kalgutkar et al., 2001). It was determined that there are two isozymes of MAO: MAO-A and MAO-B. MAO-B was found to be located in serotonergic neurons, histaminergic neurons and astrocytes (Saura et al., 1996). MAO-B plays a key role in the central nervous system as it is involved in the protection of neurons from exogenous amines, in ending the actions of amine neurotransmitters and to control the amounts of intracellular amine stored (Youdim, Edmondson and Tipton, 2006). …show more content…
It has been hypothesized that this elevation in MAO-B is what contributes to the neurodegeneration observed in PD. In 2008, Mallajosyula et al,. tested this hypothesis by conducting a study in which they induced elevated expression of human MAO-B in the astrocytes of adult mice. The results of the study showed that within 2 weeks of inducing MAO-B in adult mice that there was a 50% reduction in the number of dopaminergic neurons. Along with the loss of dopaminergic neurons, these mice had a significant decrease in locomotor function and were exhibiting key symptoms seen in PD (Mallajosyula et al., 2008). In knowing this, it can be concluded that there is a correlation between higher levels of MAO-B expression and the neurodegeneration in