While the most common form of neurodegenerative disorder is Alzheimer’s Disease, the second most common, affecting four to six million individuals in the world, is Parkinson’s Disease (PD). While PD is generally known to be an elderly disease, the Michael J. Fox has noted that 10% of known cases occur before the age of 40. Similar to Alzheimer’s Disease, there are treatments for the symptoms, but on-going research is continued to try to find a cure for this disease.
PD occurs when a group of brain cells in the area of the brain, called the substantia nigra, fail to produce enough dopamine. Dopamine plays an important role in voluntary movement in the brain. Without the neurotransmitter, initiating and sustaining voluntary movement becomes progressively more difficult to the point where swallowing and walking may be heavily affected. When 60-80% of the brain cells in the substantia nigra die, symptoms appear as tremors.
Since dopamine plays such a crucial role in PD, scientists have previously treated PD symptoms by increasing the amount of L-DOPA, a dopamine precursor, in patients’ brains. However, patients grow a tolerance, and the demand of L-DOPA for the same results increases. Thus, many researchers have looked to other angles to try to approach the problem of PD.
Dr. Bjӧrklund and his team target the serotonin system as a possible treatment of PD. According to Dr. Bjӧrklund, “serotonin neurons are capable of converting levodopa to dopamine and can store and release newly synthesized dopamine as dopamine neurons do in a healthy brain.” Thus, the dopamine system becomes more impaired, the serotonin system can be used to assist in the making of dopamine from levodopa, providing the brain with a natural pathway for making dopamine. While clinical trials are still in progress, possibilities for cures such as the one proposed by Dr.
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