Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
 63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH), somatostatin (SRIF), and arginine vasopressin (AVP) concentrations were estimated using radioimmunoassay in the temporal and occipital cortices in postmortem brain from patients clinically and neuropathologically diagnosed as senile dementia of the Lewy body type (SDLT), senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT), and Parkinson's disease (PD) and from neurologically normal controls. The concentration of temporal and occipital neocortical CRH was diminished in both SDAT and SDLT compared to control values, whereas SRIF was reduced only in temporal cortex in both these conditions. In contrast, the concentrations of both CRH and SRIF were unaltered in PD. The concentrations of AVP in SDLT, SDAT, and PD were similar to those found in the control groups. The decrement in SRIF, but not CRH, was found to be correlated with some indices of severity of illness in SDAT; a similar but nonsignificant trend for SRIF was observed in SDLT.
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PMID:Neocortical concentrations of neuropeptides in senile dementia of the Alzheimer and Lewy body type: comparison with Parkinson's disease and severity correlations. 167 64

Cigarette smoking, and by implication nicotine, may be involved as a negative or positive risk factor in some neuropsychiatric disorders and possibly as a treatment in others. Nicotine exposure may be a negative risk factor for the development of Parkinson's disease, but a positive risk factor for the development of tardive dyskinesia. For Alzheimer's disease and Tourette's syndrome, the role of nicotine exposure is equivocal, however, the role of nicotine as a possible therapeutic agent, alone or in combination, remains an intriguing question. For functional psychiatric disorders, the data are suggestive of a link between tobacco use and at least exacerbation of some disorders. While nicotine exposure is unlikely to be critical in the genesis of these disorders, it may complicate the pharmacological therapeutics and long-term prognosis. Further research is needed to examine the actual importance of tobacco use in behavioural disturbances. The relative importance of central nicotinic mechanisms in normal and disordered human cognition and movement is now beginning to be fully explored.
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PMID:The role of nicotine and nicotinic mechanisms in neuropsychiatric disease. 167 96

The concentrations of somatostatin (SRIF), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), beta-endorphin (beta-EP), adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) immunoreactivity were measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and controls. In order to study the mechanisms that regulate peptide levels in CSF and peptide interactions, correlations between CSF peptides were determined. Within all patient groups a number of significant correlations were shown to exist between CSF peptides. The correlations were apparently not coincidental, since there was no such relation between the concentrations of CSF peptides and CSF protein content. Neither age, sex, severity of dementia nor the presence of extrapyramidal signs could explain the number of significant correlations. These results indicate, that the correlations found between CSF peptides may be due to common regulatory mechanisms or general physiological behaviour of peptides in the CSF.
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PMID:A correlation study of CSF neuropeptides in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. 168 48

The neurotransmitter deficits of dementias, including Alzheimer's dementia, Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease are discussed in relation to cognitive and behavioural impairments together with neuropathological changes and available data on the status of receptor transmembrane signalling. Potential therapeutic strategies for dementia are outlined based on the following systems: excitatory amino acids, gamma-amino butyric acid, acetylcholine (muscarinic and nicotinic), noradrenaline, serotonin and peptides. These include the attenuation of transmitter deficits by agonists and agents inhibiting transmitter breakdown and support for surviving neurons by suppression of inhibitory inputs, trophic factors and neural implantation.
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PMID:Dementia: the neurochemical basis of putative transmitter orientated therapy. 168 28

The formation of beta-amyloid in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer disease requires the proteolytic cleavage of a membrane-associated precursor protein. The proteases that may be involved in this process have not yet been identified. Cathepsins are normally intracellular proteolytic enzymes associated with lysosomes; however, when sections from Alzheimer brains were stained by antisera to cathepsin D and cathepsin B, high levels of immunoreactivity were also detected in senile plaques. Extracellular sites of cathepsin immunoreactivity were not seen in control brains from age-matched individuals without neurologic disease or from patients with Huntington disease or Parkinson disease. In situ enzyme histochemistry of cathepsin D and cathepsin B on sections of neocortex using synthetic peptides and protein substrates showed that senile plaques contained the highest levels of enzymatically active cathepsin. At the ultrastructural level, cathepsin immunoreactivity in senile plaques was localized principally to lysosomal dense bodies and lipofuscin granules, which were extracellular. Similar structures were abundant in degenerating neurons of Alzheimer neocortex, and cathepsin-laden neuronal perikarya in various stages of disintegration could be seen within some senile plaques. The high levels of enzymatically competent lysosomal proteases abnormally localized in senile plaques represent evidence for candidate enzymes that may mediate the proteolytic formation of amyloid. We propose that amyloid precursor protein within senile plaques is processed by lysosomal proteases principally derived from degenerating neurons. Escape of cathepsins from the stringently regulated intracellular milieu provides a basis for an abnormal sequence of proteolytic cleavages of accumulating amyloid precursor protein.
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PMID:Enzymatically active lysosomal proteases are associated with amyloid deposits in Alzheimer brain. 169 25

A comparative topographical immunohistochemical analysis was performed on the basal ganglia (including the substantia nigra) in Guamanian parkinsonism-dementia complex, idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The striatal projection neurons and their efferent fibers were examined by using antibodies to calcineurin, methionine-enkephalin, and substance P. Tyrosine hydroxylase served as a marker for nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. The basal ganglia of patients with parkinsonism-dementia complex reacted strongly with all of the antibodies and the reaction products exhibited a normal distribution pattern. These findings suggest that the striatal output system is well preserved in patients with this disease. Similar results were obtained in patients with AD or PD. However, as compared to the patients with AD or PD, patients with parkinsonism-dementia complex showed severe reduction (greater than 90%) in the number of dopaminergic neurons in both the lateral and the medial portions of the substantia nigra. In view of the functional cortico-subcortical loops, these findings could explain the parkinsonian features and in part the cognitive impairment that occur in parkinsonism-dementia complex on Guam.
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PMID:Immunohistochemical study of the striatal efferents and nigral dopaminergic neurons in parkinsonism-dementia complex on Guam in comparison with those in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. 169 18

Few parkinsonian patients present with 'pure akinesia' or with severe akinesia accompanied by only mild rigidity, tremor and other manifestations such as ophthalmoplegia. Pathological examinations of such cases have rarely been conducted and have revealed findings compatible with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), pallido-nigro-luysian atrophy (PNLA) or Parkinson's disease. We report a parkinsonian patient whose main clinical feature was akinesia. A postmortem study of this patient showed findings corresponding to PNLA and PSP. Histochemical properties of the pallidal pigment granules were equivalent to those of Hallervorden-Spatz disease (HSD) and striatonigral degeneration. In addition to iron-positive pigment granules, spheroids, severe neuronal loss and gliosis in the globus pallidus and substantia nigra, formation of Alzheimer's neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) in the brainstem shares characteristics with PSP, adult onset HSD and PNLA. We suggest that the underlying pathology of 'pure' akinesia is most often situated in the globus pallidus substantia nigra and subthalamus (Luys), and that PSP, PNLA and adult onset HSD may constitute a spectrum of one disease.
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PMID:Pallido-nigro-luysian atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy and adult onset Hallervorden-Spatz disease: a case of akinesia as a predominant feature of parkinsonism. 170 2

An abnormal distribution of phosphorylated neurofilaments is present in some human neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This study reports the changes of phosphorylated neurofilaments observed in rat spinal cord after intrathecal injection of kainic acid. This receptor agonist of excitatory amino acid produces abnormal phosphorylation of neurofilaments in the cell body and proximal neurites of degenerating neurons. These immunocytochemical modifications observed 2 and 10 days after injections are predominantly located in ventral horn neurons. This study indicates that one of the neuronal responses to excitatory amino acid toxicity is the pathological distribution of phosphorylated neurofilaments in affected neurons. Pathological findings are comparable to those observed in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
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PMID:Abnormal distribution of phosphorylated neurofilaments in neuronal degeneration induced by kainic acid. 171 Nov 80

Complementary oligonucleotide probes specific for the human pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA were used to analyze the expression of POMC gene in 56 human postmortem pituitaries by in situ hybridization histochemistry. POMC transcripts were visualized by autoradiography in anterior lobe of the pituitary where their distribution was in a 'patchy-like' pattern. No hybridization could be observed in the posterior lobe of the pituitary. We examined pituitaries from several controls and from patients dying with schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease. Alzheimer's disease, Wernicke's encephalopathy and depressive illness. Computer-assisted microdensitometric semiquantification of POMC mRNA using a complementary oligonucleotide as hybridization standard, revealed no statistically significant effect of postmortem delay (between 2.5 and 66 h), of gender, age (between 22 and 103) or cause of death in 56 human pituitary glands. A large variation in POMC levels was already observed among all 30 control cases. The levels of POMC mRNA observed in pituitaries from different pathologies did not show a significant variation when compared with control cases.
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PMID:Study of pro-opiomelanocortin mRNA expression in human postmortem pituitaries. 171 87

A monoclonal antibody, termed NFT200, was raised after in vitro immunization with sonicated neurofibrillary tangle (NFT)-enriched fractions prepared from Alzheimer brain. The antigen to which NFT200 is directed was expressed in the paired helical filaments of NFT in sporadic and familial Alzheimer disease (AD), in the straight filaments of NFT in AD, progressive supranuclear palsy and of Pick bodies, and the NFT in several other conditions such as Parkinson-dementia complex of Guam and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Granulovacuolar degeneration of AD was also labeled with NFT200. Hirano bodies and amyloid deposits in AD, as well as Lewy bodies of idiopathic Parkinson disease lacked in the antigen. The NFT200-antigen was also expressed as a phosphatase-insensitive antigen in normal neurofilaments found in spinal cord and peripheral nerve axons but was absent from the perikaryal accumulation of neurofilaments induced by aluminum intoxication. Nevertheless, immunoblot studies failed to detect the NFT200 in isolated preparations of the neurofilament proteins, MAP-2, tau, ubiquitin or A4-amyloid peptide. The results indicate that the NFT200 monoclonal antibody is directed against a phosphatase-insensitive epitope of an axonal protein associated with neurofilaments but is labile to isolation and expressed as a stable epitope of a 200 kDa component of NFT.
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PMID:Demonstration of a novel neurofilament associated antigen with the neurofibrillary pathology of Alzheimer and related diseases. 171 69


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