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)

In the present paper it is shown that when either of the noncompetitive NMDA antagonists MK-801 or ketamine are combined with the alpha-adrenergic agonist clonidine, a pronounced stimulation of locomotion is produced in monoamine-depleted mice. Likewise, when a subthreshold dose of MK-801 is combined with the muscarinic antagonist atropine, a forceful synergism with regard to locomotor activity in monoamine-depleted mice is observed. Furthermore, the present study shows that also in monoamine-depleted rats MK-801, as well as the competitive NMDA antagonist AP-5 (DL-2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid), interact synergistically with clonidine to enhance locomotor activity. Taken together, our findings suggest that central glutamatergic systems exert a powerful inhibitory influence on locomotion. Interfering with this inhibitory force by administration of an NMDA antagonist promotes locomotion and discloses the activational potential of other transmitter systems. The results are discussed in relation to 1) the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, with emphasis on the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia, and 2) implications for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:Interfering with glutamatergic neurotransmission by means of NMDA antagonist administration discloses the locomotor stimulatory potential of other transmitter systems. 216 45

Microdialysis in the human brain has been performed for the first time during thalamotomy intended to relieve tremor in patients with Parkinson's disease. The aim was to test the reliability of the microdialysis technique for biochemical characterization of a target area in the human brain during a routine operation. Microdialysis probes were introduced through the same trajectory as the lesioning electrode thus causing no additional damage to the brain. Dopamine, DOPAC, HVA, 5-HIAA, hypoxanthine, inosine, guanosine, adenosine, GABA, taurine, aspartate and glutamate were measured in the perfusate from the target region - the Vim nucleus. The results show initial high levels that reach baseline levels after 10-20 minutes. Surprisingly, consistent and reproducible levels were found, the only exception being one patient on 1-DOPA therapy who had elevated DA and metabolite levels.
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PMID:Microdialysis in the human brain: extracellular measurements in the thalamus of parkinsonian patients. 230 73

Repeated dietary consumption of the neurotoxic amino acid beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), found in the seeds of Cycas circinalis, has been postulated as causing both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the parkinsonism-dementia syndrome (PD) that were formerly very prevalent among the indigenous people of the Marianas Islands. Cynomolgus monkeys fed BMAA have been reported to develop behavioral and neuropathological changes like those found in human ALS. We gave large amounts of BMAA, totaling 15.5 g/kg of the L-isomer, by gavage to mice over 11 weeks without observing any behavioral abnormalities. When killed, these animals showed none of the neurochemical or neuropathological changes that would be expected in ALS or Parkinson's disease. Their striatal dopamine contents were normal, and there were no reductions in the contents of glutamate and aspartate in cerebral cortex like those encountered in sporadic human ALS. The results of this experiment do not support chronic ingestion of BMAA as the causative factor for Guamanian ALS or PD.
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PMID:Beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine. Chronic oral administration is not neurotoxic to mice. 261 65

Progress in the research on 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) is reviewed, and the impact given by MPTP to the studies on Parkinson's disease is discussed. Our data on the mechanism of the neuronal degeneration in MPTP-induced experimental parkinsonism are also presented. We studied the effects of the 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion (MPP+) on mitochondrial respiration. Mitochondria were prepared from mouse brains, and oxygen consumption was measured polarographically. Activity of Complex I was measured after the incubation of the mitochondria with NAD(+)-utilizing substrates in the TCA cycle and ADP. MPP+ significantly inhibited the state 3 respiration supported by glutamate. Amount of ATP synthesized was also significantly reduced by MPP+. Activity of Complex I was significantly inhibited by MPP+. This inhibition was observed with 0.05 mM of MPP+ when intact mitochondria were used. These observations suggest mitochondria as the most probable site of the action for MPP+. It appears to be important to search for endogenous or exogenous toxic substances with similar pharmacological properties as MPTP to elucidate pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In addition, studies on mitochondrial functions in Parkinson's disease seem to be also important. Some preliminary data are shown.
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PMID:[Contribution of MPTP to studies on the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease]. 269 96

The sodium dependent binding of D-[3H]aspartate to the high-affinity glutamate uptake system was used as a marker of glutamate-releasing terminals in the cerebral cortex of brains from patients with Alzheimer-type dementia (ATD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Sodium-dependent D-[3H]aspartate binding was reduced in the ATD patients but not in the PD patients. Within the PD patients no association was observed between sodium-dependent D-[3H]aspartate binding and the presence of dementia. In contrast choline acetyltransferase activity was reduced in both the ATD and the PD patients. The present results suggest that changes in the cortical cholinergic system can occur independently of the cortical glutamate system. The glutamatergic deficit in ATD may contribute to some of the clinical differences between the dementia of ATD and PD.
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PMID:Sodium dependent D-[3H]aspartate binding in cerebral cortex in patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. 282 92

The study of neurotransmitter receptors aids in the understanding of the normal anatomy, pharmacology, therapeutics and pathophysiology of disease processes involving the basal ganglia. Receptors may be studied in vitro by homogenate binding experiments, enzyme analysis or quantitative autoradiography and in vivo with positron emission tomography. In the substantia nigra (SN), receptors have been identified for somatostatin, neurotensin, substance P, glycine, benzodiazepine and GABA, opiates, dopamine, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and serotonin. The striatum has receptors for dopamine, GABA and benzodiazepines, acetylcholine, opiates, substance P, glutamate and cholecystokinin. GABA and benzodiazepine receptors are also located in the globus pallidus. In Parkinson's disease, striatal dopamine D-2 receptors are elevated in patients that have not received L-DOPA therapy. This supersensitivity is reversed with agonist therapy. Muscarinic binding to cholinergic receptors seems to correlate with dopamine receptors. Delta opiate receptors are increased in the caudate and mu binding is reduced in the striatum. In the SN of patients with Parkinson's disease, there is reduced binding of somatostatin, neurotensin, mu and kappa opiates, benzodiazepine and GABA and glycine. In Huntington's disease, there is reduced binding of GABA and benzodiazepines, dopamine, acetylcholine, glutamate and CCK. There is increased binding of GABA in both the SN and globus pallidus. Glycine binding is increased in the substantia nigra and ACE is reduced.
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PMID:Receptors in the basal ganglia. 282 9

Whilst the neuropathological correlates of Alzheimer type dementia--cortical neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques--are well defined, the prevalence of these cortical abnormalities in Parkinson's disease and their relation to dementia is unclear. In a series of 46 consecutive cases of clinically and pathologically established Parkinson's disease the prevalence of mild Alzheimer-type pathology (exceeding the normal but not as extensive as in Alzheimer's disease) was increased 2 to 3 fold compared with an age-matched control group, although there was no obvious relation to the presence or severity of dementia. In a subgroup of Parkinsonian cases (both demented and non-demented), examined neurochemically, there were both similarities (decreased choline acetyltransferase, nicotinic and serotonergic S 1 receptor activities) and distinctions (increased muscarinic receptor binding--particularly to the "L" subtype, and normal serotonergic S 2, somatostatin, and D-aspartate binding together with normal levels of an endogenous nicotine binding inhibitor) compared with a group of cases with Alzheimer's disease. Amongst the various pathological and chemical indices examined, only presynaptic cholinergic markers (including the number of Meynert neurons) and S 1 receptor binding were related to dementia in Parkinson's disease. It is suggested that whilst coincidental classical Alzheimer's disease is infrequent in Parkinson's disease (5% in the present series) Alzheimer's disease itself is distinguished from Parkinson's disease by the formation of numerous neocortical neurofibrillary tangles and a reduction in glutamate uptake, serotonergic S 2 receptors and possibly in endogenous nicotine binding inhibitor.
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PMID:Cortical neuropathological and neurochemical substrates of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. 282 87

The capacity of the spinal cord of the rat to synthesize and metabolize catecholamines from injected L-DOPA, was tested at 10 and 100 days after a middle thoracic transection of the cord. There was no indication of even a minimal recovery of the capacity to synthesize noradrenaline in the caudal region of the transected cord. At 10 days after transection, the lumbar cord could synthesize 50% of the dopamine formed in the intact cord. At 100 days after transection the synthesis of dopamine in the transected cord was equal to that in the intact control animal. At both 10 and 100 days after transection, the dopamine synthesized from L-DOPA was efficiently metabolized to dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA). As judged from the levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamic acid (glutamate) present in the transected cord, no major metabolic derangement of the spinal cord tissue seemed to have been present at the times the experiments were done. It is concluded that dopamine can be efficiently synthesized and metabolized from its immediate precursor, L-DOPA, even in the absence of monoaminergic nerves. The results are discussed with reference to two main themes. The first, is the likelihood that in the therapeutic use of L-DOPA in states of chronic dopaminergic nerve degeneration (e.g. Parkinson's disease), the synthesis and metabolism of dopamine probably occurs throughout the entire central nervous system. The second, is the possible usefulness of L-DOPA to test for the relative intactness of spinal reflex circuities in the chronically spinalized animal.
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PMID:The synthesis and metabolism of catecholamines in the spinal cord of the rat after acute and chronic transections. 286 84

The evidence for deficiencies in neurotransmitters in Alzheimer's disease is reviewed. Major losses occur in the subcortical afferent projection systems based on acetylcholine, noradrenaline and serotonin. Within the cortex, somatostatin containing neurones and the large pyramidal cells, presumed to use glutamate/aspartate as transmitters, are the most severely damaged cells. The anatomical distribution of cell loss is explainable if the primary site of damage lies within the cortex; nerve cells are damaged by virtue of their presence within or their connections to this region. The senile plaque may represent the site of this damage and neurofibrillary tangle formation and accumulation may lead to cell death. In patients with Down's syndrome who live past 40 years, changes in transmitters apparently identical to those in Alzheimer's disease occur. The dementia of Parkinson's disease appears related to damage to cholinergic, noradrenergic and dopaminergic systems and may reflect a failure of these subcortical regions to sufficiently "activate" an otherwise undamaged cortex.
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PMID:Neurotransmitter deficits in Alzheimer's disease and in other dementing disorders. 287 73

Concentrations of putative neuroactive substances glutamate, aspartate, gamma-aminobutyric acid, glycine, proline and ethanolamine were determined in ventricular cerebrospinal fluid collected in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, pain syndromes or cerebellar tremor. Values are similar to those given in the literature for lumbar cerebrospinal fluid. A decrease in gamma-aminobutyric acid in Parkinson patients, as reported in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid, could not be observed. Further evidence for a rostro-caudal gradient for gamma-aminobutyric acid is supplied. New insights into pathophysiological mechanisms in any of the investigated syndromes may not be derived.
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PMID:Ventricular cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of putative amino acid transmitters in Parkinson's disease and other disorders. 289 52


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