Transcript Document

early-onset forms of
Parkinson’s disease
Dr. Pupak Derakhshandeh (PhD)
Assis. Prof. Med. Sci. of Tehran
Univ.
Parkinson's Disease
 one of the most common human
neurodegenerative diseases
 progressive
 degenerative disorder
 affecting one of the regions of the brain
controlling movement
The most common symptoms
 Tremor
 muscular stiffness
 and slowness of movement
 there are different types of parkinsonism
 the most common condition today is the
one first recognized in 1817 by James
Parkinson
 At present there is no cure
 but treatments do exist and are available
Dopamine
 symptoms are due to a deficiency of the brain
chemical:
 Dopamine
 the nerve cells containing dopamine: die
Dopamine - A Neurotransmitter
 One of the neurotransmitters playing a major role in addiction
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is dopamine
As a chemical messenger, dopamine is similar to adrenaline
Dopamine affects brain processes that control movement,
emotional response, and ability to experience pleasure and
pain
Regulation of dopamine: plays a crucial role in our mental and
physical health
Neurons containing the neurotransmitter dopamine are
clustered in the midbrain in an area called the substantia
nigra
In Parkinson's disease, the dopamine- transmitting neurons in
this area die.
 To help relieve their symptoms, we give these people L-
DOPA, a drug that can be converted in the brain to dopamine
substantia nigra
 Neurons containing the neurotransmitter dopamine are
clustered in the midbrain in an area called the substantia nigra
incidence
 The incidence of Parkinsonism increases with
age
 and is uncommon in people younger than forty
 Parkinson's disease affects both men and
women
 across all ethnic groups and is a serious
health problem in all the world
Slowness of movement
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This is the most disabling symptom
The slowness makes it difficult to get out of a chair or turn
in bed
Fine movements such as buttoning clothing, handwriting,
and using a fork or knife may become difficult
Later, the person appears to be in slow motion and if not
treated may become virtually frozen like a statue
Because of the enormous energy it takes to overcome
slowness, the person with Parkinson's disease often
complains of being "weak" although there is no true
muscular weakness
Tremor
 Tremor or shaking occurs in about two-thirds
of people with Parkinsonism
 the most visible and obvious sign of the
disease
 Parkinson tremor usually affects the hands
and feet
 it sometimes involves the lips, tongue, and
jaw
Muscle stiffness
 Stiffness combined with slowness
 may cause aching muscles and joints,
especially in the shoulders
 This is sometimes misinterpreted as "arthritis"
or "bursitis”
Masked face
 showing little or no emotion through facial
expression
 Blinking and spontaneous eye movements
are less frequent
 This can be misinterpreted as lack of interest
or depression
Walking difficulties
 The gait may be slow with short steps
 It is common to have difficulties with balance
Speech problems
 About one half of all individuals with
Parkinson's disease develop difficulty with
their speech
 Communication can be complicated further
by a fast mumbling speech with
uncontrollable repetitions of the first syllable
Swallowing difficulties
 difficulty eating because their ability to
swallow has become impaired
 Food may collect in the mouth or the back of
the throat resulting in choking or coughing
Parkinson’s disease in the family
synuclein gene
 No alterations in -synuclein gene dosage
observed in sporadic Parkinson's
(Movement disorders disease : official journal of the Movement
Disorder Society. 2006 Mar 21)
Synuclein (SNCA)
 point mutations seen in familial Parkinson's disease
(PD)
 are rarely found in sporadic disease
 usually develop symptoms around age 45 (AD)
 synuclein mRNA expression : play a role in the
etiology of the disease
 a SNP in alpha-synuclein (SNCA), showed the
strongest association with PD
(Hum Mul Gent 2006 Apr 1;15(7):1151-8. Epub 2006 Feb 24)
Alpha-synuclein
 Alpha-synuclein is part of the synuclein family
including beta- and gamma-synuclein
Synucleins are very common in the brain
 SNCA located on chrmosome 4
 expresses the140-amino acid protein alphasynuclein (OMIM*163890)
 (http://health.upenn.edu/cndr/research1/tausyn/tausyn.htm)
 Parkinson’s disease in famillier except for its:
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early onset
and very fulminant course
a larger than expected number of people with
Parkinson’s disease
 Gene: PARK4
Dosage effect on clinical phenotype
 even in the absence of mutations detectable
by sequence analysis
 simple multiplications of SNCA can cause
autosomal dominant forms of PD
 a dosage effect on clinical phenotype, with
duplication of the gene resulting in a
phenotype similar to PD
 but triplication resulting in early-onset
parkinsonism with dementia
 neither mutations in the coding region of
SNCA
 nor over expression of the gene due to
multiplication
 appear to be common causes of PD
 It remains possible:
 other genetic factors may influence synuclein mRNA expression
 play a role in the etiology of the disease
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an association between the polymorphic
sequence repeat in the promoter region of
SNCA and PD risk
(Mellick GD, Maraganore DM, Silburn PA. Australian data and
meta-analysis lend support for alpha-synuclein (NACP-Rep1) as a
risk factor for Parkinson's disease. Neurosci Lett 2005; 375: 112116. )
Lewy bodies
 similar to the beta-amyloid plaques found in
Alzheimer's patients)
 The Lewy bodies lead to loss of neurons
 then dopamine (a neurotransmitter)
 and finally loss of motor control
1. First, a-synuclein is the primary component
of Lewy bodies in all PD patients
2. two different a-synuclein missense
mutations (A30P and A53T) are associated
with:
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rare, autosomal dominant
early-onset PD and have been shown to
form fibrils
PD-linked mutations (A30P and A53T)
 correlated to the onset of disease
phenotype
 in vitro a-synuclein oligomerization:
 suggesting
that the process of asynuclein fibrillization may initiate
neurodegeneration
mitochondrial
dysfunction
The role of mitochondrial dysfunction
in Parkinson's disease
 functions of DJ1, PINK1 and OMI/HTRA2
 which are all associated with the
mitochondria
 in cellular protection against oxidative
damage
(Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7, 207-219 (March 2006) |
The DJ-1 gene
 encodes a ubiquitous, highly conserved protein
 DJ-1 mutations are associated with PARK7
 a monogenic form of human PARKINSONISM
 The function of the DJ-1 protein:
 in the oxidative stress response
 loss of DJ-1 function leads to neurodegeneration
 & PARKINSON's disease
(Science 10 January 2003:Vol. 299. no. 5604, pp. 256 – 259)
PARKINSON DISEASE 6,
AUTOSOMAL RECESSIVE
EARLY-ONSET; PARK6
PARK6
 Localization of a novel locus for
autosomal recessive early-onset
parkinsonism:
 on human chromosome 1p35-p36
 unrelated families with autosomal recessive
PD from various regions in Asia that showed
linkage to the PARK6 locus
 Families: consanguineous
 Age at onset ranged from 18 to 56 years,
although most had onset in the third or fourth
decades
 mutations affecting the PINK1 kinase domain in
PARK6 families
 onset in patients with PINK1 mutations was earlier
and increased reflexes were found more frequently
than in patients without PINK1 or parkin mutations
(Hatano et al., 2004 ; Healy et al., 2004 ; Rogaeva et al., 2004 ;
Rohe et al., 2004 ; Valente et al., 2004a ; Valente et al., 2004b ;
Bonifati et al., 2005 ; Klein et al., 2005)
pedigrees of families with PINK1
mutations (AR)
PINK1 mutations
 All missense (C125G, E240K, L369P, G386A
and G409V) mutations replace highly
conserved residues
Relative frequencies of patients with PINK1 or parkin mutations and
without PINK1 and parkin mutations according to the age at onset
PINK1 mutations
 that heterozygous mutations in genes:
 autosomal recessive forms with an early
onset can also cause later onset Parkinson's
disease !
Molecular Findings in Familial
Parkinson Disease
 Mutations in Park2 gene account for 38% of
the families with recessive parkinsonism in
Spain
 Heterozygous carriers of a single Park2
mutation either were asymptomatic or
developed clinical symptoms in late
adulthood
 (Arch Neurol. 2002;59:966-970)