Seattle—Researchers are developing new animal models of pathogenesis to gain greater insight into the underlying mechanisms of chronic neurodegeneration and to test new drug treatments for Parkinson disease (PD).
One such model, presented by J. Timothy Greenamyre, MD, PhD, of Emory University, at a conference on the Etiology, Pathogenesis, and Treatment of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement Disorders, held here in October, appears to reproduce the neurochemical, neuropathological, and behavioral features of the disease through chronically exposing laboratory rats to the pesticide rotenone.
While the cause of PD remains elusive, said Greenamyre, it is known that the disorder seems to be associated with a systemic defect in complex I. Reports show that complex I, an enzyme in the mitochondrial electron transport chain that provides energy for the cell to make adenosine triphosphate, is reduced in the brain cells and platelets of patients with the disorder.
Greenamyre . . . [Full Text of this Article]
