Alteration in the Expression of Parkinson’s-Related Genes in Rat Hippocampus by Exercise and Morphine Treatments

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) as a genetically heterogeneous disease is the second common neurological disorder which is associated with motor deficits and dementia owing to a spreading process of neuronal loss in the brain. Little is known about what affects Parkinson disease, but global efforts are underway to make medicines for treatment of this disease. We suppose, exercise as one of the golden key for overall health and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) modulator must have some effects on the degree of PD severity. On the other hand, given the dopamine is one of the indispensable components for the endogenous morphine biosynthesis, a decrease in the level of morphine, may be associated with this disorder. We investigate the rate of true effect of exercise and morphine treatments on the expression of some major heritable genes in PD, including SNCA, LRRK2, Parkin, and DJ-1, by real-time PCR in rat hippocampus. The results indicated that under exercise and morphine treatments, the expression of alpha-synuclein and LRRK2 genes declined, while the expression of Parkin and DJ-1 genes raised. Since this genes expression pattern has been observed in the normal individuals, it can be concluded that exercise and morphine treatments have a positive effect on the improvement of Parkinson disease, and it might act in similar way in humans.