The inherent susceptibility of dorsal motor nucleus cholinergic neurons to the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson's Disease

A Mccarthy,J Mckinley,T Lynch

doi:10.3389/fneur.2012.00189

Abstract

The inherent susceptibility of dorsal motor nucleus cholinergic neurons to the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson's Disease

Highlights

What is it about the dopaminergic neurones of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the cholinergic neurones of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) that makes them prone to the neurodegenerative changes found in Parkinson’s disease? If mitochondrial oxidant stress is accepted as an important step in the pathogenesis or Parkinson’s disease, are these cell groups inherently prone to this? If they are, is this a potential target for future therapy?
Goldberg et al (2012) set out to identify if other neuron subsets might be vulnerable in this way. They focused their attention on the neurons of the DMV, as it is known that these neurons are amongst the first to show Lewy Body Neurites (LBN) in Parkinson’s disease
Antagonizing Nav1 sodium channels with TTX and lowering cell ambient temperature, both resulted in significantly lower mitochondrial oxidant stress

Summary

Introduction

What is it about the dopaminergic neurones of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the cholinergic neurones of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) that makes them prone to the neurodegenerative changes found in Parkinson’s disease? If mitochondrial oxidant stress is accepted as an important step in the pathogenesis or Parkinson’s disease, are these cell groups inherently prone to this? If they are, is this a potential target for future therapy?. A commentary on Calcium entry induces mitochondrial oxidant stress in vagal neurons at risk in Parkinson’s disease by Goldberg, J. If mitochondrial oxidant stress is accepted as an important step in the pathogenesis or Parkinson’s disease, are these cell groups inherently prone to this?

Results

Conclusion