Overview on Parkinson’s disease: pathophysiology, and experimental models

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11566, Egypt

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease, caused by dopaminergic neurons death, and accompanied by rigidity, resting tremor, bradykinesia, and postural instability as well. The cause of dopaminergic neurons degeneration is still unclear. Since the dopaminergic neurons couldn’t regenerate, therefore Parkinson's disease couldn’t be cured. Thus, over the past decades, significant effort has been made to explore the etiology of Parkinson's disease development and ascertainment. This review aimed to highlight the progress that has been made in understanding of Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology. The role of oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and apoptosis in the development of PD has been discussed. It is been clearly noticed that oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis are working together to develop Parkinson's disease, and each of these factor affects each other. Additionally, the experimental models, and their drawbacks have been emphasized. Additionally, the mechanism of inducing Parkinson’s disease (i.e., inducing neuroinflammation and oxidative stress) by neurotoxin has been highlighted.

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