MPBD: Synucleopathies
Synucleopathies are a group of Parkinson’s diagnosis
neurodegenerative diseases, one of these Parkinson’s can be diagnosed using a SPECT
diseases is Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s scan, which is an imaging technique where they
disease is a movement disorder and includes put a tracer that binds to the dopamine
the following symptoms: bradykinesia (slow transporter, so when you lose neurons you see
movement), rigidity, resting tremors, and less signal on the scan.
postural instability. The primary area that is
affected in this disease is the Substantia Nigra,
which is part of the basal ganglia, and controls
movement. The Substantia Nigra is also
involved in chemical signalling in the brain,
which affects learning, mood, judgement, and
decision-making. It is also the area where
dopamine production takes place. Most of the Progression of Parkinson’s disease
time you can see that people with Parkinson’s There is a specific pattern of spreading in the
have an emotionless facial expressions. In brain. In the first stages, the brain stem and the
Parkinson’s, there is a loss of melanin- olfactory bulb are affected. At this stage, you can
containing dopaminergic neurons. Melanin is already lose your sense of smell, which can be
the black area you can see in this picture. detected. In later stages, it spread to areas that
control motor functions. In later stages, it affects
the whole brain and you can see cognitive effects
(dementia).
Parkinson’s pathology
The Nigrostriatal pathway/dopaminergic
pathway forms a connection with the basal Parkinson’s disease pathology
ganglia, which controls movement. In The neuronal loss in Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s, there is a neuron and gliosis loss the disease is caused by neuronal
in the Substantia Nigra, which affects this inclusions, which are called Lewy
dopaminergic pathway. What happens in the bodies. These Lewy bodies are
basal ganglia is that there is a dopamine and aggregates of the protein
acetylcholine input that tune the output of α-Synuclein. This is a small
nuclei in the brainstem that finetunes the Synaptic protein that is involved
motion of our muscles. When you lose this In synaptic vesicle fusion.
input there is a disbalance between When you lose this protein, there is also a loss of
acetylcholine and dopamine. function in synaptic vesicle fusion.
In addition, these Lewy bodies, especially the
smaller oligomers, have been associated with the
gain of toxic function mechanisms, it induces
oxidative stress, inhibits the proteasome
pathway, and affects mitochondria