Modeling Neuroinflammation in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, which progressively manifests into in a movement disorder. We propose a mechanism that describes the role that aggregated α-synuclein and neuroinflammation play in perpetuating a vicious cycle of neurodegeneration. A system of autonomous Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) is derived. Given that the percentage decay of neurons that leads to the onset of the disease is unknown, the time it takes for the population of dopaminergic neurons to be reduced to various levels is obtained through numerical simulations. A sensitivity analysis reveals that the decay rate of cytokines is the most important parameter of the system. The effect that the decay rate of cytokines has on the time is explored.