Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that is characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta as well as motor impairment. Aggregation of α-synuclein in neuronal cells plays a key role in this disease. At present, therapeutics for PD provides moderate symptomatic benefits, but it is not able to delay the...

Background and Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the preconditioning effect of aerobic exercise with vitamin D3 consumption on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level in the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rat model of Parkinson’s disease. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight male rats weighing 250-300 g were randomly assigned to 6 groups: healthy control, Parkin...

Background and objectives: Hesperetin flavanone is a natural bioflavonoid found abundantly in citrus fruits with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Nano sizing techniques improve the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs such as hesperetin. Main feature of Parkinson's disease is the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. The rate of oxidative...

Rats lesioned shortly after birth with 6-hydroxydopamine are posed as a near-ideal model of severe Parkinson's disease, because of the non-lethality of the procedure, near-total destruction of nigrostriatal dopaminergic fibers, near-total dopamine (DA)-denervation of striatum, reproducibility of effect, and relative absence of overt behavioral effects--there is no aphasia, no adipsia, and no ch...

Adult adipose contains stromal progenitor cells with neurogenic potential. However, the stability of neuronal phenotypes adopted by Adipose-Derived Adult Stromal (ADAS) cells and whether terminal neuronal differentiation is required for their consideration as alternatives in cell replacement strategies to treat neurological disorders is largely unknown. We investigated whether in vitro neural i...

Iron-induced oxidative stress is thought to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Our previous studies demonstrated that decreased expression of ferroportin 1 contributes to 6-hydroxydopamine induced intracellular iron accumulation and that decreased ferroportin 1 expression is caused by increased expression of iron regulatory protein 1. Iron regulatory protein 1 is a ...

CASK is an evolutionarily conserved scaffolding protein that has roles in many cell types. In Drosophila, loss of the entire CASK gene or just the CASK-β transcript causes a complex set of adult locomotor defects. In this study, we show that the motor initiation component of this phenotype is due to loss of CASK-β in dopaminergic neurons and can be specifically rescued by expression of CASK-β w...

Sustained motor improvement in human patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease has been described following electroconvulsive shock (ECS) treatment. In rats, ECS stimulates the expression of various trophic factors (TFs), some of which have been proposed to exert neuroprotective actions. We previously reported that ECS protects the integrity of the rat nigrostriatal dopaminergic system again...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder primarily affecting the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. The link between heightened activity of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) and neurodegene-rative processes has encouraged investigation into the potential disease-modifying effects of novel GSK3β inhibitors in experimental models of PD. Therefore, the intrig...

Methamphetamine (MA), a highly addictive psychostimulant, produces long-lasting neurotoxic effects well proven in nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. Considering the similarities between pathological profile of MA neurotoxicity and Parkinson's disease (PD), some reports show that previous MA abusers will be at greater risk of PD-like motor deficits. To answer the question if repeated MA exposur...