Figure 1: Pathway of Parkinson’s disease characterised by the degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Above is a flow-chart describing the pathway of Parkinson’s disease characterised by the degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta located in the basal ganglia [1]. The SNc (Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta) is what that is affected...

Use of illicit stimulants such as methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy is an increasing health problem. Chronic use can cause neurotoxicity in animals and humans but the long-term consequences are not well understood. The aim of the current study was to investigate the long-term effect of stimulant use on the morphology of the human substantia nigra. We hypothesised that history of illicit sti...

The evolution of increased competitive ability (EICA) hypothesis predicts that escape from intense herbivore damage may enable invasive plants to evolve higher competitive ability in the invasive range. Below-ground root herbivory can have a strong impact on plant performance, and invasive plants often compete with multiple species simultaneously, but experimental approaches in which EICA predi...

Whenever official approval for the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods has been given in Europe or the United States, regulatory committees have invoked the concept of 'substantial equivalence'. This means that if a GM food can be characterized as substantially equivalent to its 'natural' antecedent, it can be assumed to pose no new health risks and hence to be acceptable for commer...

There is a clear need to develop non-invasive markers of substantia nigra progression in Parkinson's disease. We previously found elevated free-water levels in the substantia nigra for patients with Parkinson's disease compared with controls in single-site and multi-site cohorts. Here, we test the hypotheses that free-water levels in the substantia nigra of Parkinson's disease increase followin...

phytoremediation of heavy metals is employed as a technological approach for a non-destructive remediation of contaminated soils. one of the most recently studied tree species used in phytoremediation applications are poplars. in this study, the one-year old rooted seedlings of populus nigra l. used to decontaminate hexavalent chromium-contaminated soils. five treatments of cr (vi) supply (were...