Deficient vesicular storage: A common theme in catecholaminergic neurodegeneration.

ABSTRACT: Several neurodegenerative diseases involve loss of catecholamine neurons--Parkinson's disease (PD) is a prototypical example. Catecholamine neurons are rare in the nervous system, and why they are lost has been mysterious. Accumulating evidence supports the concept of "autotoxicity"--inherent cytotoxicity caused by catecholamine metabolites. Since vesicular sequestration limits the buildup of toxic products of enzymatic and spontaneous oxidation of catecholamines, a vesicular storage defect could play a pathogenic role in the death of catecholaminergic neurons in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. In putamen, deficient vesicular storage is revealed in vivo by accelerated loss of (18)F-DOPA-derived radioactivity and post-mortem by decreased tissue dopamine (DA):DOPA ratios; in myocard

SUBMITTER: Goldstein DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4554767 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature