In vivo reduction of age-dependent neuromelanin accumulation mitigates features of Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACT: Humans accumulate with age the dark-brown pigment neuromelanin inside specific neuronal groups. Neurons with the highest neuromelanin levels are particularly susceptible to degeneration in Parkinson's disease, especially dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra, the loss of which leads to characteristic motor Parkinson's disease symptoms. In contrast to humans, neuromelanin does not appear spontaneously in most animals, including rodents, and Parkinson's disease is an exclusively human condition. Using humanized neuromelanin-producing rodents, we recently found that neuromelanin can trigger Parkinson's disease pathology when accumulated above a specific pathogenic threshold. Here, by taking advantage of this newly developed animal model, we assessed whether the intracellular build-up o

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez-Sepulveda M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9976971 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature