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Altered dopamine metabolism and its role in pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease

WANG Xiao-Rui, ZHU Song-Xin, WEN Xiao-Ming, XIE Jun-Xia, SONG Ning^*

Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medicine; Institute of Brain Science and Disease, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD), one of the most frequent neurodegenerative disorders, is characterized by the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Genetic vulnerability, aging, environmental insults are believed to contribute to the pathogenesis of PD. However, the cellular and molecular mechanism of dopaminergic neurons degeneration remains incompletely understood. Dopamine (DA) metabolism is a cardinal physiological process in dopaminergic neurons, which is closely related to the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the SN. DA metabolism takes part in several pathological processes of PD neurodegeneration, such as iron metabolism disturbance, α-synuclein mis-folding, endoplasmic reticulum stress, protein degradation dysfunction, neuroinflammatory response, etc. In this review, we will describe altered DA metabolism and its contributions to PD pathogenesis. 

Key words: Dopamine; Parkinson’s disease; iron; α-synuclein

Received: 2020-02-06　　Accepted: 2020-05-06

Corresponding author: 宋宁　　E-mail: ningsong@qdu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2020.0051

Citing This Article：

WANG Xiao-Rui, ZHU Song-Xin, WEN Xiao-Ming, XIE Jun-Xia, SONG Ning. Altered dopamine metabolism and its role in pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. Acta Physiol Sin 2021; 73 (1): 89-102 (in Chinese with English abstract).