09/03/2020

The clinical syndrome of  idiopathic Parkinson’s disease is characterized by bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity and postural instability. In addition to these motor symptoms, many patients experience nonmotor symptoms such as hyposmia, sleep disturbances, depression, constipation, and other dysautonomic symptoms. Particularly, hyposmia and sleep disturbances often start prior to the onset of the core motor syndrome.

The motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are thought to arise from the loss of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra; however other neurotransmitter systems are also involved.

Treatment of Parkinson’s disease is symptomatic and essentially consists on substituting dopamine, or suppressing pathological neuronal oscillations via deep brain stimulation. However, new generations of scientists will be carrying out a different type of science than current or past researchers. The fundamental change will be to develop research on Parkinson’s disease which pays more attention to mathematical concepts.

With this purpose, it is very important to define the signals exchanged between various cell types involved in the disease and it is crucial to understand the effects of those signals on the integrated circuits of each of those cell types. It is also required to develop accurate disease prognosis and treatment paradigms.

In the near future, Parkinson’s disease research will be an increasingly exact science together with the further understanding of phenotypic traits. 

Autor: Ana Martín