TY - CHAP AU - Luca Ferraro AU - Tiziana Antonelli AU - Sarah Beggiato AU - Maria Cristina Tomasini AU - Antonio Steardo AU - Kjell Fuxe AU - Sergio Tanganelli ED - Juliana Dushanova Y1 - 2012-02-08 PY - 2012 T1 - Neurotensin as Modulator of Basal Ganglia- Thalamocortical Motor Circuit – Emerging Evidence for Neurotensin NTS1 Receptor as a Potential Target in Parkinson's Disease N2 - Parkinson's disease (PD) results primarily from the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Current PD medications treat symptoms; none halt or retard dopaminergic neuron degeneration. The main obstacle to developing neuroprotective therapies is a limited understanding of the key molecular mechanisms that provoke neurodegeneration. The discovery of PD genes has led to the hypothesis that misfolding of proteins and dysfunction of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway are pivotal to PD pathogenesis. Previously implicated culprits in PD neurodegeneration, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress may also act in part by causing the accumulation of misfolded proteins, in addition to producing other deleterious events in dopaminergic neurons. Neurotoxin-based models have been important in elucidating the molecular cascade of cell death in dopaminergic neurons. PD models based on the manipulation of PD genes should prove valuable in elucidating important aspects of the disease, such as selective vulnerability of substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons to the degenerative process. BT - Mechanisms in Parkinson's Disease SP - Ch. 23 UR - https://doi.org/10.5772/21128 DO - 10.5772/21128 SN - PB - IntechOpen CY - Rijeka Y2 - 2024-05-10 ER -