Imaging of Superoxide Generation in the Dopaminergic Area of the Brain in Parkinson’s Disease

The new methodology for direct visualization of superoxide production in the dopaminergic are of the brain Parkinson's disease were founded by Molecular imaging center (National institute of Radiological sciences) in Japan and Medical faculties from Trakia University and Sofia University in Bulgaria. I'm personally interested in any topic relates to Parkinson's disease, because one of my best friend's dad diagnosed with Parkinson's disease last year. Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder of unknown cause. Nowadays, L-DOPA and Deprenyl are used as treatments, however, these only work for temporary because no one knows about the cause of it. This experiment was designed with one normal healthy mice and a mice treated with MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine). In healthy mice, the nitroxide-enhanced MRI signal was weak and short-lived. The profile of the histograms indicated a high reducing activity of normal brain tissues against mito-TEMPO. In MPTP-treated mice, the nitroxide-enhanced MRI signal was strong and long-lived, especially in the dopaminergic area of the brain. The histograms indicated a high oxidative activity in dopaminergic tissues of MPTP-treated mice. The results show directly, on intact mammals, that superoxide is a major inducer and/or mediator of neurodegenerative damage in Parkinson’s disease. The high oxidative status of brain tissue in Parkinson’s disease was also confirmed on isolated tissue specimens, using total reducing capacity assay and ROS/RNS assay. There isn't a known cause or complete treatment of Parkinson's disease, yet this experiment is one way to find the way of its causes and treatments.



References:
http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/campaign/acs/full/10.1021/cn400159h
http://hub.jhu.edu/2013/09/30/parkinsons-disease-michael-j-fox