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Unexpected toxicity of very low dose MPTP in mice: A clue to the etiology of P arkinson's disease?
Author(s) -
Dovero Sandra,
Gross Christian,
Bezard Erwan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
synapse
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.809
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1098-2396
pISSN - 0887-4476
DOI - 10.1002/syn.21875
Subject(s) - mptp , neurotoxin , parkinsonism , dopaminergic , parkinson's disease , disease , etiology , toxicity , medicine , toxin , neuroscience , pharmacology , dopamine , biology , biochemistry
Although much progress have been made in recent years, the etiology of idiopathic Parkinson's disease remains obscure. The chance discovery that injection of the neurotoxin 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) induces a syndrome very similar to parkinsonism introduced the "environmental toxin" hypothesis but no toxin was ever found in any quantity in patients' brains. We have unexpectedly now found, however, that, in mice, very low doses of MPTP induce as much dopaminergic neuronal death as far higher doses. Cellular detoxification mechanisms would appear to be incapacitated at such low doses. This could infer that the barely discernible presence of an unidentified neurotoxin may be responsible for the onset of Parkinson's disease. Synapse 70:49–51, 2016 . © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.