Journal article

Serotonergic markers in Parkinson's disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesias

P Cheshire, S Ayton, KL Bertram, H Ling, A Li, C Mclean, GM Halliday, SS O'Sullivan, T Revesz, DI Finkelstein, E Storey, DR Williams

Movement Disorders | Published : 2015

Abstract

Preclinical animal models implicate serotonin neurons in the pathophysiology of levodopa (l-dopa)-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease (PD), but effective treatment remains elusive. We examined the relationship between serotonin and l-dopa-induced dyskinesias in a pathologically confirmed cohort of PD patients. We obtained brain tissue from 44 PD cases and 17 age-matched controls and assessed monoamine levels and the serotonin and dopamine transporters in the striatum, and the extent of dopaminergic and serotonergic cell preservation in the substantia nigra (SN) and the dorsal raphe nuclei (DRN), respectively. As expected, PD patients demonstrated a severe loss of all dopaminergic mark..

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