Recent developments in the etiology, treatment, and potential therapeutic targets for Parkinson’s disease: A focus on biochemistry

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most widely recognized neurodegenerative disorder presenting clinical manifestations such as resting tremor, unbending nature, hypokinesia, and postural flimsiness. One of the main etiologies is the loss of neurons delivering dopamine in the nigra, a subregion of the midbrain. Intraneuronal amassing of accumulated proteins such as α-synuclein, parkin, and ubiquitinated proteins leading to the development of Lewy bodies and dystrophic neuritis results in the crucial lesions of PD. It can be characterized as sporadic and familial, where almost the 90% of the patients are sporadic PD cases. Hereditary alterations in the quality encoding α-synuclein speak to autosomal-predominant familial PD, and those encoding parkin, UCHL1, DJ-1, PINK1, and LRRK2 result in autosomal-latent familial PD. This chapter focuses on the effect of reactive oxygen species, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and the genetics of PD. New insights into future potential therapeutic targets along with current treatment options for PD are discussed.