Parkinson's disease: Pro-survival effects of PINK1

However parkinsonism is initiated, the progressive symptoms are similarly devastating. So insights from analyses of gene mutations linked to these disorders should aid a better general understanding of them.

The second most common neurodegenerative disorder, Parkinson's disease, is caused by a loss of dopamine-secreting neurons from the mid-brain region; this leads to rigidity and tremor at rest and the characteristic slowness of movement. What triggers Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism (any of several nervous-system disorders that are similar to Parkinson's disease) remains elusive, but some forms of these disorders are heritable. In a paper in PLoS Biology, Pridgeon et al.¹ attempt to elucidate the mechanism behind a familial form of Parkinson's disease that is associated with mutations in the PINK1 gene. Their findings point to an old culprit — the mitochondrion, the cell's energy-producing organelle — and a new offender, the molecular signalling pathway involved in inhibiting programmed cell death (apoptosis).