Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of motor function. Although the cause of Parkinson's is unknown, advances have been made in understanding its pathogenesis. Symptoms of Parkinson's disease result from cell death in the sustantia nigra midbrain region resulting in the formation of Lewy bodies. Defects in multiple cell pathways may initiate a cascade of neuronal cell death. These include abnormal protein accumulation, defective protein degradation, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, inflammation, and dysregulated kinase signaling. The genes represented in the Parkinson's disease PCR Primer Library include members of these pathways as well as several genes identified as mutated in Parkinson's patients and genes that have been shown to be overexpressed in this disese.