Drosophila Parkinson's disease model for Investigating Sleep Disorder Thesis

Drosophila Parkinson's disease model for Investigating Sleep Disorder of PD - Thesis Example Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an advancing and persisting neurodegenerative disorder that influences the control of the central nervous system (CNS) on the voluntary movement. It was first reported by James Parkinson in 1817, as â€Å"An Essay on the Shaking Palsy† (Parkinson, 2002). Much research has been carried out in two centuries towards understanding Parkinson’s disease but no definite cure could be attained so far. PD has emerged as the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is difficult in early stages of the disease. Estimates reveal that only 75% of the clinically diagnosed cases are confirmed at autopsy (Gelb, 1999). Although the disease is non fatal but the linked complications culminate into life threatening consequences especially in the later stages of the disease (Morgante, 2000). The neuropathological studies disclose characteristics of PD and its c onnection with neuronal degeneration in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), loss of dopaminergic neuron results in imbalance between dopamine and acetylcholine. As less amount of dopamine is secreted, there is overtone of cholinergic activity in basal ganglia, responsible for various clinical features of Parkinson’s disease. ... Lewy bodies are associated with neurological conditions, they enclose protein components of the ubiquitin proteosome system (UPS), hsp, neurofilaments, ?-synuclein and synphilin-1 (Olanow, 2004). Cardinal features of Parkinson’s disease is associated with motor symptoms encompassing resting tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia/ akinesia, shakiness in posture, gait and posture disturbances may be common including shuffling of the feet, decreased arm swing and stooped forward- flexed posture, pin rolling movements of thumb, drooling of saliva from mouth, expression less face or masked face, micrographia, impaired agility (Nussbaum, 1997). The non motor symptoms occur due to loss of non-dopaminergic pathway resulting in the distress in the patient and hence impairing life (Hely, 2005). Mood alteration is common in PDs, including depression (Lieberman, 2006), anxiety, cognitive disturbance, impaired attention, prioritizing, interpreting social cues, and subjective awareness, dementia, h allucination, delusion, short term memory loss, enhanced sexual activity and psychosis (Frank, 2005; Levin, 2005). Sleep disturbances, disproportionate daytime sleepiness with nighttime sleeplessness, distressed REM sleep (Freedom, 2007). Disturbed visual sensations, spatial analysis and color differentiation, PD cases are unaware of their body position (Adler, 2005). Nocturia, orthostatic hypotension, distorted weight (Martignoni, 1995). Risk Factors for Parkinson’s disease encompass advancing age, environmental predisposition, and genetic factors in the select genes. The onset of Parkinson occurs in the individual above 50 years. The cause of PD is idiopathic and genetic