Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurological cause of death, after
Alzheimer's disease, in elderly people. PD is characterized by a variety of motoric
dysfunctions resulting from the loss of striatal dopamine, which accompany progressive
degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. While the causes of PD
remain elusive in most cases, recent molecular genetic studies have linked mutations in the
α-synuclein gene with a rare form of familial PD and mutations in the parkins gene with an …