Elena-Alina MUSCALU, Alin Stelian CIOBÎCĂ, Manuela PĂDURARIU
ABSTRACT :
Parkinson’s disease is an progressive and multisystemic neurodegenerative disease, in which degeneration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system is associated with the mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, proteostasis alteration, α-synuclein aggregation, neuroinflammation and perturbation of autophagy and mitophagy. The complexity of this pathogenic network restricts the possibility of an integral reproduction of the disease in a unique experimental system, requiring the utilization of complementary patterns. Danio rerio represents a relevant vertebrated platform, due to the conservation of some genetic and neurochemical mechanisms, to the sensitivity to neurotoxins and to its compatibility with the technologies of genomic manipulation. The present study analyzes critically the neurotoxic patterns based on MPTP, 6-hydroxydopamine, rotenone and paraquat, the genetic patterns associated to the Parkinson disease and the main technologies for the modification of the genic expression, evidencing the mechanistic values, the interpretative limits and the reproducibiliy aspects of such an approach. The synthesis asserts the necessity of shifting from a unidimensional validation of the experimental phenotype to the integration of the functional, biochemical, neurochemical, molecular and tissular evaluations.