Saturday, July 3, 2021

Parkinson's disease and the neurotransmitter "duo"- DOPAMINE AND ACETYL CHOLINE

 

The smooth, co-ordinated movement of the human body is accomplished by the concerted action of neurones at multiple levels. The impulse for a movement begins in the cerebral cortex and travels to the lower motor neuron, but not before the impulse has been modulated through inputs at the level of striatum, Substantia Nigra and other parts of the brain. The inputs can be either excitatory or inhibitory. The objective is to achieve a smooth, graceful movement at the end.

The neuronal circuitry involves a lot of complexities.

However, the final simplification is-

In the striatum, dopaminergic pathway have a net inhibitory action and the cholinergic pathway have a net excitatory action.

In Parkinson’s disease, there is degeneration of the dopaminergic pathway.

So, Parkinson’s disease is a dopamine deficient state and therefore, treated with replacement of dopamine, or by inhibiting metabolism of dopamine or by administering dopamine agonist.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you sir , the concept and language is so clearly written

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very helpful.. Thank you sir.

    ReplyDelete

Lidocaine and phenytoin- both are sodium channel blockers. Lidocaine is a local anaesthetic and an anti-arrhythmic. Phenytoin is an anticonvulsant. What explains their differential action? Is it because of their difference in pharmacokinetics.

 Drugs, more than often, have multiple actions. The ability of drugs to interact with different targets and sometimes same target in differe...