Unexpected toxicity of very low dose MPTP in mice: A clue to the etiology of Parkinson’s disease?
Synapse. 2015-12-01; 70(2): 49-51
DOI: 10.1002/syn.21875
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1. Synapse. 2016 Feb;70(2):49-51. doi: 10.1002/syn.21875. Epub 2015 Dec 1.
Unexpected toxicity of very low dose MPTP in mice: A clue to the etiology of
Parkinson’s disease?
Dovero S(1)(2), Gross C(1)(2), Bezard E(1)(2).
Author information:
(1)Univ. De Bordeaux, Institut Des Maladies Neurodégénératives, Bordeaux, France.
(2)Institut Des Maladies Neurodégénératives, CNRS, Bordeaux, France.
Although much progress have been made in recent years, the etiology of idiopathic
Parkinson’s disease remains obscure. The chance discovery that injection of the
neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) induces a syndrome
very similar to parkinsonism introduced the « environmental toxin » hypothesis but
no toxin was ever found in any quantity in patients’ brains. We have unexpectedly
now found, however, that, in mice, very low doses of MPTP induce as much
dopaminergic neuronal death as far higher doses. Cellular detoxification
mechanisms would appear to be incapacitated at such low doses. This could infer
that the barely discernible presence of an unidentified neurotoxin may be
responsible for the onset of Parkinson’s disease.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/syn.21875
PMID: 26583879 [Indexed for MEDLINE]