Thursday 4 February 2016

Circadian system - A novel diagnostic and therapeutic target in Parkinson's disease?

I first started wondering about circadian rhythm in PD about three years ago when I attended an excellent talk at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry and the idea came up. It seems may of the pre and post diagnosis symptoms of PD could be accounted for (at least in part) by altered circadian rhythm... I anticipate this will be an area of further focus in the coming years!

Mov Disord. 2016 Jan 30. doi: 10.1002/mds.26509. [Epub ahead of print]
Videnovic A, Willis GL.



The circadian system regulates biological rhythmicity in the human body. The role of the circadian system in neurological disorders is a theme that is attracting an increasing amount of interest from the scientific community. This has arisen, in part, from emerging evidence that disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) are multifactorial with many features exhibiting diurnal fluctuations, thereby suggestive of circadian involvement. Although the importance of fluctuating motor and nonmotor manifestations in PD have been well acknowledged, the role of the circadian system has received little attention until recently. It is proposed that intervening with circadian function provides a novel research avenue down which new strategies for improving symptomatic treatment and slowing of the progressive degenerative process can be approached to lessen the burden of PD. In this article we review the literature describing existing circadian research in PD and its experimental models. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

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