The possibilities of using PET on a mouse model of parkinsonism

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a chronic degenerative progressive disease associated primarily with the death of neurons in the substantia nigra and other brain structures. The main symptoms are hypokinesia, rigidity, rest tremor, postural instability, as well as other autonomic and mental disorders. The prevalence of Parkinson's disease is 0.15 %; this figure reaches 1 % for people over 60 years of age. Ten years after the onset of the disease, 65 % of patients become disabled. The average life expectancy of patients is 9 years. Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is carried out mainly by clinical manifestations, which begin when more than half of the dopaminergic neurons are already damaged. Before that, various compensatory mechanisms are still working, but over time their action ceases to be sufficient. Therefore, a crucial area in medicine is the early diagnosis of Parkinson»s disease. This is possible using functional imaging methods such as PET, SPECT, CT, and MRS. These methods allow detecting even the slightest changes in the structure and functioning of the brain and assessing the integrity of neurons and dopaminergic pathways. The paper presents the possibility of using PET imaging to determine the degree of degeneration of brain structures in a mouse model of MPTP-induced parkinsonian syndrome.