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Nature Medicine 11, 1159 - 1161 (2005)
doi:10.1038/nm1105-1159

Neurons inflict self-harm

Mark R Cookson1

  1. The author is in the Cell Biology and Gene Expression Unit, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. e-mail: cookson@mail.nih.gov


In several neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson disease, specific neurons are vulnerable to death whereas others are spared. It now appears that the neurotransmitter dopamine may damage parkin, a neuroprotective protein, in susceptible neurons and contribute to their demise (pages 1214–1221).


A puzzling aspect of adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases is that the pathological process is not evenhanded. In Parkinson disease, specific groups of neurons are progressively lost, including those in the substantia nigra1.

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