Parkinson disease

Parkinson disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that is clinically diagnosed by its motor features and characterized by loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra (pars compacta), which is thought to start years before clinical symptoms manifest. Understanding the causes and underlying mechanisms of cell loss in this disorder will be crucial to prevent or to halt neuronal loss and disease progression. In recent years, an enormous amount of basic and clinical research has revealed many important molecular and cellular changes associated with this disease.

2017 marks the 200th anniversary since James Parkinson published An Essay on the Shaking Palsy. To mark this event, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Nature Reviews Neuroscience and Nature Reviews Neurology present this collection of articles about cutting-edge basic and clinical research into Parkinson disease.