Research progress of neuromelanin and the pathogenesis of Parkinson′s disease / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Parkinson′s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease. Its main pathological feature is the progressive loss of substantia nigra and other catecholaminergic neurons containing neuromelanin (NM). Therefore, NM may be closely related to the pathogenesis of PD. The content of NM can be detected by NM magnetic sensitive sequence imaging, and then it can be applied to the study of the neuropathological mechanism of NM and PD. This paper focuses on the physiological significance of NM, its role in the pathogenesis of PD and the prospect of NM as a biomarker to assist diagnosis and disease monitoring of PD.