Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative
movement disorder mainly due to degeneration of
dopaminergic neurons in the
substantia nigra. Most PD cases are sporadic and only 5%-10% of
patients carry
mutations with inheritance. Among them, the
mutation of DJ-1 is related to the autosomal recessive early-onset
parkinsonism. DJ-1, the
Parkinson's disease-related
protein,
plays important
roles in different physiopathological processes, including
oxidative stress,
cell translocation and
regulation of transcription and translation. DJ-1 is known to be widely expressed in different areas of
brain, including
hippocampus,
amygdala,
substantia nigra and cortical areas. Several
researchers have tried to demonstrate the clinical and
neuroimaging features of DJ-1 related
parkinsonism. The DJ-1
knockout mouse model was established to further explore the mechanisms of different functions. Moreover, the search for different forms of DJ-1 as potential
biomarkers of PD also provides guidance for its accurate
diagnosis and
treatment in the
future.