Mitochondrial homeostasis regulation: A promising therapeutic target for Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the presence of Lewy bodies (LBs) or Lewy neurites (LNs) which consist of α-synuclein (α-syn) and a complex mix of other biomolecules. Mitochondrial dysfunction is widely believed to play an essential role in the pathogenesis of PD and other related neurodegenerative diseases. But mitochondrial dysfunction is subject to complex genetic regulation. There is increasing evidence that PD-related genes directly or indirectly affect mitochondrial integrity. Therefore, targeted regulation of mitochondrial function has great clinical application prospects in the treatment of PD. However, lots of PD drugs targeting mitochondria have been developed but their clinical therapeutic effects are not ideal. This review aims to reveal the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases based on the mitochondrial structure and function, which may highlight potential interventions and therapeutic targets for the development of PD drugs to recover mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases.

Soil and vegetation characteristics during the formation of typical Ligularia virgaurea degraded grassland.

To understand the formation process of typical poisonous plant degraded grassland, we studied the cha-racteristics of vegetation and soil during the gradual expansion of Ligularia virgaurea into the native grassland of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that population density, plant height, coverage, and biomass of L. virgaurea increased during the formation of L. virgaurea degraded grassland. In comparison with native grassland, the degraded grassland had higher total aboveground biomass (113.9%), soil total nitrogen concentration (61.0%), NH4+-N (77.9%), organic carbon concentration (45.3%), available phosphorus concentration (78.8%) as well as soil microbial biomass carbon (42.1%) and nitrogen (47.4%), but lower NO3--N (40.1%) and species richness (28.5%) and aboveground biomass (45.7%) of other species beyond L. virgaurea. The extremely strong abilities of interspecific inhibition and morphological plasticity of L. virgaurea, as well as efficient nutrient accumulation and utilization were the keys to its successful expansion, which facilitated the formation of typical L. virgaurea degraded grassland.