Does the Operation of Mitochondrial ATP-Dependent Potassium Channels Affect the Structural Component of Mitochondrial and Endothelial Dysfunctions in Experimental Parkinsonism?

We have previously demonstrated that the development of oxidative stress in some pathologies can be prevented by activation of the mitochondrial ATP-dependent potassium channel (mitoK). Here we studied the effect of modulation of mitoK on the development of mitochondrial and endothelial dysfunction in the medulla oblongata and myocardium of rats with experimental parkinsonism. It is known that uridine-5'-diphosphate, activator of mitoK, does not penetrate the plasma membrane, but it can be synthesized in cells from exogenous uridine that is delivered into cells by special transport systems.

[The study of telomere length in patients with Parkinson's disease].

Objective: Telomeres which are formed by double-strand breaks and DNA under replication, cause cell cycle arrest resulting in cellular senescence and apoptosis. The erosion of telomeres is an important mechanism for regulating the aging process by limiting cell proliferation. Over the last decade, many investigations in the field of telomeric biology showed that telomeric DNA and telomeric proteins are involved in the pathogenesis of some human diseases.

Reduction of the postexcitatory cortical inhibition upon paired-click auditory stimulation in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Objectives: The aims of this study were: to investigate the postexcitatory inhibition of cortical evoked potentials on auditory paired-click stimulation in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), to analyze the correlation of N1-P2 amplitude ratios (A2/A1) with latency of the P300 auditory event-related potential and to determine the influence of Levodopa intake on postexcitatory inhibition and P300 latency.

Methods: The central (Cz) auditory evoked potentials were recorded in 61 patients with PD and 21 age-matched healthy subjects.

Results: Postexcitatory inhibition in auditory cortex in PD was significantly reduced for interstimulus intervals 500, 700 and 900ms compared to control group.

Two phases of the contingent negative variation in humans: association with motor and mental functions.

The question of the relationship between contingent negative variation and the mechanisms controlling motor and mental functions has received inadequate study. The aims of the present work were to investigate the relationship between the early and late phases of contingent negative variation and the state of motor and mental functions in patients with Parkinson's disease and to study the effects of levodopa on contingent negative variation. Patients with Parkinson's disease showed significant decreases in the amplitudes and areas of both phases of contingent negative variation as compared with subjects of similar age.

[Two phases of the contingent negative variation in humans: connection with motor and mental functions].

The question of dependence of the contingent negative variation (CNV) on the regulating mechanisms of motor and mental functions is not sufficiently studied. The tasks of the present work were: to investigate the dependence of the CNV early and late phases on the state of motor and mental functions in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), and to elucidate the levodopa influence on the CNV parameters. 18 healthy subjects and 56 patients with PD were studied.

[Effect of cerebrolysin on the electroencephalographic indices of brain activity in Parkinson's disease].

Cerebrolysin is a brain-derived peptide drug that increases the BBB-GLUT1 and MAP2 genes expression, thus exerting a neuroprotective effect. The present study aimed at investigating in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) influence of Cerebrolysin infusions (intravenously, 10 ml during 10 days) combined with levodopa treatment on the electroencephalographic (EEG) indices of brain activity: P300 potential, contingent negative variation (CNV) and recovery functions of the cortical auditory evoked potentials, which reflect the postexcitatory inhibition at the paired stimulation. Nineteen PD patients, mean age 61.

[The use of amantadine sulfate in combined therapy of Parkinson's disease].

The efficacy of PK-Merz medication has been studied in 17 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), who have developed a resistance to levodopa as a result of a long-term treatment. The efficacy was evaluated according to clinical symptoms (UPDRS) and electromyography (EMG) indices. The summary motor score measured by UPDRS estimated as 49-79 (58.

Geriatric men at altitude: hypoxic ventilatory sensitivity and blood dopamine changes.

Background: Short-term exposure to high-altitude hypoxia increases hypoxic ventilatory sensitivity (HVS) in healthy humans. Dopamine (DA) is the implicated neurotransmitter in carotid body (CB) chemoreceptor response, and the microenvironmental conditions in CB tissue are comparable to blood. Continuous DA infusion affected ventilation in animals and humans.

A quantitative surface electromyogram analysis for diagnosis and therapy control in Parkinson's disease.

Computer analysis of EMG data on tonic and phasic activities of mm. biceps and triceps brahii was performed to evaluate objectively Parkinson's disease (PD) symptoms and to quantify levodopa therapy effects. Fifteen patients were evaluated in the OFF and eleven in the ON states.

Intermittent hypoxia alters hypoxic ventilatory responses.

Intermittent hypoxic training (IHT) shows promise for prevention and treatment of some diseases and efficiently produces great advancement in athletic training. We studied (1) hypoxic ventilatory responses (HVR) in supine and sitting positions during normobaric, isocapnic, progressive hypoxia (rebreathing technique) and (2) lung ventilation and gas exchange while breathing ambient air at rest and during 5 min of breathing 11% O2. Duel measurements were made pre- and post-15-day IHT regimen on 12 (experimental) healthy males (24.

Human hypoxic ventilatory response with blood dopamine content under intermittent hypoxic training.

Adaptation to intermittent hypoxia can enhance a hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) in healthy humans. Naturally occurring oscillations in blood dopamine (DA) level may modulate these responses. We have measured ventilatory response to hypoxia relative to blood DA concentration and its precursor DOPA before and after a 2-week course of intermittent hypoxic training (IHT).

[Regional distribution of the brain steady potential level in patients with Parkinson's disease].

Regional distribution of the brain steady potential level (SPL) was shown to depend on the predominant clinical symptom in parkinsonian patients. Those with prevailing bradykinesia revealed a statistically significant decrease in the SPL in the frontal area as compared with the healthy subjects or the patients with prevailing tremor.

[Serotonin antibodies and their possible role in parkinsonism].

Serotonin antibodies (SAb) were found in the blood sera of middle-aged and elderly parkinsonian patients. The incidence of Sab in young and middle-aged healthy subjects was less, but increasing with age. Injected into the rabbit caudate nuclei, Sab suppressed the main pathogenetic mechanism of parkinsonian syndrome, the generator of pathologically enhanced excitation (GPEE) and parkinsonian symptoms induced by the MPP injection into substantia nigra.

[Dopamine antibodies in parkinsonism patients and their possible role in the pathogenesis of the parkinsonian syndrome].

Dopamine antibodies (DAb) were found in the blood serum of parkinsonian patients, middle-aged and elderly, but not young. There was a correlation between the DAb incidence and dominant symptom in the middle-aged and elderly patients and between DAb and anginal parkinsonism in the elderly patients. DAb-binding serum gamma-globulins of parkinsonian patients injected into rat caudate nuclei induced the pathogenetic mechanism of Parkinson's syndrome (the generator of pathologically enhanced excitation-GPEE) in this brain part and evoked main parkinsonian symptoms (oligokinesia, rigidity and tremor).

[Dopamine antibodies in the pathogenesis of parkinsonism].

L-DOPA and dopamine (DA) binding antibodies were found in the blood serum of Parkinsonian patients and middle-aged and elderly normal persons. DA-binding serum gamma-globulins of parkinsonian patients injected into rat caudate nuclei induced the pathogenetic mechanism of Parkinson's syndrome (generator of pathologically enhanced excitation) in these brain part and evoked main parkinsonian symptoms (oligokinesia, rigidity, tremor). The serum gamma-globulins of Parkinsonian patients without Da-antibodies caused less pronounced EEG disturbances.

[The dynamics of the cerebral circulation and of brain functional activity in patients with initial atherosclerotic encephalopathy under the influence of a single intravenous administration of sermion].

The efficacy of sermion was studied in 41 patients of the middle and elderly ages. The reactive changes in the parameters of the cerebral circulation (the frontomastoidal RhEG), total hemodynamics, frequency-integration characteristics of EEG and visual evoked potentials at the administration of 2 mg and 4 mg of sermion were shown. There are given recommendations for the differential approach to the choice of the drug doses in the elderly persons taking into consideration the parameters of the background reactivity of the CNS and the state of vascular regulation.

[Catecholamines in the blood of parkinsonism patients].

Data are reported on age aspects of blood catecholamine metabolism in parkinsonism patients of middle and elderly age. The content of adrenalin, noradrenalin, dopamine was determined in the blood plasma of 95 patients with parkinsonism and in 75 practically healthy persons of similar age (control). Changes were shown of metabolism biogenic amines depending on the level of drug correction of parkinsonism and stage of the clinical course of the disease.

[Central mechanisms of the development of motor disorders during human aging].

This paper deals with the functional state of the brain and its descending regulatory influences on the brain stem-spinal formations in the elderly. The role of changes revealed in the formation of the clinical syndrome of age-related extrapyramidal insufficiency (EPI) as a risk factor of Parkinson's disease, has been shown. 274 apparently healthy subjects aged from 20 to 102 and 136 patients with early stages of Parkinson's disease were examined.

[Age-related features of the functional state of the brain in patients with circulatory encephalopathy].

Complex clinico-physiological examinations was performed in 300 patients of middle and old ages with early and pronounced dyscirculatory encephalopathy of atherosclerotic and, in most cases, hypertensive etiologies. The cerebral hemodynamics was found to be relatively independent of the central one in patients with early atherosclerotic encephalopathy; the level of the systemic circulation and that of the median regional cerebral flow were found to correlate in early and advanced hypertensive encephalopathy cases. The cerebral function was shown to be more associated with the cerebral flow in the early encephalopathy in elderly patients than in middle-aged ones.

[Initial dyscirculatory encephalopathy in middle-aged and elderly patients (problems of early diagnosis and therapy)].

Combined clinicophysiological investigation was performed in IDE (195 patients) in order to assess the degree of cerebral circulation disorders and their impact on the levels of brain functional activity. The informative values of several quantitative indices of brain hemodynamics and neurodynamics were assessed with respect to the patients' age. Single administration and full course of cavinton and sermion (nicergoline) were effective as judged by cerebral circulation studies (133Xe clearance), brain bioelectric activity (EEG frequency integration analysis, visual evoked potentials).