The major pathological feature of Parkinson 's disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disease and most common movement disorder, is the predominant degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, a part of the midbrain. Despite decades of research, the molecular mechanisms of the origin of the disease remain unknown. While the disease was initially viewed as a purely neuronal disorder, results from single-cell transcriptomics have suggested that oligodendrocytes may play an important role in the early stages of Parkinson's.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe canonical Wnt signaling is an essential pathway that regulates cellular proliferation, maturation, and differentiation during neurodevelopment and maintenance of adult tissue homeostasis. This pathway has been implicated with the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders and was associated with cognitive processes, such as learning and memory. However, the molecular investigation of the Wnt signaling in functional human neural cell lines might be challenging since brain biopsies are not possible and animal models may not represent the polygenic profile of some neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders.
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