Publications by authors named "Scott A Shafer"
Article Synopsis
- Parkinson's disease (PD) involves the death of dopamine neurons in a specific brain area called the substantia nigra pars compacta, and Rit2 is linked to increased PD risk.
- Recent studies showed that silencing Rit2 in mouse dopamine neurons led to progressive motor dysfunction, with males experiencing symptoms faster than females.
- The dysfunction was associated with reduced dopamine release and increased abnormal protein expression, indicating that Rit2 loss directly contributes to neuron death and PD-like symptoms, highlighting important differences based on sex.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease and arises from dopamine (DA) neuron death selectively in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Rit2 is a reported PD risk allele, and recent single cell transcriptomic studies identified a major RIT2 cluster in PD DA neurons, potentially linking Rit2 expression loss to a PD patient cohort. However, it is still unknown whether Rit2 loss itself is causative for PD or PD-like symptoms.
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