Parkinson's Disease

Through biomedical research, we are able to learn more about the biological basis of Parkinson’s disease. The loss of automatic movement and the increased need for voluntary control of movement is believed to be due to the loss of dopaminergic neurons in a brain region called the substantia nigra pars compacta, which is part of the basal ganglia. Since this involves the loss of dopaminergic neurons, a common treatment for Parkinson’s disease is dopamine replacement therapy, where patients will receive a combination of drugs, including L-dopa, as well as dopamine receptor agonists. And finally, patients with Parkinson’s disease will have Lewy bodies, which are abnormal aggregates of alpha synuclein protein in their neurons. And this is something that you can see under a microscope by looking at sections of neurons from the patients. And these Lewy bodies are thought to lead to cellular dysfunction and death, which is what leads to the loss of the dopaminergic neurons and the physical symptoms that we observe.

There’s currently a lot more additional research being conducted attempting to find out more about Parkinson’s disease, but for now, this is what you need to know for the MCAT.