Archived Comments for:
Pharmacogenetic stimulation of cholinergic pedunculopontine neurons reverses motor deficits in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease
Cholinergic pedunculopontine nucleus neurons and postural instability in Parkinson's disease
Nicolaas Bohnen, University of Michigan
2 October 2015
Pienaar and colleagues provide intriguing findings that transient activation of the remaining nucleus tegmenti pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) cholinergic neurons in the lactacystin rat model of Parkinson's disease dramatically improved motor symptoms assessed by behavioral tests that measured postural instability, gait, sensorimotor integration, forelimb akinesia and general motor activity. We agree that these findings provide exciting evidence that functional modulation of PPN cholinergic neurons alleviates parkinsonian motor symptoms, including postural instability. The authors discuss that no single study has given direct evidence that dysfunction affecting the PPN’s cholinergic population underlie postural instability in Parkinson's disease patients. We recently published in vivo imaging evidence that impaired integrity of PPN cholinergic neurons and their thalamic efferents play a role in postural control in patients with Parkinson's disease, possibly by participating in integration of multimodal sensory input information (Müller et al. 2013). We believe that the findings by Pienaar et al. provide direct cellular support for this in vivo imaging-clinical observation in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Nicolaas I. Bohnen & Martijn L.T.M. Müller
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Reference:
Müller MLTM, Albin RL, Kotagal V, Koeppe RA, Scott PJH, Frey KA, Bohnen NI (2013) Thalamic cholinergic innervation and postural sensory integration function in Parkinson's disease. Brain. 2013; 136:3282-9.
Molecular Neurodegeneration
Cholinergic pedunculopontine nucleus neurons and postural instability in Parkinson's disease
2 October 2015
Pienaar and colleagues provide intriguing findings that transient activation of the remaining nucleus tegmenti pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) cholinergic neurons in the lactacystin rat model of Parkinson's disease dramatically improved motor symptoms assessed by behavioral tests that measured postural instability, gait, sensorimotor integration, forelimb akinesia and general motor activity. We agree that these findings provide exciting evidence that functional modulation of PPN cholinergic neurons alleviates parkinsonian motor symptoms, including postural instability. The authors discuss that no single study has given direct evidence that dysfunction affecting the PPN’s cholinergic population underlie postural instability in Parkinson's disease patients. We recently published in vivo imaging evidence that impaired integrity of PPN cholinergic neurons and their thalamic efferents play a role in postural control in patients with Parkinson's disease, possibly by participating in integration of multimodal sensory input information (Müller et al. 2013). We believe that the findings by Pienaar et al. provide direct cellular support for this in vivo imaging-clinical observation in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Nicolaas I. Bohnen & Martijn L.T.M. Müller
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Reference:
Müller MLTM, Albin RL, Kotagal V, Koeppe RA, Scott PJH, Frey KA, Bohnen NI (2013) Thalamic cholinergic innervation and postural sensory integration function in Parkinson's disease. Brain. 2013; 136:3282-9.
Competing interests
There are no competing interests.