The delta‐opioid receptor and Parkinson’s disease

• Published in: CNS neuroscience & therapeutics Vol. 24; no. 12; pp. 1089 - 1099
• Main Authors: Huang, Jin‐Zhong, Ren, Yi, Xu, Yuan, Chen, Tao, Xia, Terry C., Li, Zhuo‐Ri, Zhao, Jian‐Nong, Hua, Fei, Sheng, Shi‐Ying, Xia, Ying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.12.2018; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Animals; Antiparkinson Agents - therapeutic use; Basal ganglia; Brain - drug effects; Brain - metabolism; Brain - pathology; Corpus striatum; delta‐opioid receptor; Dopamine; Dopamine receptors; Humans; Movement disorders; Narcotics; Neostriatum; neurodegeneration; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neuroprotection; Opioid receptors (type delta); Parkinson Disease - drug therapy; Parkinson Disease - genetics; Parkinson Disease - metabolism; Parkinson's disease; Pathophysiology; Receptors, Opioid, delta - genetics; Receptors, Opioid, delta - metabolism; Review; Substantia nigra; neurodegeneration; delta-opioid receptor; dopamine; neuroprotection; Parkinson’s disease
• ISSN: 1755-5930; 1755-5949
• DOI: 10.1111/cns.13045

Summary Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common degenerative neurological disease leading to a series of familial, medical, and social problems. Although it is known that the major characteristics of PD pathophysiology are the dysfunction of basal ganglia due to injury/loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta dopaminergic and exhaustion of corpus striatum dopamine, therapeutic modalities for PD are limited in clinical settings up to date. It is of utmost importance to better understand PD pathophysiology and explore new solutions for this serious neurodegenerative disorder. Our recent work and those of others suggest that the delta‐opioid receptor (DOR) is neuroprotective and serves an antiparkinsonism role in the brain. This review summarizes recent progress in this field and explores potential mechanisms for DOR‐mediated antiparkinsonism.