Parkinson’s Disease
- Age-Related Macular Degeneration
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Chronic Mental Diseases
- Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
- Conjunctival Amyloidosis
- Corticobasal Degeneration
- Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease
- Dementia With Lewy Bodies
- Dentatombral-Pallidoluysian Atrophy
- Desmin-Related Cardiomyopathy
- Dialysis-Related Amyloidosis
- Familial Alzheimer’s Disease
- Familial Amyloidotic Cardiomyopathy
- Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy
- Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- Familial British Dementia
- Familial Danish Dementia
- Familial Fatal Insomnia
- Familial Mediterranean Fever
- Familial Oculoleptomeningel Amyloidosis
- Familial Parkinson’s Disease
- Finnish Hereditary Systemic Amyloidosis
- Frontotemporal Dementia
- Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker Syndrome
- HIV Infection
- Hereditary Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
- Hereditary Non-Neuropathic Systemic Amyloidosis
- Hereditary Renal Amyloidosis
- Huntington’s Disease
- Inclusion Body Myositis
- Insulin-Related Amyloidosis
- Isolated Atrial Amyloidosis
- Medullary Carcinoma Of The Thyroid
- Multiple Systems Atrophy
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Pick’s Disease
- Preeclampsia
- Primary Amyloidosis
- Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
- Prostatic Amyloidosis
- Pure Autonomic Failure
- Senile Systemic Amyloidosis
- Spinal And Bulbar Muscular Atrophy
- Spinal Cord Injury And Traumatic Brain Injury
- Spinocerebellar Ataxia Types 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, And 17
- Systemic (Reactive) Aa Amyloidosis
- Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease. An estimated 10 million people have Parkinson’s disease worldwide. (Refer to the World Health Organization page on Parkinson’s disease). The major risk factor for PD is age and incidence rises steeply with aging. Nonetheless, unlike AD, which very rarely afflicts people under age 60, PD strikes people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who struggle to work and raise families. The estimated global costs of care for PD are > 52 billion per year.
In PD, a protein called α-synuclein forms toxic aggregates, which kill the nerve cells that produce dopamine and other nerve cells in multiple areas of the brain. Aggregated α-synuclein is found in hallmark lesions called Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites in the brain of people who have Parkinson’s disease.
Refer also to Familial Parkinson’s Disease.