Commentary
Parkinsons - Just another Infectious Disease
| Coad Thomas Dow* | |
| McPherson Eye Research Institute, Wisconsin, USA | |
| Corresponding Author : | Coad Thomas Dow McPherson Eye Research Institute, Ophthalmology 2715 Damon Street Eau Claire Wisconsin 54701, USA Tel: +01-715-834-8471 E-mail: ctdow@me.com |
| Received: June 26, 2015 Accepted: July 16, 2015 Published: July 24, 2015 | |
| Citation: Dow CT (2015) Parkinson’s - Just another Infectious Disease. J Neuroinfect Dis 6:183. doi:/10.4172/2314-7326.1000183 | |
| Copyright: © 2015 Dow CT. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
| Related article at , | |
Abstract
Anatomic staging of PD progression suggests that an unidentified neurotropic pathogen in the intestinal lumen triggers abnormal synuclein aggregation that, in turn, initiates a ''prion-like'' process in the enteric nervous system (ENS) eventually achieving access to the central nervous system (CNS) via the vagus nerve (cranial nerve X). This protein aggregation, manifest as , targets and destroys dopamine producing cells resulting in both the classic motor and non-motor symptoms of PD; with the non-motor symptoms predating the motor symptoms by years, or even decades.
