The Involvement of Neuroinflammation and Kynurenine Pathway in Parkinson's Disease

Figure 1

Basal ganglia motor circuit in Parkinson’s disease: dopaminergic neurons (DA) create a direct pathway between Substantia Nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and striatum—the input nuclei of the basal ganglia. Another direct pathway connects the striatum to the internal segment of globus pallidus (GPi) and the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNpr). GPi and SNpr are the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, which projects to the thalamus and from there to the cortex. The indirect pathway connects the striatum to output nuclei through external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe) and then subthalamic nucleus (STN). In Parkinson’s disease (PD), the dopaminergic input from SNpc is progressively lost, causing a reduction in the direct pathway signal. Indirect pathway increases its activity through STN in the output nuclei and has inhibitory influence on the thalamus. It leads to a reduction of thalamic glutamateric input on the motor cortex and subsequent reduction in movement, as rigidity and bradykinesia are observed in PD patients.