Affects of Parkinson's Disease on Human Body Control
These flowcharts compare how a healthy body works to a body infected with Parkinson's.
~What is not Controlling?~
In Parkinson's disease, the substania nigra die or become impaired. These cells are supposed to be controlling the production of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that transmits messages to the striatum. It begins and controls movement and balance.
In an unaffected person, the substania nigra secrete dopamine that act as chemical messengers from the substania nigra to the corpus striatum. These signals allow for coordinated movement. However, when there is not enough dopamine to send these signals, the control centers of the brain are disturbed and this causes the symptoms of Parkinson's. When 80% of the substania nigra cannot produce dopamine, Parkinson's disease develops. As a result of the loss of dopamine, there is an abundance of Acetylcholine, which is another neurotransmitter that is supposed to control signals of the brain that are involved in the central nervous system. In a normal person, the dopamine and acetylcholine are supposed to balance each other causing normal, smooth signals. In Parkinson’s this is not the case, as described above.
In some cases, three molecules, specifically ubiquitin, parkin, and synuclein, are not controlling the process of apoptosis correctly. *Apoptosis is programmed cell death.* In these cases, parkin does not bind synuclein with ubiquitin, therefore apoptosis cannot take place. Instead of dying, synuclein accumulates and forms Lewy bodies. It is not known if Lewy bodies kill major nerve cells, but they are definitely a target for doctors who are trying to determine if a person has Parkinson’s or not.
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CLICK HERE to see a flowchart of control for a person without Parkinson's Disease
