Research Article
The Antiparkinsonian and Antidyskinetic Mechanisms of
Mucuna pruriens in the MPTP-Treated Nonhuman Primate
Christopher A. Lieu,1 Kala Venkiteswaran,2, 3 Timothy P. Gilmour,2, 3
Anand N. Rao,2, 3 Andrew C. Petticoffer,2, 3 Erin V. Gilbert,4 Milind Deogaonkar,4
Bala V.Manyam,2 and Thyagarajan Subramanian2, 3
1 Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA 94945, USA
2Department of Neurology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
3Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
4Center for Neurological Restoration, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Thyagarajan Subramanian, tsubram@yahoo.com
Received 26 May 2012; Accepted 27 July 2012
Academic Editor: Paul Siu-Po Ip
Copyright © 2012 Christopher A. Lieu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Chronic treatment with levodopa (LD) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) can cause drug induced dyskinesias.Mucuna pruriens endocarp
powder (MPEP) contains several compounds including natural LD and has been reported to not cause drug-induced dyskinesias.
We evaluated the effects of Mucuna pruriens to determine if its underlying mechanistic actions are exclusively due to LD. We first
comparedMPEP with and without carbidopa (CD), and LD+CD in hemiparkinsonian (HP)monkeys. Each treatment ameliorated
parkinsonism.We then compared the neuronal firing properties of the substantia nigra reticulata (SNR) and subthalamic nucleus
(STN) in HP monkeys with MPEP+CD and LD+CD to evaluate basal ganglia circuitry alterations. Both treatments decreased
SNR firing rate compared to HP state. However, LD+CD treatments significantly increased SNR bursting firing patterns that were
not seen with MPEP+CD treatments. No significant changes were seen in STN firing properties. We then evaluated the effects
of a water extract of MPEP. Oral MPWE ameliorated parkinsonism without causing drug-induced dyskinesias. The distinctive
neurophysiological findings in the basal ganglia and the ability to ameliorate parkinsonism without causing dyskinesias strongly
suggest that Mucuna pruriens acts through a novel mechanism that is different from that of LD.
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