Lewy pathology out of favor as Parkinson’s culprit
Published on November 30, 2012

http://www.news-medical.net/news/201...s-culprit.aspx


By Eleanor McDermid,

Neurodegeneration and cellular dysfunction may precede the appearance of Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra, shows research that challenges the role of Lewy pathology in Parkinson's disease (PD).

"This report may help to change the view on Lewy pathology," Walter Schulz-Schaeffer (University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany) writes in an editorial accompanying the study in Neurology.

The study, considered together with other recent findings and the clinical effectiveness of dopamine-replacement therapy, "leaves little doubt that the degenerative process must be located at the presynapse," he says...


...Schulz-Schaeffer says: "We should disengage from the notion of Lewy body-associated cell death as the main phenomenon in PD and concentrate on synaptic pathology and axonal degeneration of still-existing cells in our search for therapy and for understanding the pathophysiology of PD."