Welcome back my fellow Martians!

As instructed by the weather forecast team, there will be light meteorite showers for the next few days and it is advised to stay in till the showers stop. With that, we hope that your Tuesdays are not as blue as Mondays because we’ll be updating this space more frequently!
 

Regarding mother earth’s newly discovered Parkinson’s disease, we have gathered more information and will be giving you a brief introduction to this destructive neurodegenerative disease.  

What is Parkinson’s disease?

Parkinson’s disease is a type of incurable neurodegenerative disease which mostly affects elderly age 60 and above. This disease is caused by the malfunction of nerve cells in the brain, also known as neurons. Parkinson’s disease primarily affects neurons in a specific area of the midbrain known as the Substantia Nigra.

 Neurons oh neurons. Oh why exactly are they so important?

Well, these neurons play an important role in producing an extremely important brain chemical known as dopamine. Dopamine, a type of neurotransmitter is produced in the Substantia Nigra and is responsible for transmitting signals between the Substantia Nigra and multiple brain regions such as the Corpus Striatum. It is crucial for the regulation of movement and emotional responses.

The Substantia Nigra is thought to be the lesion site in Parkinson’s disease where degeneration of the melanin-containing cells in the Pars Compacta of the Substantia Nigra occurs (Melanin is a by-product of the synthesis of dopamine). In a healthy person, Dopamine is passed and released through the nerve terminals of Corpus striatum. However in an individual with this disease, the death and insufficient amounts of dopamine producing neurons found in the Substantia Nigra result in abnormal nerve-firing patterns within the brain that causes the impaired movement, as seen in Parkinson’s disease.

Affected individuals were also found to have a loss of the nerve endings that produce norepinephrine. Norepinephrine, another type of neurotransmitter closely related to Dopamine, is the main chemical messenger of the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system controls automatic functions of the body such as heart rate as well as blood pressure. In short, Norepinephrine plays an important regulatory role in fostering alertness, long-term memory and learning. The imbalance of norepinephrine might thus also help in explaining the development of dementia in most individuals with progressive Parkinson’s disease.

Apart from that, doctors have also discovered Lewy bodies in the brain cells of affected individuals. Lewy bodies, are unusual clumps of brain protein and although the function of Lewy bodies are still unknown, it is predicted that these clumps may have aided in preventing cells in the brain from functioning normally.

That’s all for tonight’s update. I hope that this has increased your awareness about the seriousness of the disease as well as your hunger to know more and as usual, we will keep you updated so stay tuned! :)

On a side note, do remember to stay indoors!

Brought to you by Martian news broadcaster, Poh Ying Yee