Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Dec;25(12):1056-1065.
doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2019.08.009. Epub 2019 Nov 6.

MCL1 as a Therapeutic Target in Parkinson's Disease?

Edward J Robinson  1 , Sebastian Aguiar  2 , Marten P Smidt  1 , Lars P van der Heide  3
Affiliations
Review

MCL1 as a Therapeutic Target in Parkinson's Disease?

Edward J Robinson et al. Trends Mol Med. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

Dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) pars compacta are selectively lost during the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). Recent work performed on the role of the Bcl2 family (highly specialized proteins which control cellular survival and death) in midbrain dopamine neurons has led to the identification of the Bcl2 factor Mcl1 as a weak link in the survival of these neurons. We hypothesize that the regulation of BCL2 proteins may explain this selective vulnerability, and may even provide a novel therapeutic opportunity - strengthening weak links such as MCL1 could result in a delay or complete abrogation of cell death during PD.

Keywords: Bcl2; apoptosis; cell death; dopamine; mitochondria; neurodegeneration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources