ABSTRACT

Introduction Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder of the brain and typically presents with a disorder of movement. The core pathological event underlying the condition is the loss of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway with the formation of α-synuclein-positive Lewy bodies. In the initial stages of the illness compensatory mechanisms exist that limit the extent of the dopaminergic loss but with time these fail and the disease becomes manifest. In this chapter we briefly outline the processes that underlie the innate plasticity of the adult CNS with respect to PD and how this may be exploited using neuroprotective and neurotrophic factors as well as curative cell therapies.