ABSTRACT
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a movement disorder mainly characterized by rigidity, bradykinesia/akinesia, postural instability and resting tremor (Gelb et al. 1999, Jankovic 2008). PD results from the degenerative loss of dopaminergic neurons projecting from the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) into the striatum. Another hallmark of this neurodegenerative disorder is the cytosolic accumulation of aberrant protein aggregates named Lewy bodies (LB), mostly composed of proteins that include α-synuclein, parkin, ubiquitin, synphilin and neurofi laments (Lee and Liu 2008, Arduíno et al. 2011).
