Deep brain stimulation of the ventroanterior and ventrolateral thalamus improves motor function in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

Deep brain stimulation of the ventroanterior and ventrolateral thalamus improves motor function in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. Exp Neurol. 2019 Mar 16;: Authors: Tucker H, Mahoney E, Chhetri A, Unger K, Mamone G, Kim G, Audil A, Moolick B, Molho ES, Pilitsis JG, Shin DS Abstract Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease with affected individuals exhibiting motor symptoms of bradykinesia, muscle rigidity, tremor, postural instability and gait dysfunction. The current gold standard treatment is pharmacotherapy with levodopa, but long-term use is associated with motor response fluctuations and can cause abnormal movements called dyskinesias. An alternative treatment option is deep brain stimulation (DBS) with the two FDA-approved brain targets for PD situated in the basal ganglia; specifically, in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and globus pallidus pars interna (GPi). Both improve quality of life and motor scores by ~50-70% in well-selected patients but can also elicit adverse effects on cognition and other non-motor symptoms. Therefore, identifying a novel DBS target that is efficacious for patients not optimally responsive to current DBS targets with fewer side-effects has clear clinical merit. Here, we investigate whether the ventroanterior (VA) and ventrolateral (VL) motor nuclei of the thalamus can serve as novel and effective DBS targets for PD. In the limb-use asymmetry test (LAT), hemiparkinsonian rats showca...
Source: Experimental Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Exp Neurol Source Type: research