The AND-PD project reached the end of its funding period on 30th June 2024.
While we are sad that the project has finished, we have taken the opportunity to look back on the published results of the project so far...
Firstly, published in 2022 in the journal 'Frontiers in Pharmacology' by our researchers at CSIC, was on original paper on Motor cortico-nigral and cortico-entopeduncular information transmission and its modulation by buspirone in control and after dopaminergic denervation. This results presented in this paper contribute to understanding of the role the serotonin 1A receptor and dopamine play in the the functionality of motor cortico-basal ganglia circuitry.
In 2023, two papers on the clinical aspects of the project were published by our researchers at UCL. Firstly, The experience of Anxiety for people with Parkinson's disease was published in the journal 'NPJ Parkinson's disease' presenting the results of a study exploring how anxiety is experienced by Parkinson's disease patients themselves. This was followed by Development of anxiety in early Parkinson's disease: A clinical and biomarker study in the 'European Journal of Neurology' which found that development of anxiety in PD is not primarily based on a dopaminergic deficit in the basal ganglia but is related to non-dopaminergic or extrastriatal pathology.
Later in 2023, our researchers at UBx published a review Emotion in action: When emotions meet motor circuits in 'Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews' which provided an exhaustive update on the behavioural and anatomical emotional modulation of movement. We emphasised the need to explore these projections, as for most of them, there is a severe lack of information on the molecular, anatomical, and behavioural level.
In 2024 our researchers at UCL published a further paper: Risk of Parkinson's disease in people aged ≥50 years with new-onset anxiety: a retrospective cohort study in UK primary care in the 'British Journal of General Practice'. This study showed that the risk of developing PD was at least doubled in people with anxiety compared with those without. The clinical features of those who developed PD can help identify patients presenting with anxiety who are in the prodromal phase of PD.
Also in 2024, our researchers at CSIC, IIT and KI published a joint paper Serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons in the dorsal raphe are differentially altered in a mouse model for parkinsonism in the journal eLife. This showed neuronal heterogeneity in the dorsal raphe nucleus, and the electrophysiological properties, morphology, and susceptibility to the neurodegeneration of noradrenaline and dopamine systems in the Parkinsonian state.
As we all know, it takes time for data to turn into published papers... so despite the fact the project has come to the end of its funding period, we have many more exciting publications to come!
These will be listed on our results page as they become available.... and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn and X (twitter) to be the first to know!
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