Cholinergic system changes in Parkinson's disease: emerging therapeutic approaches

In patients with Parkinson's disease, heterogeneous cholinergic system changes can occur in different brain regions. These changes correlate with a range of clinical features, both motor and non-motor, that are refractory to dopaminergic therapy, and can be conceptualised within a systems-level framework in which nodal deficits can produce circuit dysfunctions. The topographies of cholinergic changes overlap with neural circuitries involved in sleep and cognitive, motor, visuo-auditory perceptual, and autonomic functions. Cholinergic deficits within cognition network hubs predict cognitive deficits better than do total brain cholinergic changes. Postural instability and gait difficulties are associated with…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• NI
  National Institute on Handicapped Research
• PF
  Parkinson's Foundation
• FF
  Farmer Family Foundation
• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research
• DO
  Department of Health and Social Care
• NU
  Newcastle University
• NU
  Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• NN
  NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre