Parkinson's disease (PD) is an insidious onset neurodegenerative disease affecting approximately 1% of the population over the age of 65. So far available therapies for PD have only aimed at improving or alleviating symptoms, but not at slowing, preventing, and reversing the course of PD. Recently, some studies have indicated that the levels and activation of Abelson non-receptor tyrosine kinase (c-Abl, Abl1) were up-regulated in the brain tissue of patients with PD and demonstrated that c-Abl inhibitors could improve motor behavior, prevent the loss of dopamine neurons, inhibit phosphorylation of Cdk5, regulate α-synuclein phosphorylation and clearance, inhibit the tyrosine phosphorylation of parkin and decrease parkin substrate, for example, PARIS (zinc finger protein 746), AIMP2 (aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase-interacting multifunctional protein type2), FBP1 (fuse-binding protein 1), and synphilin-1. Therefore, we review the mechanism of the c-Abl inhibitor in PD and conclude that c-Abl inhibitors may be a potential treatment in PD and other neurodegenerative disease.
Keywords: Dopamine; Parkin; Parkinson’s disease; c-Abl inhibitor; α-Synuclein.