Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive neurologic disorder, which affects approximately one million men and women in the US alone. PD represents a heterogeneous disorder with common clinical manifestations and, for the most part, common neuropathological findings.
Objective: This short article reviews the role of the ubiquitin E3 ligase in sporadic PD.
Methods: The role of parkin in sporadic PD was reviewed by querying PubMed.
Results: Parkin is inactivated in sporadic PD via S-nitrosylation, oxidative and dopaminergic stress, and phosphorylation by the stress-activated kinase c-Abl, leading to the accumulation of AIMP2 and PARIS (ZNF746).
Conclusion: Strategies aimed at maintaining parkin in a catalytically active state or interfering with the toxicity of AIMP2 and PARIS (ZNF746) offer new therapeutic opportunities.