Translational Approaches to Unravelling Non-Motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s disease

Mahmoud Iravani has a long standing research interest in neurodegeneration mechanisms in Parkinson’s Disease and L-Dopa induced dyskinesia with Peter Jenner at Neurodegenerative Disease Research Centre at King's College London. Most recently at King’s College London, in collaboration with Professors Paul Francis and Clive Ballard, he investigated the anti-apoptotic and anti-aggregative role of various agents in the lactacystin model of Parkinson’s disease. A second project, which is still ongoing, has involved imaging of the structural changes in the primate brains following MPTP treatment, using MRI at the Institute of Psychiatry. At the University of Herfordshire his focus will be primarily on Parkinson’s disease neuropathology as well as novel treatments for L-dopa induced dyskinesia. Specifically, he will focus on the non-dopaminergic aspects of the parkinsonian pathology and role of inflammation in protein aggregation and the treatment of of l-dopa induced dyskinesia. In the first instance, achieving these goals, will be pursued by collaborating with colleagues at King’s College London. In addition, he will be submitting grant applications to identify the mechanisms of PD induced non-motor dysfunction. Professor Susan Duty PhD, FBPhS is a Professor in Pharmacology & Neuroscience in King's College London. She is also Head of Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, responsible for delivery of pharmacology education to undergraduate and masters students. She has received Teaching Excellence Awards from King’s College London and the British Pharmacology Society in recognition of her innovative education. Her research is dedicated to better understanding, and finding improved treatments for, Parkinson’s disease. A key focus is to find drugs to combat the neurodegeneration underpinning Parkinson’s. As well as identifying novel targets for achieving this, such as mGlu4 receptors, we use targeted repurposing strategies to identify existing drugs that boost protective growth factor levels and explore novel delivery mechanisms for the growth factors themselves. Another key focus is to define the mechanisms behind pain in Parkinson’s and identify ways in which patients’ pain can be better managed.

A general clinical overview of the non-motor symptoms 1. General Clinical Overview 2. Stress/fatigue/ cognitive decline Sleep / autonomic failure A general clinical overview of the non-motor symptoms – psychiatric symptoms 3. Psychosis 4. Cognitive Decline Non-clinical Aspect of non-motor symptoms: Animal Models 5. Assessment and treatment of cognitive decline in rodent and primate models 6. Pain in PD models 7. Affective disorders in PD models 8. Sleep and circadian dysregulation and EEG disruption in rodent models of PD 9. Gut dysmotility in rodents and its central origin 10. Bladder dysfunction in rodent models of PD with a translational approach to bladder hyperreflexia in man 11. Long term adaptive changes to autonomically innervated smooth muscle contractility in a primate model of PD