Project 457118

Parkinson disease (PD) follows Alzheimer disease as the second most common neurodegenerative disease in Canada and affects over 10 million people worldwide. PD is characterized by a loss of neurons in a region of the brain called the substantia nigra. Patients diagnosed with PD exhibit debilitating movement-related symptoms - including shaking, muscle stiffness, and difficulties with walking and coordination - that begin during middle age and worsen over time. As such, there is a critical need to develop strategies that will prevent/slow PD onset and disease progression in the aging population. A major roadblock preventing the development of broadly applicable therapeutics for PD is the fact that PD is caused by a wide range of genetic and environmental factors that result in individual differences in disease risk, age of onset, and progression. Notably, inflammation has been increasingly acknowledged as a common driver of neurodegeneration caused by a range of genetic and environmental risk factors. Therefore, targeting this inflammatory response may represent a promising avenue of prophylactic and therapeutic intervention that has the potential to improve the duration and quality of life in the aging Canadian population at risk for PD and other neurodegenerative disorders. This project will investigate the potential of an anti-inflammatory drug (Ibuprofen) to prevent the onset and slow the progression of PD. This is the first study of its kind to characterize the effect of an anti-inflammatory drug by defining how it modulates gene expression, as well as clinical onset and progression of PD in a mouse model. This novel study will identify genes, pathways, and disease outcomes associated with targeting the inflammatory response in PD. The results of this research will lay groundwork to inform the development and implementation of strategies that may extend the quality of life of individuals at risk for PD and other neurodegenerative disorders.