Farmacia

Mov Disord. 2008 Nov 15;23(15):2122-8.
Atypical parkinsonism in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe: etiological role of the mitochondrial complex I inhibitor annonacin.Lannuzel A, Ruberg M, Michel PP.
Source
INSERM, UMR_S 679, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière,, Paris, France. annie.lannuzel@wanadoo.fr
Abstract
On the French West Indian island ofGuadeloupe, atypical parkinsonian patients represent two-thirds of all cases of parkinsonism, which is exceptionally frequent compared to epidemiological data from European countrieswhere atypical parkinsonism accounts for only approximately 5% of all cases. The clinical entity was a unique combination of levodopa-resistant parkinsonism, tremor, myoclonus,hallucinations, REM sleep behavior disorder and fronto-subcortical dementia. Based on the presence or the absence of supranuclear gaze palsy, two subgroups of patients weredistinguished. In patients with oculomotor signs that came to autopsy, neuronal loss was found to predominate in the substantia nigra and the striatum but other brain areas werealso affected, including the frontal cortex. In addition, tau-containing lesions were detected throughout the brain. Epidemiological data suggested a close association of thedisease with the regular consumption of soursop, a tropical annonaceous plant. Experimental studies performed in midbrain cell cultures identified annonacin, a selectivemitochondrial complex I inhibitor contained in the fruit and leaves of soursop, as a probable etiological factor. Consistent with this view, chronic administration of annonacin to ratsthrough Alzet osmotic minipumps showed that annonacin was able to reproduce the brain lesions characteristic of the human disease.
PMID:
18816693
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]