COVID-19 and Parkinson's Disease: Possible Links in Pathology and Therapeutics

Neurotox Res. 2022 Oct;40(5):1586-1596. doi: 10.1007/s12640-022-00540-4. Epub 2022 Jul 13.

Abstract

The outbreak of SARs-CoV-2 with emerging new variants is leading to global health crisis and has brought a major concern for patients with comorbidities. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a motor neurodegenerative disease involving various metabolic and psychological ailments along with the common occurrence of hyposmia as observed in COVID-19 patients. In addition, the observed surplus inflammatory responses in both diseases are also alarming. Alongside, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, essentially required by SARS-CoV-2 to enter the cell and dopamine decarboxylase (DDC), required for dopamine synthesis is known to co-regulate in the non-neuronal cells. Taken together, these conditions suggested the probable reciprocal pathological relation between COVID-19 and PD and also suggested that during comorbidities, the disease diagnosis and therapeutics are critical and may engender severe health complications. In this review, we discuss various events and mechanisms which may have implications for the exacerbation of PD conditions and must be taken into account during the treatment of patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Dopamine; Parkinson’s disease; Protein aggregation; SARS-CoV-2; Therapeutics; α-Synuclein.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2
  • COVID-19* / complications
  • Carboxy-Lyases* / metabolism
  • Dopamine
  • Humans
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases*
  • Parkinson Disease* / complications
  • Parkinson Disease* / epidemiology
  • Parkinson Disease* / therapy
  • Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / metabolism
  • Renin-Angiotensin System / physiology
  • SARS-CoV-2

Substances

  • Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A
  • Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2
  • Carboxy-Lyases
  • Dopamine