Cigarette Smoking, Nicotine and Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder which occurs in about 1% of the general population above 55 years of age. It manifests as selective damage to the dopaminergic neurons, which are situated in the nigro-striatal region of the brain and leads to motor-deficits which includes rigidity, tremors, dementia, frequent falls, and freezing of gait in the later stages. Dopamine replacement therapy is the most commonly used treatment strategy against PD. However it provides only symptomatic relief and the disease progresses inevitably. Also, as the time goes by, it loses its efficacy along with a substantial increase in the side effects. That being said, it becomes crucial to develop an interventional strategy, which can effectively retard, halt or even reverse the process of disease progression. In this regard, the epidemiological studies over the past 50 years [... Read More]