Basal Ganglia Pharmacology Flashcards
What does the indirect pathway of the basal ganglia do?
Suppresses competing nonselected movement
What does the direct pathway of the basal ganglia do?
Releases a selected movement from suppression
What signals does the striatum receive from the cortex?
Glutamate
What does dopamine do to the basal ganglia?
Makes movement happen
What is the end results of Parkinson’s?
Decreased motor cortex stimulation
What triggers cell death in the SNc in Parkinson’s?
Alpha snyuclein
What are the four cardinal signs of Parkinson’s?
Bradykinesia
Cog wheel rigidity
Resting tremor
Mask facees (flat face, no expression)
What drugs are used for treatment of PD (for this lecture)?
L-DOPA Entacapone Carbidopa Selegiline Pramipexole
What is sinemet?
Levodopa + Carbidopa
What does L-DOPA do?
Converted to dopamine by AAAD
What is Carbidopa?
Inhibits AAAD
What does L-DOPA do?
Targets d1 and D2
Why does the effectiveness of L-DOPA decrease with progression of PD?
The dopaminergic neurons that have AAAD are almost all gone
Where is L-DOPA stored in early PD?
Presynaptic dopaminergic terminals of striatum (gradually released)
What are the adverse affects of L-DOPA?
Dyskinesia - abnormal involuntary movements
Chorea of upper body (peak dose)
Diphasic dyskinesia - two phases appearing when the drugs dose is increasing or decreasing
Affect lower limb, repetitive
Off period dystonia - when dose is gone, fixed and painful postures, often feet but can be generalized
