Parkinson's Disease: Current Status, Diagnosis, and Treatment Using Nanomedicines

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic, and highly neurodegenerative disorder with complex pathological processes. The features for neuropathological identification of PD include α-synuclein (α-syn) protein aggregates, oxidative stress, metal ion dyshomeostasis, neurotransmitter deficiencies, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Currently, no definite treatment paradigm can completely cure PD patients, which is increasing globally over the past few decades. The existence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) restricts the conventional treatment processes and makes the therapeutic delivery to the brain a bit more challenging. Therefore, developing new useful medicines for improving brain distribution is vital to overcome BBB and helping the early diagnosis and treatment of PD. In this review, the current limitations of conventional drugs are highlighted and the development of new medicines to overcome such limitations is covered. This work will provide insight into the direction for designing novel efficient nanomedicines for the early diagnosis and treatment of PD.