FoxO6 - A novel target for Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Parkinson is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder that has affected about 6 million people worldwide. The complications of this disorder increase the disability and decrease the QoL of the patient and get worsened as the disease progresses. The therapies available till date have only managed to relieve the suffering along with ample of adverse events they cause. None of the therapy has served to completely cure the disease by targeting its root cause. Being a neurodegenerative disorder, preventing the neurodegeneration and regeneration of neurons might serve to cease the disease progression. Autophagy is a marvelous cleaning mechanism of the body whose impairment is reported to cause accumulation of toxic, misfolded proteins leading to death of neurons. A large number of genes transcription factors and proteins are important players of autophagy which interplay together and cause efficient removal of misfolded, aggregated, toxic proteins to prevent neuronal death. Therefore, these transcription factors may serve as potential targets to trigger autophagy, and thereby prevent neurodegeneration and promote neuroprotection. FoxO6 is known to be one of the important transcription factors in regulating autophagy and hence the aim of the current review is to present a novel strategy for treating PD by triggering autophagy which is in-turn by targeting the concerned genes and transcription factors with a special emphasis on FoxO.