TRPC channels and Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder, which involves degeneration of dopaminergic neurons that are present in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) region. Many factors have been identified that could lead to Parkinson’s disease; however, almost all of them are directly or indirectly dependent on Ca2+ signaling. Importantly, though disturbances in Ca2+ homeostasis have been implicated in Parkinson’s disease and other neuronal diseases, the identity of the calcium channel remains elusive. Members of the transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channel family have been identified as a new class of Ca2+ channels, and it could be anticipated that these channels could play important roles in neurodegenerative diseases, especially in PD. Thus, in this chapter we have entirely focused on TRPC channels and elucidated its role in PD.