Re: drug Lipitor and parkinson's disease any relationship anyone might know of?

Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2002 Jul;61(7):634-9. Related Articles,
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Mitochondrial DNA deletions/rearrangements in parkinson disease and
related neurodegenerative disorders.
Gu G, Reyes PE, Golden GT, Woltjer RL, Hulette C, Montine TJ, Zhang J.
Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2561, USA.
Inhibition of mitochondrial respiratory chain function may contribute
to dopaminergic neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra (SN) of
patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Since large-scale structural
changes (e.g. deletions and rearrangements in mitochondrial DNA
[mtDNA]) have been associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, we
tested the hypothesis that increased total mtDNA
deletions/rearrangements are associated with neurodegeneration in PD.
This study employed a well-established technique, long-extension
polymerase chain reaction (LX-PCR), to detect the multiple mtDNA
deletions/rearrangements in the SN of patients with PD, multiple
system atrophy (MSA), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Alzheimer
disease (AD), and age-matched controls. We also compared the total
mtDNA deletions/rearrangements in different brain regions of PD
patients. The results demonstrated that both the number and variety of
mtDNA deletions/rearrangements were selectively increased in the SN of
PD patients compared to patients with other movement disorders as well
as patients with AD and age-matched controls. In addition, increased
mtDNA deletions/rearrangements were observed in other brain regions in
PD patients, indicating that mitochondrial dysfunction is not just
limited to the SN of PD patients. These data suggest that accumulation
of total mtDNA deletions/rearrangements is a relatively specific
characteristic of PD and may be one of the contributing factors
leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and neurodegeneration in PD.
PMID: 12125742