Transcriptional Regulators are Upregulated in the Substantia Nigra of Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects approximately 10 million people worldwide with tremors, bradykinesia, apathy, memory loss, and language issues. Though such symptoms are due to the loss of the substantia nigra (SN) brain region, the ultimate causes and complete pathology are unknown. To understand the global gene expression changes in SN, microarray expression data from the SN tissue of 9 controls and 16 PD patients were compared, and significantly upregulated and downregulated genes were identified. Among the upregulated genes, a network of 33 interacting genes centered around the cAMP-response element binding protein (CREBBP) was found. The downstream effects of increased CREBBP-related transcription and the resulting protein levels may result in PD symptoms, making CREBBP a potential therapeutic target due to its central role in the interactive gene network affected in PD SN.