Downregulation of Pael-R expression in a Parkinson's disease cell model reduces apoptosis

The pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD), a common neurodegenerative disease, is poorly understood. Pael-R is a substrate of the Parkin protein, dysfunction of which can cause Pael-R protein accumulation, leading to cytotoxicity and dopaminergic neuronal apoptosis, causes of PD. In the present study, we induced PC12 cells to become dopaminergic neuron-like cells, and then suppressed Parkin expression in these cells to establish a PD cell model. We found that downregulating Pael-R gene expression in these PD model cells via RNA interference resulted in a reduction in the apoptotic rate. We conclude that downregulation of Pael-R gene expression is an effective approach for ameliorating the neuronal apoptosis caused by Parkin gene dysfunction.