Susceptibility in Parkinson's disease. 'Of mice and men'

Nowadays, a substantial amount of clinical and experimental research is directed to the role of reactive oxygen species in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. On the other hand epidemiologic studies elicited the role of cytochrome P-450 and exposure to MPTP-analogues (such as paraquat) in the prevalence of this disease. Until now the relation between these two findings was not clear. In this paper a hypothesis is presented linking the present data on susceptibility towards Parkinson's disease.