Effect of Pramipexole on Inflammatory Response in Central Nervous System of Parkinson's Disease Rat Model

Pramipexole is the dopamine receptor agonist commonly used for treatment of PD, the effect of which on immunity played an important role in pathological process is also deserved to be further studied.

We observed the effect of pramipexole on behavior and central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory cytokines of Parkinson's Disease (PD) model rats.

We injected 3.0 μL lipopolysaccharide into the right substantia nigra compact (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) of sprague-dawley (SD) rats to establish PD models which were divided as treated group feeded with pramipexole for 14 d and untreated group feeded with saline. And SD rats were selected as control group feeded with saline. We conducted rotation test on PD model rats before and after treatment. We also performed euthanasia on all rats to obtain the striatum area and nearby tissues after treatment, measuring mRNA expression and concentration of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test and elisa method, respectively.

It was observed that the degree of behavior improvement in treated group was greater than that in untreated group. In addition, mRNA expression and concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α in treated group were lower than those in untreated group and higher than those in control group.

Pramipexole improved behavior of PD model rat, and down regulated the mRNA expression and concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α in their CNS.