Discussion

The mechanisms of pathogenesis and progression of Parkinson´s disease (PD) are not well understood. By the time PD is diagnosed, about 70% of dopaminergic neurons have been lost. In order to develop better tools for early diagnosis, disease stratification and new therapeutic strategies, an interdisciplinary and integrative systems approach is required. Experimental and computational efforts to study the hallmarks of PD are presented, including the development of a comprehensive PD-map. The PD-map serves as a knowledge repository and integrates pathways implicated in PD pathogenesis such as synaptic and mitochondrial dysfunction, impaired protein degradation, alpha-synuclein pathobiology and neuroinflammation