Involvement of Endocytosis and Alternative Splicing in the Formation of the Pathological Process in the Early Stages of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the one of most widespread neurodegenerative pathologies. Because of the impossibility of studying the endogenous processes that occur in the brain of patients with PD in the presymptomatic stage, the mechanisms that trigger the disease remain unknown. Thus, the identification of the processes that play an important role in the early stages of the disease in these patients is extremely difficult. In this context, we performed a whole-transcriptome analysis of the peripheral blood of untreated patients with stage 1 PD (Hoehn-Yahr scale). We demonstrated a significant change in the levels of transcripts included in the large groups of processes associated with the functioning of the immune system and cellular transport. Moreover, a significant change in the splicing of genes involved in cellular-transport processes was shown in our study.