New Perspectives on Immune Involvement in Parkinson’s Disease Pathogenesis

Accumulating evidence implicates immune dysfunction in the etiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD). For instance, impaired cellular and humoral immune responses are emerging as established pathological hallmarks in PD. Further, in experimental models of PD, inflammatory cell activation and immune dysregulation are evident. Genetic and epidemiologic studies have drawn associations between autoimmune disease and PD. Distillation of these various lines of evidence indicates dysregulated immunogenetics as a primary risk factor for PD. This article will present novel perspectives on the association between genetic risk factors and immune processes in PD. The objective of this work is to synthesize the data surrounding the role of immunogenetics in PD to maximize the potential of targeting the immune system as a therapeutic modality.