Abstract:
A major trend in recent Parkinson’s disease (PD) research is the investigation of biological markers that could
help in identifying at‐risk individuals or to track disease progression and response to therapies. Central to this is the
knowledge that inflammation is a known hallmark of PD and of many other degenerative diseases. In the current work, we
focus on inflammatory signalling in PD, using a systems approach that allows us to look at the disease in a more holistic
way. We discuss cyclooxygenases, prostaglandins, thromboxanes and also iron in PD. These particular signalling molecules
are involved in PD pathophysiology, but are also very important in an aberrant coagulation/hematology system. We
present and discuss a hypothesis regarding the possible interaction of these aberrant signalling molecules implicated in PD,
and suggest that these molecules may affect the erythrocytes of PD patients. This would be observable as changes in the
morphology of the RBCs and of PD patients relative to healthy controls. We then show that the RBCs of PD patients are
indeed rather dramatically deranged in their morphology, exhibiting eryptosis (a kind of programmed cell death). This
morphological indicator may have useful diagnostic and prognostic significance.
