Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is common, affecting between 2-3% of people over the age of 65 with over half of patients developing dementia within ten years. This causes a decline in function and often leads to nursing home care. The involvement of the immune system in PO has been well described but it remains unclear whether this is an epiphenomenon. I hypothesise that the immune response to PO associated pathology contributes to disease progression, increasing the risk of dementia. My PhD will look at the role played by 8 lymphocytes as most research has focused on T lymphocytes or the innate immune system. I aim to characterise the 8 lymphocyte response associated with alpha synuclein pathology in both the mouse and human brain and to identify whether there are perturbations in the systemic 8 cell compartment in patients at high risk of dementia versus those who have a low risk. Using two mouse models of PO I will manipulate B cells to see whether 8cell depletion, antibody depletion or manipulation of 8 cell regulatory activity alters disease course thereby confirming causation in an animal model.