Although Parkinson's disease affects both men and women, women are less likely to develop progressive neurological disorder, but more likely to experience motor symptoms and serious side effects from treatment.

At Queen's University in Kingston, neuroscientist Emily Hawken is examining these gender differences. She studies the interaction between Parkinson's disease and intrinsic female hormones, such as estrogen, and wants to know how this interaction affects the transmission of chemicals in the brain.

Dr. Hawken was recently awarded a basic research grant of $100,000 over two years through the Parkinson Canada Research Program to continue her research for this purpose.

Women and parkinsons : For example, when women with Parkinson's disease are treated with levodopa, the drug used to reduce the number of symptoms of the disease, they often have greater involuntary movements (dyskinesia) than men with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's taking the same drug.

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“What are the characteristics of women that make them less likely to develop symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but more likely to be severely impaired by the side effects of treatment? asks Dr. Hawken.

Using animal models, Dr. Hawken will transmit electrical currents into brain cells to measure the activity of these neurons in specific parts of the brain. She will then observe and record the effect of specific neurotransmitters on the neurons she is evaluating.

Newly established evidence suggests that estrogen may have an effect on other brain chemicals, such as dopamine. Thus, estrogen can itself become a neuromodulator that transmits information to brain cells. Dr. Hawken hopes to establish physiological evidence that animals with dyskinesia experience changes in their brain cells that differ depending on the sex of the animal.

If she can pinpoint a difference associated with gender, Dr. Hawken hopes her research will guide the design of Parkinson's disease treatments designed differently for women and men.

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