Review Article
Heterogeneity of Parkinsonism in Familial Frontotemporal Dementia: Insights from Genetic Clues on the Pathogenesis
Chin-Hsien Lin*
Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- *Corresponding Author:
- Chin-Hsien Lin
Department of Neurology
National Taiwan University Hospital
Taipei 100, Taiwan
Tel: +886-2-23123456
Fax: +886- 2-23418395
E-mail: chlin@ntu.edu.tw
Received date August 09, 2016; Accepted date August 13, 2016; Published date August 20, 2016
Citation: Lin CH (2016) Heterogeneity of Parkinsonism in Familial Frontotemporal Dementia: Insights from Genetic Clues on the Pathogenesis. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 6:257. doi:10.4172/2161-0460.1000257
Copyright: © 2016 Lin CH. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a clinically, genetically and pathologically heterogeneous disorder characterized by personality changes, language impairment, and deficits of executive functions, often overlapped with Parkinsonism syndrome and motor neuron disorder. Owing to the advancement in the field of molecular genetics in the familiar forms of FTD, several recent breakthroughs have provided notable insights into the pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disorder. Nevertheless, Parkinsonism in FTD has received relatively less attention. Given that Parkinsonism feature is found in approximately 15-20% of patients with FTD, there is a need to understand Parkinsonism in FTD in order to obtain a better landscape of this disease spectrum. Recent advances have revealed mechanistic links between Parkinsonism and frontotemporal dementia, as well as between other neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Here, we summarize recent genetic advances and molecular findings in familial FTD with Parkinsonism and delineate the mechanisms underlying this overlapped neurodegenerative disorder.
