†These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Graham Pawelec
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative condition of the
central nervous system (CNS) affecting 6.3 million people worldwide with no
curative treatments. Current therapies aim to mitigate PD’s effects and offer
symptomatic relief for patients. Multiple pathways are involved in the
pathogenesis of PD, leading to neuroinflammation and the destruction of
dopaminergic neurons in the CNS. This review focuses on PD pathology and the role
of calpain, a neutral protease, as a regulator of various immune cells such as
T-cells, microglia and astrocytes which lead to persistent neuroinflammatory
responses and neuronal loss in both the brain and spinal cord (SC). Calpain plays
a significant role in the cleavage and aggregation of toxic