Objective: To explore the olfactory effect of PINK1 deficiency in serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons we did a behavioral analysis of young mice, deficient for PINK1 specifically in serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons.

Background: Parkinson´s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease exhibiting the typical motor symptoms like tremor, bradykinesia or rigidity. However, previous studies have shown that several non-motor symptoms may precede the onset of motor impairment. A decreased function in olfaction is a common finding, which is likely to appear early in the process of PD. Several genes, like the PTEN-induced kinase (PINK1), have been identified as causative genes for familiar PD. Both PD patients with PINK1 mutations and our constitutive Pink1 knock-out mice showed deficits in odor identification and discrimination1.The pathophysiology of olfactory dysfunctions remains still unclear. A serotonergic miss-innervation of the olfactory bulb of Pink1 knock-out mice has already been demonstrated, which could lead to the olfactory phenotype.

Methods: We performed an olfactory testing which was published in Glasl et al., 2012.

Results: So far, the behavioral tests could not show significant impairments in the specific PINK1 deficient mice.

Conclusions: However, Parkinson´s disease is an age related disorder. Therefore, we will analyze older animals which might show a previous rescued phenotype. In sum, we are exploring the pathophysiology of the impaired olfaction – a major prodromal symptom of neurodegeneration – using Pink1 deficient mice as model system.

2nd Zing Neurodegeneration Conference in Cancun, Mexico, 2nd December 2015 – 5th December 2015.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/analysis-of-the-olfactory-impairments-in-pink1-deficient-mice/