Many years ago, here at BUSM, there was a NHP named Sophie who supposedly developed parkinsonism.  I never saw her myself but the chairman of the Department of Neurology, Dr. Robert Feldman, saw her and was very interested in doing an autopsy on her to see the neuropathology associated with her movement disorder.   That said, I have never heard of idiopathic Parkinson's disease occurring in an NHP.

These authors have reported on the neuropathology of normal aging and motor dysfunction including bradykinesia in an NHP.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11796755

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9822152

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11034220

No, there are no research reports on Parkinsonism in monkeys.

Dear Numasawa, spontaneous I don't know. However we did rather strange experiments. Adding high concentrations of egg yellow to monkey food induced Parkinson like effects. The report is hardly known: look into Usunoff et.al.on Parkinson and atlas substantia nigra in Arch Physiol Biochem. I was editor in that time of the journal. I do have reprints, but cannot send them earlier than after 10 march, I am abroad. If you want it, give your e-mail address andfull  postal address

Marcia, Thank you so much for your information.

And this is the first time I understand "NHP" is an abbreviation for nonhuman primates.

I couldn't access the report by your link. So, could you tell me the report title or something?

Herwig Lange, Thank you very much for your information.

Lyle Wiemerslage, Thank you very much for your explanation.

So, do dopaminergic neurons of non-human primates have a same as or similar to those of human?

Dear Enrico Marani,

   Thank you very much for your kind information.

   I think the report you mentioned is

   ”Neuromelanin in the human brain: a review and atlas of pigmented cells in the substantia nigra." Arch Physiol Biochem. 2002 Oct;110(4):257-369. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=PMID%3A+12516659

   I'm looking forward to reading the paper, so I just ordered the copy in the library of my university! Thank you so much!!

Lyle,

Thank you so much!!

I understand and agree with you.

Dear Yoshiyuki,

I think I have located the reference that Marcia was talking about. I am also enclosing links to other related papers you might be interested in:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.0022-3042.2001.00684.x/pdf

Journal of Neurochemistry, 2002, 80, 168±177

http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/55/10/B473.full.pdf

Journal of Gerontology:

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Copyright 2000 by The Gerontological Society of America

2000, Vol. 55A, No. 10, B473–B480B473

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CE0QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FElliott_Mufson%2Fpublication%2F13464854_Age-related_declines_in_nigral_neuronal_function_correlate_with_motor_impairments_in_rhesus_monkeys%2Flinks%2F00b7d5183c3502121f000000.pdf&ei=mZXcVNzYGMOrU4j6gKgC&usg=AFQjCNGQV6PdVab-W5GRS_lgtzIxuseWYQ

THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY 401:253–265 (1998)

For review (page 78):

http://www.nasslab.com/sites/default/files/publications/6_nass_pdbook_2008.pdf

Parkinson's Disease: molecular and therapeutic insights from model systems

 edited by Richard Nass, Serge Przedborsk, page 78

Thank you Carlos. I have reposted the links as well. 

The Gerhardt paper was the broken link in my post.   I have added two addition links. 

Wow Marcia, we must have been working on this at the same time and chosen the same references!!

Scary...

:-)

Best regards

The Gerhardt paper was the original one I posted about but when I went to find a better link to this I serendipitously found the others in the process. 

Thank you very much, Carlos and Marcia.  

Those are very useful links and discussion you have.

I read those papers and understood that age-related motor dysfunction of rhesus monkey and the depletion of dopaminergic neurons are similar to those of human.

But I have not yet found out the report in that the Lewy body, some other α-synclein positive inclusion or neurite is in the brain of monkey. 

Is there some reports that those pathological biomarkers are found  in the brain of monkey which showed age-related parkinson-like symtoms other than transgenic monkey?

To the best of my knowledge there are no reports of Lewy bodies because NHPs do not develop idiopathic Parkinson's disease per se although the do develop parkinsonism. 

Marcia, thank you so much. 

I do understand your meaning.  I wil share these discussion with my colleague.

I agree with Marcia and also with Lyle's earlier comments. I don't think that Lewy's bodies have ever been found in any other species (naturally occuring ones) but in humans. There was some experimental evidence in rats (see the link bellow), but it has not been replicated yet, as far as I know

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12167769

The best model would be one in which you initiate the neurodegeneration by injecting human Lewy body extracts into the brains of the NHP and then look at ways to slow or arrest the process.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24243558 

Carlos,  I am reading the report you mentioned and also share with my colleague. 

Marcia, I am reviewing the report.

There would be two process. LB-induced neurodegeneration and non-LB-induced one. In case of NHP, the process will be non-LB-induced one in nature. But human LB could induced degeneration rapidly than the natural non-LB-induced process. That is my understanding.

That is correct the only model for LB in NHP would be induced by injecting them with human LB.

You can look at other models too but each one has its limitations from a drug development standpoint. The cost of NHP model is highest but the data may be the best from a translational standpoint.

Perhaps you should also look into papers of de Hartog Jager, dutch prof in neuropathology and in those of Vianny de Jong. They worked together on Parkinson in monkeys.  Don't have them here, but you easily can find them.

Marcia, Thanks a lot

Enrico, I will check those you mentioned. Thank you.

And I just got the review, "Neuromelanin in the Human Brain: A Review and Atlas of Pigmented Cells in the Substantia Nigra".