The basic validity of the physiologic-pharmacologic model outlined here is supported by the observation that excess doses of L-dopa or of a direct-acting dopamine receptor agonist lead to excessive motor activity. Furthermore, the therapeutic effects of the main drugs used in the treatment of Parkinson disease are understandable in the context of neurotransmitter function. To correct the basic dopamine deficiency from a loss of nigral cells that underlies Parkinson disease, attempts were at first made to administer dopamine directly. However, dopamine as such cannot cross the blood–brain barrier and therefore has no therapeutic effect. But its immediate precursor, L-dopa, does cross the blood–barrier and is effective in decreasing the symptoms of Parkinson disease as well as of the above-described MPTP-induced parkinsonism. This effect is enhanced by the addition of an inhibitor of dopadecarboxylase, an important enzyme in the catabolism of dopamine. The addition of an enzyme inhibitor of this type (carbidopa or benserazide) to L-dopa results in an increase of dopamine concentration in the brain, while sparing other organs. The benefit of combining L-dopa with carbidopa is to minimize the systemic side effects of peripheral dopamine, such as nausea, vomiting, and hypotension. Similarly, drugs that inhibit catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT), another enzyme that metabolizes dopamine, prolong the effects of administered L-dopa.
Acetylcholine (ACh), long established as the neurotransmitter at the neuromuscular junction and the autonomic ganglia, is also physiologically active in the basal ganglia. The highest concentration of ACh, as well as of the enzymes necessary for its synthesis and degradation (choline acetyl transferase and acetylcholinesterase), is in the striatum. Acetylcholine is synthesized and released by the large but sparse (Golgi type 2) nonspiny striatal neurons. It has a mixed but mainly excitatory effect on the more numerous spiny neurons within the putamen that constitute the main origin of the direct and indirect pathways described above. It is likely that the effectiveness of atropinic agents—which have been used empirically for many years in the treatment of Parkinson disease and dystonia—depends on their capacity to antagonize ACh at sites within the basal ganglia and in projections from the pedunculopontine nuclei. Acetylcholine also appears to act on the presynaptic membrane of striatal cells and to influence their release of neurotransmitters, as discussed below. In addition, the basal ganglia contain other biologically active substances—substance P, enkephalin, cholecystokinin, somatostatin, and neuropeptide Y—which enhance or diminish the effects of other neurotransmitters, that is, they act as neuromodulators.