Research advances on L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia: from animal models to human disease

L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) was introduced about half a century ago and is still the most effective medicine for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, such chronic treatment eventually leads to L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) on the majority of PD patients. Besides L-DOPA, dopamine agonists are able to induce dyskinesia as well. So far no drug is yet claimed to effectively curb LID, and amantadine has only a modest benefit on LID patients. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanisms behind LID is urgently needed, and developing new antiparkinsonian medications with low dyskinesia potential is necessarily required. In the last decades, several animal models have been generated for these aims. 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-lesioned monkey models always considered as gold standard of PD studies are also applied well for the research of LID. Additionally, several rodent models were developed for such clinical needs. Of them, 6-hydroxydopamine (OHDA)-lesioned rats or mice exhibiting countable abnormal involuntary movements (AIMs) after L-DOPA treatments have becoming widely applicable tools for LID pathogenesis studies. Under investigating these models for years, multiple potential LID-associated genes and pathways have been innovatively identified, which largely advance the therapeutic and preventative strategies for the disease. In this review, we attempt to update the recent findings represented in LID animal models and trial studies, which may facilitate the mechanistic understanding, drug development, and clinical evaluation of this movement disorder.