“…Rodent models display many of the clinical features of PD such as the loss of dopaminergic neurons (Meredith and Rademacher, 2011; Thiele et al, 2012; Torres and Dunnett, 2012), neurochemical changes in dopamine transmission and signaling, motor dysfunction, and non-motor symptoms including cognitive decline, autonomic dysfunction, depression, and hyposmia (Taylor et al, 2010; Schirinzi et al, 2016). However, these models do not mimic some important pathological hallmarks of the disease (Fleming and Chesselet, 2006; Visanji et al, 2016) such as the gradual neurodegenerative process, gross morphological abnormalities and overt motor alterations (Yue and Lachenmayer, 2011; Ribeiro et al, 2013; Schirinzi et al, 2016). Moreover, gene editing techniques in rodents involve complex experimental design, significant time investment and considerable expense.…”