IMPORTANCE: Alterations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have been found in Parkinson disease (PD) and in PD dementia (PDD), but the prognostic importance of such changes is not well known. In vivo ...biomarkers for disease processes in PD are important for future development of disease-modifying therapies. OBJECTIVE: To assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of a panel of CSF biomarkers in patients with early PD and related disorders. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Regional population-based, prospective cohort study of idiopathic parkinsonism that included patients diagnosed between January 1, 2004, and April 30, 2009, by a movement disorder team at a university hospital that represented the only neurology clinic in the region. Participants were 128 nondemented patients with new-onset parkinsonism (104 with PD, 11 with multiple system atrophy, and 13 with progressive supranuclear palsy) who were followed up for 5 to 9 years. At baseline, CSF from 30 healthy control participants was obtained for comparison. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of neurofilament light chain protein, Aβ1-42, total tau, phosphorylated tau, α-synuclein, and heart fatty acid–binding protein were quantified by 2 blinded measurements (at baseline and after 1 year). Follow-up included an extensive neuropsychological assessment. As PD outcome variables, mild cognitive impairment and incident PDD were diagnosed based on published criteria. RESULTS: Among the 128 study participants, the 104 patients with early PD had a different CSF pattern compared with the 13 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (baseline area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.87; P < .0001) and the 30 control participants (baseline area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.69; P = .0021). A CSF biomarker pattern associated with the development of PDD was observed. In PD, high neurofilament light chain protein, low Aβ1-42, and high heart fatty acid–binding protein at baseline were related to future PDD as analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression models. Combined, these early biomarkers predicted PDD with high accuracy (hazard ratio, 11.8; 95% CI, 3.3-42.1; P = .0001) after adjusting for possible confounders. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The analyzed CSF biomarkers have potential usefulness as a diagnostic tool in patients with parkinsonism. In PD, high neurofilament light chain protein, low Aβ1-42, and high heart fatty acid–binding protein were related to future PDD, providing new insights into the etiology of PDD.
Abstract A rare variant in TREM2 (p.R47H, rs75932628) was recently reported to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and, subsequently, other neurodegenerative diseases, i.e. frontotemporal ...lobar degeneration (FTLD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson's disease (PD). Here we comprehensively assessed TREM2 rs75932628 for association with these diseases in a total of 19,940 previously untyped subjects of European descent. These data were combined with those from 28 published data sets by meta-analysis. Furthermore, we tested whether rs75932628 shows association with amyloid beta (Aβ42 ) and total-tau protein levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 828 individuals with AD or mild cognitive impairment. Our data show that rs75932628 is highly significantly associated with the risk of AD across 24,086 AD cases and 148,993 controls of European descent (odds ratio or OR = 2.71, P = 4.67 × 10−25 ). No consistent evidence for association was found between this marker and the risk of FTLD (OR = 2.24, P = .0113 across 2673 cases/9283 controls), PD (OR = 1.36, P = .0767 across 8311 cases/79,938 controls) and ALS (OR = 1.41, P = .198 across 5544 cases/7072 controls). Furthermore, carriers of the rs75932628 risk allele showed significantly increased levels of CSF-total-tau ( P = .0110) but not Aβ42 suggesting that TREM2 's role in AD may involve tau dysfunction.
Abstract Objective To evaluate the reproducibility of quantitative sensory testing (QST), performed with the method-of-limits (MLI) at different test intervals, by assessing the inter- and ...intra-individual variation of thermal cold (CT) and warm (WT) perception thresholds, and of thermal cold- (CPT) and heat pain (HPT) thresholds. Methods QST with the MLI was performed in 38 healthy subjects in three repeated and pseudo-randomized test sessions, done at three occasions (days 1, 2 and 7). Results At repeated testing, none of the thermal threshold estimates showed systematic significant differences, neither between days nor between sessions within the same day, when determined as first tests (FT), and for CT and WT also after thermal pain assessment (aTPA). However, when determined directly aTPA, both CT and WT were noted significantly higher. Also the coefficients of variation and repeatability showed increased values aTPA. Conclusions The high reproducibility show that the MLI is a feasible method for thermal QST, with reproducible results both at shorter and longer test intervals, on condition that temperature thresholds are determined before any painful thermal stimuli are given, as the latter influence both CT and WT assessments. Significance The findings show that QST with the MLI is a reliable tool for indirect evaluation of human small nerve fiber function.
The PARK16 locus, spanning five genes on chromosome 1, was among the first genetic regions to show genome-wide association in Parkinson's disease (PD). Subsequent investigations have found ...variability in PARK16 top-hits and association patterns across populations, and the implicated genes and mechanisms are currently unclear. In the present study, we aimed to explore the contribution of PARK16 variability to PD risk in a Scandinavian population. We genotyped 17 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a case-control sample set of 2570 individuals from Norway and Sweden to fine map the locus. Targeted resequencing of the full coding regions of SLC45A3, NUCKS1, RAB7L1, SLC41A1 and PM20D1 was performed in DNA pools from a subset of 387 patient samples. We find evidence for an association with PD for rs1775143 as well as a haplotype located around the 5' region of RAB7L1, implicating variants which are not in high linkage disequilibrium with the strongest signal from a recent large meta-analysis in Caucasians. We also provide suggestive support for epistasis between RAB7L1 and LRRK2 as previously hypothesized by others. Comparing our results with previous work, allelic heterogeneity at PARK16 appears likely, and further studies are warranted to disentangle the complex patterns of association and pinpoint the functionally relevant variants.
Background
Dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging may be of diagnostic value in patients with clinically suspected parkinsonian disease. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic ...performance of DAT imaging with positron emission computed tomography (PET), using the recently developed, highly DAT-selective radiopharmaceutical
18
FFE-PE2I (FE-PE2I), to the commercially available and frequently used method with
123
IFP-CIT (FP-CIT) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in early-stage idiopathic parkinsonian syndrome (PS).
Methods
Twenty-two patients with a clinical de novo diagnosis of PS and 28 healthy controls (HC) participating in an on-going clinical trial of FE-PE2I were analyzed in this study. Within the trial protocol, participants are clinically reassessed 2 years after inclusion. A commercially available software was used for automatic calculation of FP-CIT-specific uptake ratio (SUR). MRI-based volumes of interest combined with threshold PET segmentation were used for FE-PE2I binding potential relative to non-displaceable binding (BP
ND
) quantification and specific uptake value ratios (SUVR).
Results
PET with FE-PE2I revealed significant differences between patients with a clinical de novo diagnosis of PS and healthy controls in striatal DAT availability (
p
< 0.001), with excellent accuracy of predicting dopaminergic deficit in early-stage PS. The effect sizes were calculated for FE-PE2I BP
ND
(Glass’s Δ = 2.95), FE-PE2I SUVR (Glass’s Δ = 2.57), and FP-CIT SUR (Glass’s Δ = 2.29). The intraclass correlation (ICC) between FE-PE2I BP
ND
FP-CIT SUR was high in the caudate (ICC = 0.923), putamen (ICC = 0.922), and striatum (ICC = 0.946),
p
< 0.001. Five of the 22 patients displayed preserved striatal DAT availability in the striatum with both methods. At follow-up, a non-PS clinical diagnosis was confirmed in three of these, while one was clinically diagnosed with corticobasal syndrome. In these patients, FE-PE2I binding was also normal in the substantia nigra (SN), while significantly reduced in the remaining patients. FE-PE2I measurement of the mean DAT availability in the putamen was strongly correlated with BP
ND
in the SN (
R
= 0.816,
p
< 0.001). Olfaction and mean putamen DAT availability was correlated using both FE-PE2I BP
ND
and FP-CIT SUR (
R
≥ 0.616,
p
< 0.001).
Conclusion
DAT imaging with FE-PE2I PET yields excellent basic diagnostic differentiation in early-stage PS, at least as good as FP-CIT SPECT.
The current "gold-standard" for Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis is based primarily on subjective clinical rating scales related with motor features. Molecular biomarkers that are objective and ...quantifiable remain attractive as clinical tools to detect PD prior to its motor onsets.
Here, we aimed to identify, develop, and validate plasma-based circulating microRNA (miRNAs) as biomarkers for PD.
Global miRNA expressions were acquired from a discovery set of 32 PD/32 controls using microarrays. k-Top Scoring Pairs (k-TSP) algorithm and significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) were applied to obtain comprehensive panels of PD-predictive biomarkers. TaqMan miRNA-specific real-time PCR assays were performed to validate the microarray data and to evaluate the biomarker performance using a new replication set of 42 PD/30 controls. Data was analyzed in a paired PD-control fashion. The validation set was composed of 30 PD, 5 progressive supranuclear palsy, and 4 multiple system atrophy samples from a new clinical site.
We identified 9 pairs of PD-predictive classifiers using k-TSP analysis and 13 most differentially-expressed miRNAs by SAM. A combination of both data sets produced a panel of PD-predictive biomarkers: k-TSP1 (miR-1826/miR-450b-3p), miR-626, and miR-505, and achieved the highest predictive power of 91% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive predicted value, and 88% negative predicted value in the replication set. However, low predictive values were shown in the validation set.
This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the feasibility of using plasma-based circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders such as PD and shows the challenges of molecular biomarker research using samples from multiple clinical sites.
Telomere length (TL) is regarded as a marker of cellular aging due to the gradual shortening by each cell division, but is influenced by a number of factors including oxidative stress and ...inflammation. Parkinson's disease and atypical forms of parkinsonism occur mainly in the elderly, with oxidative stress and inflammation in afflicted cells. In this study the relationship between blood TL and prognosis of 168 patients with idiopathic parkinsonism (136 Parkinson's disease PD, 17 Progressive Supranuclear Palsy PSP, and 15 Multiple System Atrophy MSA) and 30 controls was investigated. TL and motor and cognitive performance were assessed at baseline (diagnosis) and repeatedly up to three to five years follow up. No difference in TL between controls and patients was shown at baseline, nor any significant difference in TL stability or attrition during follow up. Interestingly, a significant relationship between TL at diagnosis and cognitive phenotype at follow up in PD and PSP patients was found, with longer mean TL at diagnosis in patients that developed dementia within three years.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for essential tremor (ET). Currently the ventrolateral thalamus is the target of choice, but the posterior subthalamic area (PSA), ...including the caudal zona incerta (cZi), has demonstrated promising results, and the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has been suggested as a third alternative. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of STN DBS in ET and to compare this to cZi DBS.
Methods
Four patients with ET were implanted with two ipsilateral electrodes, one in the STN and one in the cZi. All contacts were evaluated concerning the acute effect on tremor, and the effect of chronic DBS in either target was analyzed.
Results
STN and cZi both proved to be potent targets for DBS in ET. DBS in the cZi was more efficient, since the same degree of tremor reduction could here be achieved at lower energy consumption. Three patients became tremor-free in the treated hand with either STN or cZi DBS, while the fourth had a minor residual tremor after stimulation in either target.
Conclusion
In this limited material, STN DBS was demonstrated to be an efficient treatment for ET, even though cZi DBS was more efficient. The STN may be an alternative target in the treatment of ET, pending further investigations to decide on the relative merits of the different targets.