Biomarker for Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline

Biomarker for Parkinson's disease with cognitive decline

Kenjiro Ono¹⁾, Masahito Yamada²⁾

¹⁾Department of Neurology, Showa University School of Medicine
²⁾Department of Neurology and Neurobiology of Aging, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science

Although α-synuclein protein (αS) aggregates from a monomer to assemblies such as oligomer, protofibril and mature fibril, the early intermediate aggregate, that is, oligomer has been considered to be most toxic species in the pathogenesis of α-synucleinopathies including Parkinson's disease (PD)and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). While it was reported that αS concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was decreased significantly in the patients with PD and DLB, there were reports that αS oligomer concentration was elevated in CSF of PD patients. Moreover, it was supposed that αS oligomer concentration was also elevated in blood of PD patients. Recently, it was reported that lower cerebrospinal β-amyloid (Aβ) (1-40) and Aβ(1-42) levels was associated with cognitive decline in PD. Further combination studies with CSF and blood would lead to establishment of the candidates such as αS and Aβ as biomarkers for α-synucleinopathies including PD with cognitive decline.

Address correspondence to Dr. Kenjiro Ono, Department of Neurology, Showa University School of Medicine(13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan)