Project description:Alterations in brain function in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with diphasic dyskinesia have not been investigated. We aimed to explore the alterations in regional brain function. Each of 53 levodopa (LD)-treated PD patients had two resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans in the same morning, before and after taking LD. The regional homogeneity (ReHo) approach was used to reveal local synchronization changes. Two-way factorial repeated measures analysis of covariance, with group as a between-subject factor and LD effect as a within-subject factor, was performed to explore the two main effects and interaction. Interactive analysis was used to show outcomes that combined disease status and LD effect. Spearman's correlations were used to detect associations between interactive brain regions and severity of dyskinetic symptoms, assessed by the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDyRS) scores, along with moderation analyses. There was no significant difference in the main group effect analysis. Significantly different clusters obtained from main LD effect analysis were in left caudate nucleus and putamen. ReHo values decreased in the caudate nucleus and increased in the putamen during the ON state after taking LD. Interaction between group and LD effect was found in left medial superior frontal gyrus (mSFG), where there were the lowest ReHo values, and was negatively correlated with UDyRS scores in the diphasic dyskinetic group during the ON state. The relationship was independent of LD dose. Abnormal local synchronization in the mSFG is closely associated with the development of diphasic dyskinesia in PD patients.
Project description:Abnormal dopaminergic modulation of the cortico-basal ganglia motor loops results in the emergence of levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID). We focused on alterations in the gray matter (GM) volume and the cortical thickness of the brain, especially in cortico-basal ganglia motor loops, in Parkinson's disease (PD) with diphasic dyskinesia. 48 PD patients with diphasic dyskinesia, 60 PD patients without dyskinesia and 48 healthy controls (HC) were included. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was applied to get GM images from MRI brain images. FreeSurfer was used to get cortical thickness. Distinct analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and linear contrasts were performed for early- and late-onset PD groups. The severity of diphasic dyskinesia was evaluated by the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDysRS). Finally, the correlations between mean volumes of clusters showing differences and the UDysRS scores were performed by Pearson's correlation. The GM volumes of precentral gyri were increased in PD patients with diphasic dyskinesia when compared with those without dyskinesia, which were positively correlated with UDysRS scores in PD patients with diphasic dyskinesia. However, there was no significant difference in cortical thickness among groups. The increased precentral gyri GM volumes might be associated with the pathogenesis and the severity of diphasic dyskinesia.
Project description:Dyskinesia is a common side effect of prolonged dopaminergic therapy in Parkinson's disease patients. Assessing the severity of dyskinesia could help develop better pharmacological and surgical interventions. We have developed a semi-automatic video-based objective dyskinesia quantifying measure called the severity score (SVS) that was evaluated on 35 patient videos. We present a study to evaluate the utility of our severity score and compare its performance to clinical ratings of neurologists. In addition to the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDysRS) score for each video, four neurologists provided three sets of time lapsed ratings and rankings of the 35 videos using a specifically developed protocol. The statistical analysis of our data using Kendall's tau-b and intra-class correlations shows that (a) ranking patient videos based on severity is suitable for studying the utility of the SVS, and (b) SVS exhibits moderate utility to quantify dyskinesia severity when compared to manual assessment of dyskinesia by neurologists using the UDysRS. These results support the effective use of SVS as an objective measure to quantify dyskinesia and the rationale for a ranking system that complements traditional rating scales.
Project description:ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to report a case of levodopa-induced ocular dyskinesia in an early-onset Parkinson disease patient and to investigate the pathogenic gene.MethodsWe report the case of a 49-year-old male patient with a 13-year history of Parkinson disease. Involuntary eye movements were noticed after treatment with amantadine for limb dyskinesias. Levodopa-induced ocular dyskinesias involving repetitive, transient, and stereotyped rightward deviations of gaze appeared after intake of an antiparkinsonian drug. Limb dyskinesias also occurred simultaneously. We used a next-generation sequencing targeted gene panel and found a heterozygous missense mutation (p.R535H) in GBA. Direct Sanger sequencing verified the missense mutation.ConclusionsWe report the case of an uncommon early-onset PD patient carrying a GBA mutation presenting ocular dyskinesia. Genetic screening may provide a better mechanistic insight into dyskinesias.
Project description:The therapeutic benefits of L–3,4–dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients severely diminishes with the onset of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID), a debilitating motor side effect. LID is mainly due to altered dopaminergic signaling in the striatum, a brain region that controls motor and cognitive functions. However, the molecular mechanisms that promote LID remain unclear. Here, we have reported that increased striatal RasGRP1 (also known as CalDAG-GEF-II) is instrumentally linked to the development of LID in a 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesioned mouse model of PD. L-DOPA treatment rapidly upregulated RasGRP1 in the dopamine-1 receptor positive neurons in the dorsal striatum. RasGRP1 deleted mice (RasGRP1–/–) had drastically diminished LID, and RasGRP1–/– mice did not interfere with the therapeutic benefits of L-DOPA. In terms of its mechanism, RasGRP1 mediated L-DOPA-induced extracellular regulated kinase (ERK), the mammalian target of rapamycin kinase (mTOR) and the cAMP/PKA pathway. RasGRP1 bind directly with and acts 2 as a guanine nucleotide exchange (GEF) for Ras-homolog-enriched in the brain (Rheb), a potent activator of mTOR, both in vitro and in the intact striatum. High-resolution tandem mass tag mass spectrometry analysis of striatal tissue revealed significant targets, such as phosphodiesterase 10a (Pde10a), Pde2a, catechol-o-methyltransferase (Comt), and glutamate decarboxylase 1 and 2 (Gad1 and Gad2), as downstream regulators of RasGRP1 that are linked to LID vulnerability. Moreover, we found that RASGRP1 protein is also upregulated predominantly in the striatum of MPTP-lesioned macaque treated with L-DOPA, emphasizing the translational potential of this protein. Collectively, the findings of this study demonstrated that RasGRP1 is a major regulator of LID in the dorsal striatum. Pharmacological or gene-depletion strategies targeting RasGRP1 may offer novel therapeutic opportunities for preventing LID in PD patients.
Project description:Diagnosing dystonia can be challenging and depends on the recognition of subtle clinical signs. Due to clinical heterogeneity, variable age at presentation, and overlapping features with other disorders, dystonia is under-recognized. The presence of dystonic tremor is often a reason for misdiagnosis. We report an illustrative case of a patient with DYT1 dystonia who was originally misdiagnosed with Parkinson disease. Careful physical examination and history-taking can reveal dystonia and prompt appropriate diagnostic studies, which, in turn, can lead to potentially life-changing treatment. Our report illustrates typical challenges in the recognition and diagnosis of dystonia, and serves to increase clinicians' awareness of this disabling, but treatable, condition.