scholarly journals Characterization of Nonmotor Symptoms in the MitoPark Mouse Model of Parkinson’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica R. Langley ◽  
Shivani Ghaisas ◽  
Bharathi N. Palanisamy ◽  
Muhammet Ay ◽  
Huajun Jin ◽  
...  

AbstractMitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated as a key player in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The MitoPark mouse, a transgenic mitochondrial impairment model developed by specific inactivation of TFAM in dopaminergic neurons, spontaneously exhibits progressive motor deficits and neurodegeneration, recapitulating several features of PD. Since non-motor symptoms are now recognized as important features of the prodromal stage of PD, we monitored the clinically relevant motor and nonmotor symptoms from ages 8-24 wks in MitoPark mice and their littermate controls. As expected, motor deficits in MitoPark mice began around 12-14 wks and became severe by 16-24 wks. Interestingly, male MitoPark mice showed spatial memory deficits before female mice, beginning at 8 wks and becoming most severe at 16 wks, as determined by Morris water maze. When compared to age-matched control mice, MitoPark mice exhibited olfactory deficits in novel and social scent tests as early as 10-12 wks. MitoPark mice between 16-24 wks spent more time immobile in forced swim and tail suspension tests, and made fewer entries into open arms of the elevated plus maze, indicating a depressive and anxiety-like phenotype, respectively. Importantly, depressive behavior as determined by immobility in forced swim test was reversible by antidepressant treatment with desipramine. Collectively, our results indicate that MitoPark mice progressively exhibit deficits in cognitive learning and memory, olfactory discrimination, and anxiety-and depression-like behaviors. Thus, MitoPark mice can serve as an invaluable model for studying motor and non-motor symptoms in addition to studying pathology in PD.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-Song Lu ◽  
Hsiu-Chen Chang ◽  
Yi-Hsin Weng ◽  
Chiung-Chu Chen ◽  
Yi-Shan Kuo ◽  
...  

Background:Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 (PS128) is a specific probiotic, known as a psychobiotic, which has been demonstrated to alleviate motor deficits and inhibit neurodegenerative processes in Parkinson's disease (PD)-model mice. We hypothesize that it may also be beneficial to patients with PD based on the possible mechanism via the microbiome-gut-brain axis.Methods: This is an open-label, single-arm, baseline-controlled trial. The eligible participants were scheduled to take 60 billion colony-forming units of PS128 once per night for 12 weeks. Clinical assessments were conducted using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), modified Hoehn and Yahr scale, and change in patient “ON-OFF” diary recording as primary outcome measures. The non-motor symptoms questionnaire, Beck depression inventory-II, patient assessment of constipation symptom, 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), and Patient Global Impression of Change (PGI-C) were assessed as secondary outcome measures.Results: Twenty-five eligible patients (32% women) completed the study. The mean age was 61.84 ± 5.74 years (range, 52–72), mean disease duration was 10.12 ± 2.3 years (range, 5–14), and levodopa equivalent daily dosage was 1063.4 ± 209.5 mg/daily (range, 675–1,560). All patients remained on the same dosage of anti-parkinsonian and other drugs throughout the study. After 12 weeks of PS128 supplementation, the UPDRS motor scores improved significantly in both the OFF and ON states (p = 0.004 and p = 0.007, respectively). In addition, PS128 intervention significantly improved the duration of the ON period and OFF period as well as PDQ-39 values. However, no obvious effect of PS128 on non-motor symptoms of patients with PD was observed. Notably, the PGI-C scores improved in 17 patients (68%). PS128 intervention was also found to significantly reduce plasma myeloperoxidase and urine creatinine levels.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that PS128 supplementation for 12 weeks with constant anti-parkinsonian medication improved the UPDRS motor score and quality of life of PD patients. We suggest that PS128 could serve as a therapeutic adjuvant for the treatment of PD. In the future, placebo-controlled studies are needed to further support the efficacy of PS128 supplementation.Clinical Trial Registration:https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier: NCT04389762.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Joers ◽  
Gunasingh Masilamoni ◽  
Doty Kempf ◽  
Alison R Weiss ◽  
Travis Rotterman ◽  
...  

AbstractInflammation has been linked to the development of nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD), which greatly impact patients’ quality of life and can often precede motor symptoms. Suitable animal models are critical for our understanding of the mechanisms underlying disease and the associated prodromal disturbances. The neurotoxin 1- methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated monkey model is commonly seen as a “gold standard” model that closely mimics the clinical motor symptoms and the nigrostriatal dopaminergic loss of PD, however MPTP toxicity extends to other nondopaminergic regions. Yet, there are limited reports monitoring the MPTP-induced progressive central and peripheral inflammation as well as other nonmotor symptoms such as gastrointestinal function and microbiota. The main objective of this study is to gain a broader understanding of central and peripheral inflammatory dysfunction triggered by exposure to a neurotoxicant known to degenerate nigral dopaminergic neurons in order to understand the potential role of inflammation in prodromal/pre-motor features of PD-like degeneration in a progressive non-human primate model of the disease. We measured inflammatory proteins in plasma and CSF and performed [18F]FEPPA PET scans to evaluate translocator proteins (TSPO) or microglial activation in a small cohort of rhesus monkeys (n=5) given weekly low doses of MPTP (0.2-0.8 mg/kg, im). Additionally, monkeys were evaluated for working memory and executive function using various behavior tasks and for gastrointestinal hyperpermeability and microbiota composition. Monkeys were also treated with novel TNF inhibitor XPro1595 (10mg/kg, n=3) or vehicle (n=2) every three days starting 11 weeks after the initiation of MPTP to determine whether nonmotor symptoms are tied to TNF signaling and whether XPro1595 would alter inflammation and microglial behavior in a progressive model of PD. Our analyses revealed sex-dependent sensitivity to MPTP that resulted in early microglial activation by PET, acute plasma IL-6 and CSF TNF, and earlier parkinsonism as measured by motor deficits in males compared to female monkeys. Sex differences were also identified in microbiota and their metabolites and targeted short chain fatty acids at both basal levels and in response to MPTP. Both sexes displayed cognitive impairment prior to a significant motor phenotype. Importantly, XPro1595 shifted peripheral and central inflammation, and significantly reduced CD68-immunoreactivity in the colon. As such, our findings revealed a sexually dimorphic inflammatory response to chronic MPTP treatment and suggest that males may have higher vulnerability than females to inflammation-induced degeneration. If these findings reflect potential differences in humans, these sex differences have significant implications for therapeutic development of inflammatory targets in the clinic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley J MacDonald ◽  
John-Stuart Brittain ◽  
Bernhard Spitzer ◽  
Simon Hanslmayr ◽  
Ned Jenkinson

Abstract There is an increasing recognition of the significant non-motor symptoms that burden people with Parkinson’s disease. As such, there is a pressing need to better understand and investigate the mechanisms underpinning these non-motor deficits. The electrical activity within the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease is known to exhibit excessive power within the beta range (12–30 Hz), compared with healthy controls. The weight of evidence suggests that this abnormally high level of beta power is the cause of bradykinesia and rigidity in Parkinson’s disease. However, less is known about how the abnormal beta rhythms seen in Parkinson’s disease impact on non-motor symptoms. In healthy adults, beta power decreases are necessary for successful episodic memory formation, with greater power decreases during the encoding phase predicting which words will subsequently be remembered. Given the raised levels of beta activity in people with Parkinson’s disease, we hypothesized that the necessary decrease in power during memory encoding would be diminished and that this would interfere with episodic memory formation. Accordingly, we conducted a cross-sectional, laboratory-based experimental study to investigate whether there was a direct relationship between decreased beta modulation and memory formation in Parkinson’s disease. Electroencephalography recordings were made during an established memory-encoding paradigm to examine brain activity in a cohort of adults with Parkinson’s disease (N = 28, 20 males) and age-matched controls (N = 31, 18 males). The participants with Parkinson’s disease were aged 65 ± 6 years, with an average disease duration of 6 ± 4 years, and tested on their normal medications to avoid the confound of exacerbated motor symptoms. Parkinson’s disease participants showed impaired memory strength (P = 0.023) and reduced beta power decreases (P = 0.014) relative to controls. Longer disease duration was correlated with a larger reduction in beta modulation during encoding, and a concomitant reduction in memory performance. The inability to sufficiently decrease beta activity during semantic processing makes it a likely candidate to be the central neural mechanism underlying this type of memory deficit in Parkinson’s disease. These novel results extend the notion that pathological beta activity is causally implicated in the motor and (lesser appreciated) non-motor deficits inherent to Parkinson’s disease. These findings provide important empirical evidence that should be considered in the development of intelligent next-generation therapies.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Park ◽  
Mark Stacy

Nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) may emerge secondary to the underlying pathogenesis of the disease, while others are recognized side effects of treatment. Inevitably, there is an overlap as the disease advances and patients require higher dosages and more complex medical regimens. The non-motor symptoms that emerge secondary to dopaminergic therapy encompass several domains, including neuropsychiatric, autonomic, and sleep. These are detailed in the paper. Neuropsychiatric complications include hallucinations and psychosis. In addition, compulsive behaviors, such as pathological gambling, hypersexuality, shopping, binge eating, and punding, have been shown to have a clear association with dopaminergic medications. Dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS) is a compulsive behavior that is typically viewed through the lens of addiction, with patients needing escalating dosages of dopamine replacement therapy. Treatment side effects on the autonomic system include nausea, orthostatic hypotension, and constipation. Sleep disturbances include fragmented sleep, nighttime sleep problems, daytime sleepiness, and sleep attacks. Recognizing the non-motor symptoms that can arise specifically from dopamine therapy is useful to help optimize treatment regimens for this complex disease.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 684
Author(s):  
Mélina Decourt ◽  
Haritz Jiménez-Urbieta ◽  
Marianne Benoit-Marand ◽  
Pierre-Olivier Fernagut

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with a large burden of non-motor symptoms including olfactory and autonomic dysfunction, as well as neuropsychiatric (depression, anxiety, apathy) and cognitive disorders (executive dysfunctions, memory and learning impairments). Some of these non-motor symptoms may precede the onset of motor symptoms by several years, and they significantly worsen during the course of the disease. The lack of systematic improvement of these non-motor features by dopamine replacement therapy underlines their multifactorial origin, with an involvement of monoaminergic and cholinergic systems, as well as alpha-synuclein pathology in frontal and limbic cortical circuits. Here we describe mood and neuropsychiatric disorders in PD and review their occurrence in rodent models of PD. Altogether, toxin-based rodent models of PD indicate a significant but non-exclusive contribution of mesencephalic dopaminergic loss in anxiety, apathy, and depressive-like behaviors, as well as in learning and memory deficits. Gene-based models display significant deficits in learning and memory, as well as executive functions, highlighting the contribution of alpha-synuclein pathology to these non-motor deficits. Collectively, neuropsychiatric and cognitive deficits are recapitulated to some extent in rodent models, providing partial but nevertheless useful options to understand the pathophysiology of non-motor symptoms and develop therapeutic options for these debilitating symptoms of PD.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Norbert Kovács ◽  
Lars Bergmann ◽  
Marieta Anca-Herschkovitsch ◽  
Esther Cubo ◽  
Thomas L. Davis ◽  
...  

Background: It is believed that motor symptoms, including dyskinesia, and non-motor symptoms impact health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and that improvements in these metrics are correlated. Objective: Investigate the relationship between HRQoL and measures of PD severity and treatment efficacy, including motor and nonmotor symptoms. Methods: This was a planned investigation of an international, prospective, single-arm, post-marketing observational study of the long-term effectiveness of levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) in patients with advanced PD. Pearson correlation coefficients (PCC) were calculated for baseline and change from baseline at 12 months between HRQoL, and motor and nonmotor symptoms. Results: A total of 195 patients were included. At baseline, HRQoL was moderately positively correlated with Activities of Daily Living (UPDRS II, PCC = 0.44), non-motor symptoms (0.48), and measures of sleep (0.50 and 0.40); all p <  0.001. After 12 months of treatment with LCIG, improvements in HRQoL were moderately positively correlated with improvement from baseline in non-motor symptoms (PCC = 0.42), sleep (0.54), and daytime sleepiness (0.40; all p <  0.001), and weakly correlated with improvement in dyskinesia signs and symptoms (PCC = 0.23; p = 0.011). Improvement in HRQoL was not correlated with improvements in OFF time or dyskinesia time. Conclusion: Both at baseline and for change from baseline at 12 months, HRQoL was correlated with baseline and change from baseline in dyskinesia, Activities of Daily Living, and non-motor symptoms, including sleep; but not with baseline or change in OFF time.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Eduardo Tolosa ◽  
Georg Ebersbach ◽  
Joaquim J. Ferreira ◽  
Olivier Rascol ◽  
Angelo Antonini ◽  
...  

Background: A greater understanding of the everyday experiences of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and their carers may help improve clinical practice. Objective: The Parkinson’s Real-world Impact assesSMent (PRISM) study evaluated medication use, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and the use of healthcare resources by people with PD and their carers. Methods: PRISM is an observational cross-sectional study, in which people with PD and their carers completed an online survey using structured questionnaires, including the Parkinson’s Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (PDQ-39), Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire (NMSQuest) and Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Results: Data were collected from 861 people with PD (mean age, 65.0 years; mean disease duration, 7.7 years) and 256 carers from six European countries. People with PD reported a large number of different co-morbidities, non-motor symptoms (mean NMSQuest score, 12.8), and impaired HRQoL (median PDQ-39 summary score, 29.1). Forty-five percent of people with PD reported at least one impulse control behaviour. Treatment patterns varied considerably between different European countries. Levodopa was taken in the last 12 months by 85.9% of participants, and as monotherapy by 21.8% . Carers, who were mostly female (64.8%) and the partner/spouse of the person with PD (82.1%), reported mild to moderate burden (mean ZBI total score, 26.6). Conclusions: The PRISM study sheds light on the lives of people with PD and those who care for them, re-emphasising the many challenges they face in everyday life. The study also provides insights into the current treatment of PD in Europe.


Author(s):  
Hamdy N. El-Tallawy ◽  
Tahia H. Saleem ◽  
Wafaa M. Farghaly ◽  
Heba Mohamed Saad Eldien ◽  
Ashraf Khodaery ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Parkinson’s disease is one of the neurodegenerative disorders that is caused by genetic and environmental factors or interaction between them. Solute carrier family 41 member 1 within the PARK16 locus has been reported to be associated with Parkinson’s disease. Cognitive impairment is one of the non-motor symptoms that is considered a challenge in Parkinson’s disease patients. This study aimed to investigate the association of rs11240569 polymorphism; a synonymous coding variant in SLC41A1 in Parkinson’s disease patients in addition to the assessment of cognitive impairment in those patients. Results In a case -control study, rs11240569 single nucleotide polymorphisms in SLC41A1, genes were genotyped in 48 Parkinson’s disease patients and 48 controls. Motor and non-motor performance in Parkinson's disease patients were assessed by using the Movement Disorder Society-Sponsored Revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). The genotype and allele frequencies were compared between the two groups and revealed no significant differences between case and control groups for rs11240569 in SLC41A1 gene with P value .523 and .54, respectively. Cognition was evaluated and showed the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of WAIS score of PD patients 80.4 ± 9.13 and the range was from 61 to 105, in addition to MMSE that showed mean ± SD 21.96 ± 3.8. Conclusion Genetic testing of the present study showed that rs11240569 polymorphism of SLC41A1 gene has no significant differences in distributions of alleles and genotypes between cases and control group, in addition to cognitive impairment that is present in a large proportion of PD patients and in addition to the strong correlation between cognitive impairment and motor and non-motor symptoms progression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan P. Feeney ◽  
Danny Bega ◽  
Benzi M. Kluger ◽  
A. Jon Stoessl ◽  
Christiana M. Evers ◽  
...  

AbstractSymptomatic management of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is complex and many symptoms, especially non-motor symptoms, are not effectively addressed with current medications. In the US, cannabis has become more widely available for medical and recreational use, permitting those in the PD community to try alternative means of symptom control. However, little is known about the attitudes towards, and experiences with, cannabis use among those living with PD. To address this shortcoming, we distributed an anonymous survey to 7,607 people with PD in January 2020 and received 1339 responses (17.6%). 1064 complete responses were available for analysis. Respondents represented 49 states with a mean age of 71.2 years (±8.3) and mean PD duration of 7.4 years (±6.2). About a quarter of respondents (24.5%) reported cannabis use within the previous six months. Age and gender were found to be predictors of cannabis use in this sample (Age OR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.97; Male OR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.03). Users reported learning about cannabis use from the internet/news (30.5%) and friends or other people with PD (26.0%). Cannabis users were more likely to report insufficient control of their non-motor symptoms with prescription medications than non-users (p = 0.03). Cannabis was primarily used for PD (63.6%) and was most often used to treat nonmotor symptoms of anxiety (45.5%), pain (44.0%), and sleep disorders (44.0%). However, nearly a quarter of users (23.0%) also reported they had stopped cannabis use in the previous six months, primarily due to a lack of symptom improvement (35.5%). Three quarters of respondents (75.5%) did not use cannabis, primarily because there was a lack of scientific evidence supporting efficacy (59.9%). Our results suggest that the lack of formal guidance or research evidence about cannabis for PD may in part underlie inconsistencies in both use and reported effectiveness.


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