Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8841634 | Neuroscience Letters | 2018 | 19 Pages |
Abstract
24-hydroxycholesterol (24OH-C) is synthesized almost exclusively in neurons. This oxysterol is mostly present as ester form in both cerebrospinal fluid and plasma. The enzyme lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase esterifies 24OH-C in the brain, and the level of 24OH-C esters in cerebrospinal fluid was found to be correlated with the level of 24OH-C esters in plasma. Decreased levels of 24OH-C esters levels were previously found in Alzheimer's disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This finding was attributed to the inhibitory effect of oxidative stress on lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase activity in neurodegenerative conditions. Data reported here show that the plasma level of 24OH-C esters is decreased also in Parkinson's disease. ROC analysis identified 69.0% of 24OH-C esterification as the threshold (AUCâ¯=â¯0.98) discriminating patients (Nâ¯=â¯19) from healthy subjects (Nâ¯=â¯19) with 100% specificity vs controls, 89.5% sensitivity, 94.7% accuracy, and 100% precision. The level of 24OH-C esters was not correlated with UPDRS I or UPDRS III when evaluated at the time of blood sampling. By contrast, it was negatively correlated with UPDRS I (râ¯=â¯â0.4984, pâ¯=â¯0.0299) after one year of follow up. Therefore, this level might represent a novel biomarker of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease. The biomarker level is here proposed as a measure to evaluate the severity of disease, as well as to monitor the progression of this pathology.
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Authors
Concetta Di Natale, Alessandra Monaco, Carlo Pedone, Alessandro Tessitore, Antonio De Mase, Gioacchino Tedeschi, Paolo Antonio Netti, Paolo Abrescia,