Changes in body weight may induce substantial variations in peripheral pharmacokinetics of drugs, but the relation between body weight and levodopa (LD) pharmacokinetics has never been investigated in Parkinson's disease. To address this issue, we conducted a pharmacokinetic study with 164 patients with sporadic Parkinson's disease. Patients underwent an oral acute LD test with 250 mg of LD, and pharmacokinetic variables were assessed at baseline and at 30, 60, 120, and 240 minutes after LD administration. Plasmatic-LD areas under the curve and body weight were significantly and inversely correlated as well as the elimination of the half-life of LD and body weight. In our sample, women were significantly lighter and had a significantly greater area under the curve than men. Moreover, a greater percentage of women showed LD peak-dose dyskinesias compared with men. Our findings suggest that lighter patients with Parkinson's disease probably receive a greater cumulative dosage of LD per kilogram of body weight during long-term treatment, because in clinical practice, LD is administered without any adjustment of the dose to body weight. This could explain gender differences for the development of LD-induced peak-dose dyskinesias observed during the course of the disease.

A consistent portion of parkinsonians, mainly with a tremor-dominant form of PD, may have increased circulating IgM anti-GM1 antibodies.

The aim of our project was to perform an exploratory analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteomic profiles of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients, collected in different phases of their clinical course, in order to investigate the existence of peculiar profiles characterizing the different MS phenotypes. The study was carried out on 24 Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS), 16 Relapsing Remitting (RR) MS, 11 Progressive (Pr) MS patients. The CSF samples were analysed using the Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Time Of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer in linear mode geometry and in delayed extraction mode (m/z range: 1000–25000 Da). Peak lists were imported for normalization and statistical analysis. CSF data were correlated with demographic, clinical and MRI parameters. The evaluation of MALDI-TOF spectra revealed 348 peak signals with relative intensity ≥1% in the study range. The peak intensity of the signals corresponding to Secretogranin II and Protein 7B2 were significantly upregulated in RRMS patients compared to PrMS (p<0.05), whereas the signals of Fibrinogen and Fibrinopeptide A were significantly downregulated in CIS compared to PrMS patients (p<0.04). Additionally, the intensity of the Tymosin β4 peak was the only signal to be significantly discriminated between the CIS and RRMS patients (p = 0.013). Although with caution due to the relatively small size of the study populations, and considering that not all the findings remained significant after adjustment for multiple comparisons, in our opinion this mass spectrometry evaluation confirms that this technique may provide useful and important information to improve our understanding of the complex pathogenesis of MS.

We conducted a pharmacokinetic study in 164 patients with sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) to address the relationship between body weight and levodopa pharmacokinetics. Patients underwent an oral acute levodopa test with 250 mg levodopa and pharmacokinetic variables were further assessed. Plasmatic levodopa area under the curve (AUC-l) and body weight were significantly and inversely correlated. Women were significantly lighter and more dyskinetic than men, and had greater AUC-l values. Our data suggest that during long-term treatment, lighter PD patients, especially women, may receive a greater cumulative dosage of levodopa per kilogram of body weight. This could explain gender differences for the development of levodopa-induced peak-dose dyskinesias observed during the course of the disease.