There is currently no reliable and easily applicable diagnostic marker for Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aims of the present study were to compare the expression profiles of the microRNA29 family (miR-29s) in blood serum from patients with PD with healthy controls and to clarify whether the expression of miR-29s is correlated with disease severity, duration or L-dopa therapy and whether expression depends on the gender and age of patients. The levels of blood serum miR-29s in 80 patients with PD and 80 unaffected controls were assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR. The PCR products were confirmed by cloning and sequencing. Additionally, the expression of miR-7 in the blood serum from PD patients and control subjects was assessed. Serum miR-29 levels were significantly downregulated in PD patients compared to healthy controls. The serum miR-29 levels in female PD patients were markedly higher than in male PD patients. The expression of serum miR-29a and miR-29c expression tended to decrease with disease severity. Moreover, we found that serum miR-7 levels did not differ between PD patients and control subjects. Therefore, the reduction of serum miR-29 levels, particularly miR-29a and miR-29c, warrants further investigation of its potential serving as biomarkers for PD.
We report on the status of efforts to improve the reinterpretation of searches and measurements at the LHC in terms of models for new physics, in the context of the LHC Reinterpretation Forum. We detail current experimental offerings in direct searches for new particles, measurements, technical implementations and Open Data, and provide a set of recommendations for further improving the presentation of LHC results in order to better enable reinterpretation in the future. We also provide a brief description of existing software reinterpretation frameworks and recent global analyses of new physics that make use of the current data.
Objective
Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) are critical players in the patients' quality of life in Parkinson disease (PD). Vesicular monoamine transporter type 2 (VMAT2) has been reported owing to a role in affecting dopamine neurons in the striatum. Therefore, this study set out to characterize the relationship between VMAT2 distribution in the striatum in relation to the NMS in PD.
Methods
Totally, 21 age-matched normal controls and 37 patients with PD in the moderate stages were included, followed by examination using 18F-DTBZ (18F-AV133) PET/CT. The specific uptake ratio (SUR) of each striatal subregion was then determined with the occipital cortex as the reference background region. The overall NMSs of each individual patient were evaluated. Finally, the role of the striatal SURs in the clinical symptom scores were evaluated through the application of a Spearman correlation analysis as well as a multivariable stepwise regression analysis.
Results
Patients with PD, particularly those at a more advanced stage, exhibited a more pronounced reduction in SURs in the bilateral putamen and caudate nucleus (P < 0.05, vs healthy controls). Meanwhile, patients at more advanced PD stages were found to have significantly worse scores in NMS except cognitive function. The Spearman correlation analysis demonstrated that NMS scores, with the exception of cognition scores, were correlated with striatal SURs (P < 0.05).
Conclusion
The key findings of the study identified a correlation between decreased striatal VMAT2 with a broad spectrum of NMS in patients with PD, highlighting the association between diminished dopamine supply and the development of NMS in PD.
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