No abstract

Dysphagia is very common in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and often leads to aspiration pneumonia, the most common cause of death in PD. Unfortunately, current therapies are largely ineffective for dysphagia. As pharyngeal sensation normally triggers the swallowing reflex, we examined pharyngeal sensory nerves in PD for Lewy pathology. Sensory nerves supplying the pharynx were excised from autopsied pharynges obtained from patients with clinically diagnosed and neuropathologically confirmed PD (n = 10) and healthy age-matched controls (n = 4). We examined: the glossopharyngeal nerve (IX); the pharyngeal sensory branch of the vagus nerve (PSB-X); and the internal superior laryngeal nerve (ISLN) innervating the laryngopharynx. Immunohistochemistry for phosphorylated α-synuclein was used to detect potential Lewy pathology. Axonal α-synuclein aggregates in the pharyngeal sensory nerves were identified in all of the PD subjects but not in the controls. The density of α-synuclein-positive lesions was significantly greater in PD subjects with documented dysphagia compared to those without dysphagia. In addition, α-synuclein-immunoreactive nerve fibers in the ISLN were much more abundant than those in the IX and PSBX. These findings suggest that pharyngeal sensory nerves are directly affected by the pathologic process of PD. This anatomic pathology may decrease pharyngeal sensation impairing swallowing and airway protective reflexes, thereby contributing to dysphagia and aspiration.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease primarily characterized by cardinal motor symptoms and central nervous system pathology. As current drug therapies can often stabilize these cardinal motor symptoms attention has shifted to the other motor and non-motor symptoms of PD which are resistant to drug therapy. Dysphagia in PD is perhaps the most important drug resistant symptom as it leads to aspiration and pneumonia, the leading cause of death. Here, we present direct evidence for degeneration of the pharyngeal motor nerves in PD. In this study, we examined the cervical vagal (X) nerve, pharyngeal branch of the X nerve (Ph-X), and pharyngeal plexus innervating the pharyngeal muscles in 14 postmortem specimens, 10 subjects with PD and 4 age-matched control subjects. Synucleinopathy in the pharyngeal nerves was detected using an immunohistochemical method for phosphorylated α-synuclein. α-Synuclein aggregates were revealed in the X nerve and Ph-X and immunoreactive intramuscular nerve twigs and axon terminals within the neuromuscular junctions were identified in all the PD subjects and in none of the controls. These findings indicate that the motor nervous system of the pharynx is involved in the pathological process of PD. Notably, PD subjects with dysphagia had a higher density of α-synuclein aggregates in the pharyngeal nerves as compared with those without dysphagia. Motor involvement of the pharynx in PD appears to be one of the factors leading to oropharyngeal dysphagia commonly seen in PD patients.