Annals of Movement Disorders (Jan 2019)

Role of DJ-1 and Apo A1 as biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease: an observational case-control study

  • Ritu Shree,
  • Missamma Mulagala,
  • Sahil Mehta,
  • Apurva Sood,
  • Manish Modi,
  • Manoj K Goyal,
  • Gunjan Goyal,
  • Bikash Medhi,
  • Bhagwant R Mittal,
  • Vivek Lal

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/AOMD.AOMD_23_19
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 3
pp. 109 – 114

Abstract

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AIM: Premotor phase in Parkinson’s disease (PD) begins many years before the onset of motor symptoms. Despite advancement in the understanding of this common neurodegenerative disease, clinical diagnosis is still the gold standard. Various fluid- and tissue-based biomarkers have been postulated to play a role in the pathogenesis of PD. We aimed to study the role of serum DJ-1 and apolipoprotein A1 (Apo A1) in PD. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the Department of Neurology, in collaboration with the Department of Pharmacology. Cases of PD and healthy controls were recruited over 1 year with written informed consent from all the participants. The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: All cases underwent detailed neurological examination, Hoehn and Yahr staging, and MDS-UPDRS (MDS-UPDRS (Movement Disorders Society–Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale) scoring. Serum of all the cases and controls were collected for the estimation of DJ-1 and Apo A1 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Serum DJ-1 and Apo A1 levels were compared between cases and controls using Mann–Whitney test. Correlation of characteristics was carried out using Spearman correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The study cohort included 77 cases of PD and 69 healthy controls. Serum DJ-1 and Apo A1 levels were found to be significantly lower in cases compared to controls (P < 0.001). However, no correlation was found with age of onset, duration of disease, and severity of illness. A negative correlation was observed between DJ-1 levels and cognitive impairment and bladder dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Low levels of DJ-1 and Apo A1 are found in patients with PD of Indian origin. However, correlation of these biomarkers with progression and severity is needed to be explored in future randomized controlled trials with a large sample size.

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