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Dopamine transporter availability in motor subtypes of de novo drug-naïve Parkinson’s disease

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Abstract

Tremor dominant (TD) and akinetic-rigid type (ART) are two motor subtypes of Parkinson’s disease associated with different disease progression and neurochemical/neuropathological features. The role of presynaptic nigrostriatal dopaminergic damage is still controversial, poorly explored, and only assessed in medicated patients. In this study, we investigated with FP-CIT SPECT the striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) availability in drug-naïve PD patients with ART and TD phenotypes. Fifty-one de novo, drug-naïve patients with PD underwent FP-CIT SPECT studies. Patients were evaluated with Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III and Hoehn and Yahr scale (H&Y) and divided into ART (24/51) and TD (27/51) according to UPDRS part III. ART and TD patients were not different with regard to age, gender, and disease duration. However, compared to TD, ART patients presented higher UPDRS part III (p = 0.01) and H&Y (p = 0.02) and lower DAT availability in affected and unaffected putamen (p = 0.008 and p = 0.007, respectively), whereas no differences were found in caudate. Moreover, in the whole group of patients, rigidity and bradykinesia, but not tremor scores of UPDRS part III were significantly related to FP-CIT binding in the putamen. These results suggest that in newly diagnosed drug-naïve PD patients DAT availability might be different between ART and TD in relation to different disease severity.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was partly supported by MEdical Research in ITaly (MERIT) Project No_ RBNE08LN4P. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no HEALTH-F2- 2011-278850 (INMiND).

Conflicts of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

The present study recevied approval from the ethics committee of “Federico II” University Hospital and has therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. All patients gave appropriate informed consent.  

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosciences, Reproductive Sciences and Odontostomatology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Marcello Moccia

  2. Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging, Via T. De Amicis, 95, 80145, Naples, Italy

    Sabina Pappatà, Anna Rita Daniela Coda, Arturo Brunetti & Marco Salvatore

  3. Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (CEMAND), Neuroscience Section, Department of Medicine, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy

    Marina Picillo, Paolo Barone & Maria Teresa Pellecchia

  4. Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology, London, UK

    Roberto Erro

  5. Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Policlinico Borgo Roma, Verona, Italy

    Roberto Erro

  6. IDC Hermitage Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

    Katia Longo, Carmine Vitale & Marianna Amboni

  7. Department of Motor Sciences, University Parthenope, Naples, Italy

    Carmine Vitale

  8. Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Arturo Brunetti & Marco Salvatore

  9. AOU San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d’Aragona, Salerno, Italy

    Giuseppe Capo

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  1. Marcello Moccia
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  2. Sabina Pappatà
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  3. Marina Picillo
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  4. Roberto Erro
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  5. Anna Rita Daniela Coda
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  6. Katia Longo
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  7. Carmine Vitale
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  8. Marianna Amboni
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  11. Marco Salvatore
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Correspondence to Sabina Pappatà.

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Moccia, M., Pappatà, S., Picillo, M. et al. Dopamine transporter availability in motor subtypes of de novo drug-naïve Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol 261, 2112–2118 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-014-7459-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-014-7459-8

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