Mitochondrial biomarker for Parkinson's disease
November 2015
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
During ageing, mitochondrial biogenesis is progressively reduced. This is also true for the brain, and mitochondrial dysfunction has been linked to neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson's disease, for several decades now. In this study, the mitochondrial DNA copy number are investigated in multiple tissues from patients with Parkinson's disease to validate mitochondrial DNA as a biomarker for the disease. The results showed that both in peripheral blood samples and substantia nigra pars compacta there is a reduction of mitochondrial DNA copy number in Parkinson's patients, but not in the frontal cortex. Here, the researchers confirmed that mitochondrial DNA copy number is reduced in the affected areas of the brain of Parkinson's patients, but not in other areas. However, the variation of mitochondrial DNA in the substantia nigra pars compacta was reflected in the peripheral blood samples, which indicates that it could be an easily accessible potential diagnostic biomarker for Parkinson's disease.
Reduced mitochondrial DNA copy number is a biomarker of Parkinson's disease
Gavin Hudson
Added on: 09-11-2021
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019745801500545X[2] https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/a8fd26ef-b113-47ab-92ba-fd2be449c7eb
