An Alzheimer-type cerebrospinal fluid profile in early Parkinson's disease

In recent years, several studies have discovered traces of Alzheimer's (AD) biomarkers in a large portion of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), which have been associated with subsequent dementia (PDD). However, the manifestation of AD biomarkers in PD is not fully understood. At present, few studies have investigated how common AD biomarkers are in newly diagnosed and unmedicated patients with PD. This cross-sectional cohort study investigated whether AD biomarkers were present in unmedicated and newly diagnosed patients with PD and patients with PD and overlapping clinical symptoms (cognitive impairment, depression, olfactory dysfunction). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of AD biomarkers Amyloid-β-42 (Aβ42), phosphorylated-tau (p-tau), and total-tau (t-tau) were assessed in 343 patients with the mean age of 68,69 (SD=9,60), including 31 healthy controls with the mean age of 68,90 (SD=5,64). The participants were recruited from The New Parkinson Patient in Umea (NYPUM & PARKNY). The results showed a significant difference in CSF AD biomarkers between patients with PD and healthy controls, but not in patients with PD and overlapping clinical symptoms. The results point to the presence of AD pathology in early PD; however, the presence of AD pathology could not be further strengthened by the clinical overlapping symptoms. More prospective studies on newly diagnosed patients with PD need to be carried out to investigate the prognostic values of the presence of AD pathology found in PD