Subgroup differences in 'brain-type transferrin and {alpha}-synuclein in Parkinsons disease and multiple system atrophy

Two transferrin (Tf) glycan-isoforms were previously found in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); one appears to be derived from serum (Tf-2) and the other from choroid plexus, a CSF-producing tissue (Tf-1). To analyse metabolic differences associated with the two isoforms, their ratio (Tf-2/Tf-1) was defined as the Tf index. Here we report that Tf indices of patients with tauopathies including Alzheimer’s disease (2.29 + 0.64) were similar to those of neurological controls (2.07 + 0.87) (P = 0.147). In contrast, Tf indices with Parkinson’s disease (PD, 3.38 ± 1.87) and multiple system atrophy (MSA, 3.15 ± 1.72) were higher than those of the controls (2.07 ± 0.87), the P-values being < 0.001 and 0.024, respectively. Tf indices of PD and MSA did not appear to be normally distributed. Indeed, detrended normal Quantile–Quantile plot analysis revealed the presence of an independent subgroup showing higher Tf indices in PD and MSA. The subgroup of PD showed higher levels of CSF α-synuclein (38.3 ± 17.8 ng/ml) than the rest (25.3 ± 11.3 ng/ml, P = 0.012). These results suggest that PD (and MSA) includes two subgroups, which show different metabolism of CSF transferrin and α-synuclein.

Source: Journal of Biochemistry - July 27, 2016 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Yoshihara, A., Fukatsu, M., Hoshi, K., Ito, H., Nollet, K., Yamaguchi, Y., Ishii, R., Tokuda, T., Miyajima, M., Arai, H., Kato, T., Furukawa, K., Arai, H., Kikuchi, A., Takeda, A., Ugawa, Y., Hashimoto, Y. Tags: Regular Papers Source Type: research