Abstract
Objective
The dopaminergic pathology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) impacts circuits involving GABAergic neurons, especially in the brainstem, where the disease manifests early. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the upper brainstem are reduced in patients with PD compared to healthy controls, using edited magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS of GABA +).
Materials and methods
GABA + levels were examined in 18 PD patients and 18 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). GABA + -edited MRS was performed in 7.5-ml voxels in the upper brainstem, and the spectra were processed using the Gannet software. Differences in GABA + levels between the two groups were analyzed using independent t test analysis.
Results
GABA + levels were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in the upper brainstem of the patients with PD (4.57 ± 0.94 mM) than the HCs (5.89 ± 1.16 mM).
Conclusion
The lower GABA + levels in the upper brainstem of the PD patients suggest that a GABAergic deficit in the brainstem may contribute to the pathology in PD.
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Abbreviations
- PD:
-
Parkinson’s disease
- GABA:
-
Gamma-aminobutyric acid
- GABA + :
-
Gamma-aminobutyric acid plus co-edited signals
- MRS:
-
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy
- NMS:
-
Non-motor symptoms
- BG:
-
Basal ganglia
- ROI:
-
Region of interest
- NAA:
-
N-acetyl aspartate
- Cr:
-
Creatine
- Cho:
-
Choline
- Glx:
-
Glutamate + glutemine
- TR:
-
Repetition time
- TE:
-
Echo time
- MM:
-
Macromolecules
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- HC:
-
Healthy control
- SN:
-
Substantia nigra
- GM:
-
Grey matter
- WM:
-
White matter
- MEGA-PRESS:
-
Mescher–Garwood Point Resolved Spectroscopy
- MPRAGE:
-
Magnetization-prepared rapid-acquisition gradient echo
- NMSQ:
-
Non-Motor Symptom Questionnaire
- SPSS:
-
Statistical Package for Social Sciences software
- UPDRS:
-
Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale
- H-Y stage:
-
Hoehn and Yahr Stage
- SB:
-
Sleep bruxism
- OSA:
-
Obstructive sleep apnea
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [Grant numbers R01 EB016089; P41 EB015909 and Grant K99 EB028828]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant number 81671668; 81371534]; Major research project of Shandong province [Grant number 2016ZDJS07A16]; and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong [Grant No. ZR2020QH267].
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Conceptualization: YS, TG. Methodology: YS, TG, MG.S, MM, RA.E.E. Formal analysis and investigation: YS, MM. Write—original draft preparation: YS, TG. Write—reviewing and editing: RA.E.E, MG.S. Funding acquisition: RA.E.E, GW. Supervision: GW.
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Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Shandong University. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Song, Y., Gong, T., Saleh, M.G. et al. Upper brainstem GABA levels in Parkinson’s disease. Magn Reson Mater Phy 34, 689–696 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-021-00910-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-021-00910-7