Doença de parkinson: sentimentos atribuídos ao convívio à luz do cuidador familiar / Parkinson's disease: feelings attributed to the conviviality in the light of the family caregivers

Objetivo: Identificar os sentimentos atribuídos quanto à convivência com o idoso com Doença de Parkinson à luz dos cuidadores familiares. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo, do tipo descritivo-exploratório e transversal. Os participantes do estudo foram os cuidadores familiares que conviviam com o idoso portador da Doença de Parkinson. A amostra foi constituída por 20 cuidadores familiares. Para a coleta de dados utilizou-se os seguintes instrumentos: questionário referente ao perfil pessoal e familiar dos participantes e roteiro de entrevista semiestruturado, a estratégia metodológica para análise das entrevistas foi o Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC). Resultados: Emergiram as seguintes categorias: "dificuldade pela evolução da doença", "convivo de forma tranquila", "compromisso diário", "sentimento de impotência". Conclusão: É de extrema necessidade cuidar do cuidador e intensificar esforços para amparar estas famílias na sua integralidade, no propósito de eliminar as vulnerabilidades que esses cuidadores são expostos e que implicam diretamente na sua qualidade de vida.

Purpose: To identify the feelings attributed to living with elderly people with Parkinson's disease in the light of family caregivers. Methods: This is a qualitative, descriptive-exploratory and cross-sectional study. The study participants were family caregivers who lived with older adults carrier with Parkinson's disease. The sample consisted of 20 family caregivers. For data collection, the following instruments were used: questionnaire regarding the personal and family profile of the participants and a semi-structured interview script, the methodological strategy for the analysis of the interviews was the Discourse of the Collective Subject (DSC). Results: The following categories emerged: "difficulties by evolution of illness", "live together with ease", "daily commitment", and "feeling of impotence". Conclusion: It is of extreme necessity to care for the caregiver and to intensify efforts in order to support these families in their integrality, in the purpose of eliminating the vulnerabilities that these caregivers are exposed and that imply directly in their quality of life.

Photobiomodulation as a treatment for neurodegenerative disorders: current and future trends

Photobiomodulation (PBM) is a rapidly growing as an innovative therapeutic modality for various types of diseases in recent years. Neuronal degeneration is irreversible process and it is proven to be difficult to slow down or stop the progression. Pharmacologic approaches to slow neuronal degeneration have been studied, but are limited due to concerns about the side effects. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new therapeutic approach to stabilize neuronal degeneration and achieve neuronal protection against several neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we have introduced several previous studies showing the positive effect of PBM over neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and different types of epilepsy. Despite excellent outcomes of animal researches, not many clinical studies are conducted or showed positive outcome of PBM against neurodegenerative disease. To achieve clinical application of PBM against neurodegenerative disorder, determination of exact mechanism and establishment of effective clinical protocol seems to be necessary.

Comparative study of the different methods of small RNA high-throughput sequencing library preparation in human brain tissues / 中华老年医学杂志

Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the initial amount of total RNA input,adapter dilution and PCR amplification cycles on the results of small RNA library preparation and high-throughput sequencing.Methods Based on the sequencing reads number,the number of detected miRNAs and the accuracy of quantitative detection,we explored the effects of initial Total RNA,dilution ratio and PCR cycles on the quality of microRNA library preparation and high-throughput sequencing,respectively.Results For libraries preparation of the normal RNA input(1 μg),the adapter dilution combined with 22 PCR cycles could gain the best quality of sequencing.In the low-input libraries(10 ng),adapter dilution and increased PCR cycles would also improve the quality of sequencing,but as compared with the 1 μg library,there was lower correlation with microarray quantitative results in general.Conclusions The initial amount of RNAs input has the biggest effects on the quality of sequencing,and the quantity accuracy rate of low-input libraries is lower than the normal libraries generally.Increasing the PCR amplification cycles properly is indispensable to low-input libraries.

N30 Somatosensory Evoked Potential Is Negatively Correlated with Motor Function in Parkinson's Disease

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate frontal N30 status in Parkinson's disease (PD) and to examine the correlation between the amplitude of frontal N30 and the severity of motor deficits. METHODS: The frontal N30 was compared between 17 PD patients and 18 healthy volunteers. Correlations between the amplitude of frontal N30 and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor score of the more severely affected side was examined. RESULTS: The mean latency of the N30 was not significantly different between patients and healthy volunteers (p = 0.981), but the mean amplitude was lower in PD patients (p < 0.025). There was a significant negative correlation between the amplitude of N30 and the UPDRS motor score (r = -0.715, p = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS: The frontal N30 status indicates the motor severity of PD. It can be a useful biomarker reflecting dopaminergic deficits and an objective measurement for monitoring the clinical severity of PD.

Advances in synthesis of pimavanserin / 国际药学研究杂志

Pimavanserin(Nuplazid) is a drug of selective targeting 5-HT2A receptor,developed by Acadia Pharmaceuticals. In April 29,2016,it was approved by FDA for the treatment of Parkinson′s disease(PD)patients experiencing mental symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. In this paper,we summarize the synthetic methods of pimavanserin published in literature in re?cent years and their advantages and disadvantages.

Advances in synthesis of pimavanserin / 国际药学研究杂志

Pimavanserin(Nuplazid) is a drug of selective targeting 5-HT2A receptor, developed by Acadia Pharmaceuticals. In April 29, 2016, it was approved by FDA for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients experiencing mental symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. In this paper, we summarize the synthetic methods of pimavanserin published in literature in recent years and their advantages and disadvantages.

Parkinsonism Associated with Glucocerebrosidase Mutation

BACKGROUND: Gaucher's disease is an autosomal recessive, lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations of the beta-glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA). There is increasing evidence that GBA mutations are a genetic risk factor for the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). We report herein a family of Koreans exhibiting parkinsonism-associated GBA mutations. CASE REPORT: A 44-year-old woman suffering from slowness and paresthesia of the left arm for the previous 1.5years, visited our hospital to manage known invasive ductal carcinoma. During a preoperative evaluation, she was diagnosed with Gaucher's disease and double mutations of S271G and R359X in GBA. Parkinsonian features including low amplitude postural tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia and shuffling gait were observed. Genetic analysis also revealed that her older sister, who had also been diagnosed with PD and had been taking dopaminergic drugs for 8-years, also possessed a heterozygote R359X mutation in GBA. 18F-fluoropropylcarbomethoxyiodophenylnortropane positron-emission tomography in these patients revealed decreased uptake of dopamine transporter in the posterior portion of the bilateral putamen. CONCLUSIONS: This case study demonstrates Korean familial cases of PD with heterozygote mutation of GBA, further supporting the association between PD and GBA mutation.

Role of autophagy and proteasome degradation pathways in apoptosis of PC12 cells transfected with A53T α-synuclein / 中华神经科杂志

Objective To explore the specific role of autophagy and ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in apoptosis, specific protease inhibitor and (or) macroautophagy inhibitors.Methods The stimulators were selected to work on the pheochromocytoma (PC12) cell lines transfected with human mutant α-synuclein (A53T).Cell activity and apeptosis rate were detected by MTT law and flow cytometry.NO energy, heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and Caspase-3 expression were determined in cell culture.Results A53T cell survival rate significantly decreased 24 hours after handling with the protease inhibitor (100 nmol/L) and (or) autophagy inhibitors 3-MA (10 mmol/L, A =0.23±0.01,0.19±0.01 and 0.17±0.01 respectively; P <0.05) compared with the control group (A =0.32±0.06).Cell survival rate was significantly higher than the other drug group after 24 hours handling with autophagy stimulators (A =0.44±0.08).Compared with the control group or autophagy stimulator of rapamycin (0.2 μg/ml) group (1.55%±1.15%), A53T cells apeptosis percentage rate was significantly higher after treated with proteasome inhibitor and macroautophagy inhibitors 24 hours (4.74%±0.91%, 4.59%±1.18% and 5.40%±1.75%respectively, P <0.05); and a slight decrease with stimulators.Protein Hsp70 and NO were significantly higher in proteasome inhibitor groups than the control group.But in antophagy inhibitor and stimulator group, NO and Hsp70 protein was similar to the control group.Conclusion The inhibition of macroautophagy and proteasome can promote apoptosis.Inhibiting or stimulating autophagy has less impact on Hsp70 and NO than proteasome pathway.

Changes and significance of serum glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in patients with Parkinson disease / 中华全科医师杂志

Objective To investigate changes in serum level of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and its clinical significance. Methods Serum GFAP was determined with sandwich ELISA for 82 patients with PD and acute cerebral infarction (ACI), as well as healthy normal controls. Patients with PD were then divided into two sub-groups in terms of their course duration, one with less than five years and the other with more than or equal to five years. Effects of course duration and age of the patients on their serum GFAP were analyzed. Results Serum level of GFAP was significantly higher in patients with PD [(1.628±0.104) μg/L] and ACI [(1. 637±0. 063 )μg/L] than that in healthy normal controls [ (0. 025±0. 003)μg/L, t = 82. 7, 142. 2, all P <0. 05 ]. But, there was no significant difference in serum GFAP between patients with PD and ACI ( t =0. 214, P > 0. 05 ). Serum level of GFAP in PD patients had no significant correlation with their age. There was no significant difference in serum GFAP between two sub-groups of patients with PD (P > 0.05 ). Conclusions Serum level of GFAP increased significantly in PD patients, as compared to healthy normal controls, but it is not specific. Serum GFAP in patients with PD maintained at certain high level with progression of the disease, indicating effect of astrocytes may persistently exist during the disease course.

SPECT Imaging of Dopamine Transporter with I-123 IPT in Normal Controls and Parkinson's Patients

OBJECTIVES: Dopamine transporter concentrations have been known to decrease in Parkinson's disease(PD). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between SPECT measurements of [I-123]N-(3-iodopropene-2-yl)-2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-chlorophenyl) tropane(IPT) as an imaging agent for measuring changes in transporter concentrations with PD. PATIENTS AND METHODS:IPT labelled with 4.87+/-1.29mCi(180.19+/-47.73 MBq) of [I-123] was intravenously injected into 23 patients(age:58+/-12) with PD and three normal controls(NC)(age:37+/-7) as bolus. Brain SPECT were then performed at 1 hour and 2 hours after injection on a double headed camera. The statistical parameters were the contrast ratio of left basal ganglia(BG) and right basal ganglia to occipital cortex(OCC) per milli curies of injected radiotracer at 1 hour and 2 hours. The correlations were evaluated between these parameters and Hoehn-Yahr classification of the patients. RESULTS: The(BG-OCC)/OCC/mCi ratios at 1 hour and 2 hours for PD and NC were 0.14+/-0.07 and 0.27+/-0.07(1 hour) and 0.12+/-0.07 and 0.34+/-0.04(2 hour), respectively. The(BG-OCC)/OCC/mCi ratios of Parkinson's disease were decreased with higher grade of Hoehn-Yahr classification of the patients. The ratio between BG and OCC for PD were clearly separated from NC and may be useful outcome measures for clinical diagnosis. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that IPT may be a very useful tracer for early diagnosis and treatment of PD and study of dopamine re-uptake site.

Analysis of Apolipoprotein E Genotypes in Several Demential diseases / 대한임상병리학회지

BACKGROUND: An increased frequency of the epsilon4 allele in Alzheimer's disease has been reported, which suggested a functional role of apolipoprotein E isoforms in pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease. The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of ApoE genotypes in various types of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and Parkinson's disease, to relate epsilon4 and assess risk factors for different types of dementia. METHODS: We assessed the frequency of Apolipoprotein E alleles in 29 patients with Alzheimer's disease, 10 patients with vascular dementia and 9 demented patients with Parkinson's disease. The Apolipoprotein E genotype was determined the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with sequence-specific oligonuculeotide primers (SSOP) and reverse hybridiza- tion using the INNO-LiPA (Line Probe Assay) Apo E typing kit. RESULTS: Allele frequencies of epsilon2, epsilon3, and epsilon4 were : 0.5, 0.72, and 0.23 in Alzheimer's disease; 0, 0.65, and 0.35 in vascular dementia; 0.6, 0.83 and 0.11 in demented patients with Parkinson's disease. Conculsion : These results indicate that the apolipoprotein E4 allele is associated with not only Alzheimer's disease but also vascular dementia, however not associated with Parkinson's disease. No such an association was observed between the apolipoprotein E alleles and age.