COVID-19 and Parkinson’s disease: a single-centered study and Mendelian randomization study (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effects of the release of COVID-19 restrictions on patients with PD, and the association between COVID-19 and PD.Methods A single-center survey was performed among patients with PD through a questionnaire from December 7, 2022, to March 10, 2023. Logistic regression was performed to analyze the infection-related risk factors. Then, a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization was utilized to investigate the association between COVID-19 and PD.Results In cross-sectional analysis, the COVID-19 infection rate of PD was 65.7%. Forty-eight (35.3%) patients with PD experienced worsening of motor symptoms. Long PD course (OR 3.296, P = 0.047) and duration of the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine (OR 4.967, P = 0.034) were the infection-related risk factors. The MR analysis results supported that PD causally increases the risk of COVID-19 susceptibility (β = 0.081, OR = 1.084, P = 0.006). However, MR analysis showed that PD did not increases the risk of COVID-19 severity and hospitalization. In addition, no causal linkage of COVID-19 on PD was observed.Conclusion Our findings suggest that COVID-19 infection leads to worsened PD motor symptoms. Long PD course is the infection-related risk factors, and PD causally increases the risk of COVID-19 susceptibility. However, we found no evidence that COVID-19 contributes to PD.