TY - JOUR

T1 - Brain-First versus Gut-First Parkinson's Disease

T2 - A Hypothesis

AU - Borghammer, Per

AU - Van Den Berge, Nathalie

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a highly heterogeneous disorder, which probably consists of multiple subtypes. Aggregation of misfolded alpha-synuclein and propagation of these proteinacious aggregates through interconnected neural networks is believed to be a crucial pathogenetic factor. It has been hypothesized that the initial pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates originate in the enteric or peripheral nervous system (PNS) and invade the central nervous system (CNS) via retrograde vagal transport. However, evidence from neuropathological studies suggests that not all PD patients can be reconciled with this hypothesis. Importantly, a small fraction of patients do not show pathology in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus. Here, it is hypothesized that PD can be divided into a PNS-first and a CNS-first subtype. The former is tightly associated with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) during the prodromal phase and is characterized by marked autonomic damage before involvement of the dopaminergic system. In contrast, the CNS-first phenotype is most often RBD-negative during the prodromal phase and characterized by nigrostriatal dopaminergic dysfunction prior to involvement of the autonomic PNS. The existence of these subtypes is supported by in vivo imaging studies of RBD-positive and RBD-negative patient groups and by histological evidence- reviewed herein. The present proposal provides a fresh hypothesis-generating framework for future studies into the etiopathogenesis of PD and seems capable of explaining a number of discrepant findings in the neuropathological literature.

AB - Parkinson's disease (PD) is a highly heterogeneous disorder, which probably consists of multiple subtypes. Aggregation of misfolded alpha-synuclein and propagation of these proteinacious aggregates through interconnected neural networks is believed to be a crucial pathogenetic factor. It has been hypothesized that the initial pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates originate in the enteric or peripheral nervous system (PNS) and invade the central nervous system (CNS) via retrograde vagal transport. However, evidence from neuropathological studies suggests that not all PD patients can be reconciled with this hypothesis. Importantly, a small fraction of patients do not show pathology in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus. Here, it is hypothesized that PD can be divided into a PNS-first and a CNS-first subtype. The former is tightly associated with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) during the prodromal phase and is characterized by marked autonomic damage before involvement of the dopaminergic system. In contrast, the CNS-first phenotype is most often RBD-negative during the prodromal phase and characterized by nigrostriatal dopaminergic dysfunction prior to involvement of the autonomic PNS. The existence of these subtypes is supported by in vivo imaging studies of RBD-positive and RBD-negative patient groups and by histological evidence- reviewed herein. The present proposal provides a fresh hypothesis-generating framework for future studies into the etiopathogenesis of PD and seems capable of explaining a number of discrepant findings in the neuropathological literature.

U2 - 10.3233/JPD-191721

DO - 10.3233/JPD-191721

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 31498132

VL - 9

SP - S281-S295

JO - Journal of Parkinson's Disease

JF - Journal of Parkinson's Disease

SN - 1877-7171

IS - s2

ER -