Objective: To investigate whether plasma phosphorylated α-synuclein (p-syn) were associated with cognitive function in Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly worldwide. Cognitive impairment is one of the most common NMS.Cognitive decline can severely impair daily life and functional independence. PD patients have a much higher risk of dementia as compared with the general population and the majority of patients with PD will develop some degree of cognitive impairment. However, there is no reliable biomarker predicting cognitive impairment in PD. Lin et al suggest plasma α-syn related with cognitive function and can predict cognitive function decline in PD. Therefore, our study aims to explore whether plasma p-syn can predict cognitive decline in PD.

Method: Ninety PD patients were classified into those with normal cognitive function (PD-CN), mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI), and dementia (PDD). Forty healthy controls with normal cognitive who volunteered to participate for the same period were enrolled. Plasma p-syn were measured with ELISA and compared with a control group. Associations between Plasma p-syn and clinical characteristics were analyzed using Pearson or Spearman. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the factors affecting the cognitive function of PD.

Results: Plasma p-syn was higher in PD patients than healthy controls (P<0.001). Plasma p-syn was higher in PD-MCI and PDD group compared to healthy controls (P=0.02，P＜0.001). Plasma p-syn was correlated with H-Y (r=0.404，P＜0.001)、UPDRS-III (r=0.275，P=0.009)、UPDRS-total (r=0.211，P=0.046) and SCOPA-AUT (r=0.335，P=0.001). Plasma p-syn was negatively associated with MoCA. Multiple linear regression analysis suggested disease duration 、p-syn and UPDRS-total were independently associated with cognitive function. Plasma p-syn could discriminate between PD-NC and PD-MCI with an AUC of 0.7354. Plasma p-syn could discriminate between PD-NC and PDD with an AUC of 0.8165 .

Conclusion: Our results suggested p-syn levels correlate with cognitive function and motor severity in patients with PD. The relatively good diagnostic outcomes to differentiate the different groups suggests that plasma p-syn might be a useful marker to differentiate patients with PD and differing degrees of cognitive impairment.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/plasma-phosphorylated-%ce%b1-synuclein-relates-to-cognitive-impairment-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/