Objective: To determine whether there are longitudinal differences in serum uric acid level among sporadic Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, PD patients harboring the p.A53T mutation in the alpha-synuclein gene and healthy controls.

Background: The Parkinson’s progression markers initiative (PPMI) study evaluated the 5-year change of clinical, imaging and biochemical parameters in de novo PD patients, in patients with genetic forms of PD (including carriers of the p.A53T mutation in alpha-synuclein) and in matched healthy controls.

Method: Data regarding longitudinal 5-year serum uric acid measurements of 421 de novo PD patients and 174 age-, sex- and disease duration matched healthy controls have been downloaded from the PPMI database. Biochemical analysis had been carried out in Covance laboratories in a uniformed way. Statistical analysis was performed using repeated measures ANOVA (tests of within- and between- subjects effects). Furthermore, we assessed baseline and year 1 serum uric acid measurements of 24 p.A53T a-synuclein PD patients enrolled in PPMI and followed in our site as compared to 24 matched sporadic PD patients and 24 healthy controls.

Results: Longitudinal serum uric acid measurements did not differ statistically between sporadic PD patients and healthy controls (despite a trend for lower uric acid in PD) (p=0.942) and there was no significant effect of time on uric acid level. This was also true when male and female subgroups were assessed separately (p=0.874 and p=0.153). p.A53T mutation carrier PD group exhibited lower baseline serum uric acid level as compared to their matched healthy controls (4.39±1.44 versus 5.13±1.46 mg/dL, p=0.025). Sporadic PD serum uric acid level was intermediate (4.68±1.42 mg/dL) and did not differ from either p.A53T PD (p=0.439) or healthy controls (p=0.201).

Conclusion: We failed to replicate the established lower serum uric acid measurements in PD patients as compared to controls using PPMI data, possibly due to the fact that as per the study protocol, PD patients in baseline visit were de novo and the average disease duration was shorter than that observed in most epidemiological PD studies. The faster progression rate and increased disease severity in p.A53T PD might account for the lower serum uric acid observed in this subgroup.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/serum-uric-acid-level-as-a-biomarker-in-sporadic-and-familial-p-a53t-alpha-synuclein-carriers-parkinsons-disease-longitudinal-data-from-the-ppmi-study/