TY - JOUR

T1 - 5-HT2A Receptor Binding in the Frontal Cortex of Parkinson's Disease Patients and Alpha-Synuclein Overexpressing Mice

T2 - A Postmortem Study

AU - Rasmussen, Nadja Bredo

AU - Olesen, Mikkel Vestergaard

AU - Brudek, Tomasz

AU - Plenge, Per

AU - Klein, Anders Bue

AU - Westin, Jenny E.

AU - Fog, Karina

AU - Wörtwein, Gitta

AU - Aznar, Susana

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - The receptor is highly involved in aspects of cognition and executive function and seen to be affected in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and related to the disease pathology. Even though Parkinson’s disease (PD) is primarily a motor disorder, reports of impaired executive function are also steadily being associated with this disease. Not much is known about the pathophysiology behind this. The aim of this study was thereby twofold: (1) to investigate receptor binding levels in Parkinson’s brains and (2) to investigate whether PD associated pathology, alpha-synuclein (AS) overexpression, could be associated with alterations. Binding density for the -specific radioligand [3H]-MDL 100.907 was measured in membrane suspensions of frontal cortex tissue from PD patients. Protein levels of AS were further measured using western blotting. Results showed higher AS levels accompanied by increased receptor binding in PD brains. In a separate study, we looked for changes in receptors in the prefrontal cortex in 52-week-old transgenic mice overexpressing human AS. We performed region-specific receptor binding measurements followed by gene expression analysis. The transgenic mice showed lower binding in the frontal association cortex that was not accompanied by changes in gene expression levels. This study is one of the first to look at differences in serotonin receptor levels in PD and in relation to AS overexpression.

AB - The receptor is highly involved in aspects of cognition and executive function and seen to be affected in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and related to the disease pathology. Even though Parkinson’s disease (PD) is primarily a motor disorder, reports of impaired executive function are also steadily being associated with this disease. Not much is known about the pathophysiology behind this. The aim of this study was thereby twofold: (1) to investigate receptor binding levels in Parkinson’s brains and (2) to investigate whether PD associated pathology, alpha-synuclein (AS) overexpression, could be associated with alterations. Binding density for the -specific radioligand [3H]-MDL 100.907 was measured in membrane suspensions of frontal cortex tissue from PD patients. Protein levels of AS were further measured using western blotting. Results showed higher AS levels accompanied by increased receptor binding in PD brains. In a separate study, we looked for changes in receptors in the prefrontal cortex in 52-week-old transgenic mice overexpressing human AS. We performed region-specific receptor binding measurements followed by gene expression analysis. The transgenic mice showed lower binding in the frontal association cortex that was not accompanied by changes in gene expression levels. This study is one of the first to look at differences in serotonin receptor levels in PD and in relation to AS overexpression.

U2 - 10.1155/2016/3682936

DO - 10.1155/2016/3682936

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27579212

VL - 2016

JO - Parkinson's Disease

JF - Parkinson's Disease

SN - 2042-0080

M1 - 3682936

ER -