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. 2016 Feb:38:216.e7-216.e10.
doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.10.033. Epub 2015 Nov 5.

Reduced mitochondrial DNA copy number is a biomarker of Parkinson's disease

Angela Pyle  1 , Haidyan Anugrha  1 , Marzena Kurzawa-Akanbi  1 , Alison Yarnall  2 , David Burn  2 , Gavin Hudson  3
Affiliations

Reduced mitochondrial DNA copy number is a biomarker of Parkinson's disease

Angela Pyle et al. Neurobiol Aging. 2016 Feb.

Abstract

Like any organ, the brain is susceptible to the march of time and a reduction in mitochondrial biogenesis is a hallmark of the aging process. In the largest investigation of mitochondrial copy number in Parkinson's disease (PD) to date and by using multiple tissues, we demonstrate that reduced Parkinson DNA (mitochondrial DNA mtDNA) copy number is a biomarker for the etiology of PD. We used established methods of mtDNA quantification to assess the copy number of mtDNA in n = 363 peripheral blood samples, n = 151 substantia nigra pars compacta tissue samples and n = 120 frontal cortex tissue samples from community-based PD cases fulfilling UK-PD Society brain bank criteria for the diagnosis of PD. Accepting technical limitations, our data show that PD patients suffer a significant reduction in mtDNA copy number in both peripheral blood and the vulnerable substantia nigra pars compacta when compared to matched controls. Our study indicates that reduced mtDNA copy number is restricted to the affected brain tissue, but is also reflected in the peripheral blood, suggesting that mtDNA copy number may be a viable diagnostic predictor of PD.

Keywords: Biomarker; Mitochondria; Parkinson's disease.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content in 3 tissues, showing mean mtDNA copy number per cell (with 95% CI) for PD cases (A, shaded) and matched controls (C, unshaded) from (A) peripheral blood cells (PBC), (B) substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc), and (C) frontal cortex (FC). Asterisks indicate statistical significance (****p = 10−4 and ***p = 10−3). Abbreviation: PD, Parkinson's disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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