title: Raised cerebrospinal-fluid copper concentration in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: The cerebrospinal-fluid copper concentration, measured by electrothermal atomisation/atomic absorption spectrophotometry, was significantly higher in 24 patients with untreated, idiopathic Parkinson's disease than in a control population of 34 patients (p less than 0.001). The difference in the in-vitro capacity of copper to damage DNA, measured by the phenanthroline assay was even greater. The high phenanthroline-copper concentration correlated with disease severity (p = 0.02) and with the rate of progression of disease (p less than 0.05). A possible role is suggested for copper-catalysed oxidative mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003300:Copper / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008297:Male; D008345:Manganese / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010618:Phenanthrolines; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic
chemical_list: D010618:Phenanthrolines; D008345:Manganese; D003300:Copper; D007501:Iron