title: Salivary DJ-1 could be an indicator of Parkinson's disease progression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of the current investigation was to explore whether salivary DJ-1 could be a potential biomarker for monitoring disease progression in Parkinson's disease (PD) by evaluating the association between salivary DJ-1 concentrations and nigrostriatal dopaminergic function.
  
  
  METHODS
  First, in 74 patients with PD and 12 age-matched normal controls, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging with labeled dopamine transporters (DAT) ((99m)Tc-TRODAT-1), which has been used for measuring DAT density in PD was prformed. Then, the DJ-1 level in their saliva was analyzed by quantitative and sensitive Luminex assay and compared to caudate or putamen DAT density. Finally, based on the above, our cross-section study was carried out in 376 research volunteers (285 patients with PD and 91 healthy controls) to measure salivary DJ-1 level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From our analysis, we found a correlation between salivary concentration of DJ-1 and putamen nucleus uptake of (99m)Tc-TRODAT-1 in the PD group. Although salivary DJ-1 levels were not affected by UPDRS scores, gender, age, and pharmacotherapy, DJ-1 levels in H&Y 4 stage of PD were higher than those in H&Y 1-3 stage as well as those in healthy controls. Salivary DJ-1 also decreased significantly in mixed type PD patients compared to the tremor-dominant type (TDT) and akinetic-rigid dominant type (ARDT) PD patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to the investigation in a large cohort, we reported for the first time the prognostic potential of the salivary DJ-1 as a biomarker for evaluating nigrostriatal dopaminergic function in PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Yan
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xu-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lin-Yuan
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ying
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Li-Na
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Di
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: DJ-1; Parkinson's disease; SPECT; dopamine transporter; saliva