title: Uric acid relates to dopamine transporter availability in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diagnosing Parkinson's disease (PD) and tracking its progression may require the combination of reliable biomarkers. Among them, both serum uric acid (UA) and dopamine transporter (DaT) binding deserve more investigations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to investigate the relationship between serum UA levels and DaT availability in newly diagnosed, drug-naïve PD patients, by means of semiquantitative [(123) I]FP-CIT-SPECT.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 52 newly diagnosed, drug-naïve PD patients, and performed serum UA dosage and [(123) I]FP-CIT-SPECT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pearson's correlation analysis showed that UA levels were significantly higher in patients with higher averaged, ipsilateral and contralateral DaT binding in caudate, putamen, and striatum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We showed, for the first time, by regional semiquantitative analysis of DaT binding in PD patients that UA levels significantly correlates with the severity of dopaminergic impairment in caudate, putamen, and striatum. This study broadens our knowledge on the importance of UA as a biomarker of PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Reproductive Science and Odontostomatology, Federico II University, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moccia
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pappatà
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Erro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Picillo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vitale
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amboni
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palladino
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barone
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Pellecchia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods; D014326:Tropanes; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014326:Tropanes; C087552:2-carbomethoxy-8-(3-fluoropropyl)-3-(4-iodophenyl)tropane; D014527:Uric Acid
keywords: Parkinson's disease; SPECT; biomarkers; dopamine transporter; urate; uric; uric acid