GOAL
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a widespread disorder of the nervous system, which is associated with the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. An important feature of PD is a long latency period of the disease. Hence, it is necessary to search for prognostic biomarkers. One of the methods for detecting PD biomarkers is the study of changes of gene expression in the peripheral blood from untreated patients with early stages of PD. To date, there is evidence that impaired membrane transport can play an important role in the pathogenesis of PD; therefore, in our work, we have analyzed changes in the relative mRNA levels of the DNM2, EPN2 and EXOC4 genes in the peripheral blood from treated and untreated patients with Parkinson’s disease.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
In the present work, 2 groups of patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and 2 comparison groups were studied. Analysis of mRNA levels was performed using reverse transcription method and real-time PCR (TaqMan technology).
RESULTS
As a result of the work, no significant changes in the expression of the studied genes were found in the group of untreated PD patients. However, in the group of treated PD patients, we obtained statistically significant changes in the expression at the mRNA level for the DNM2 gene.
CONCLUSION
The results of our work suggest that genes DNM2, EPN2 and EXOC4 are not involved in the pathogenesis of the disease at the mRNA level in patients with early stage of PD. In this way, they cannot be used as prognostic biomarkers of PD. Changes in the expression of the DNM2 gene in treated PD patients suggest that this gene is involved in processes associated with dopamine agonist therapy.