Session Information
Date: Monday, October 8, 2018
Session Title: Parkinson's Disease: Pathophysiology
Session Time: 1:15pm-2:45pm
Location: Hall 3FG
Objective: We aimed to study the concentration of glutamate in the serum of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and its connection with clinical variants of the disease course.
Background: Glutamate plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease. As a neurotransmitter, it affects the functional interaction of the basal ganglia in response to dopaminergic denervation of the striatum and plays an important role in the development. Due to its excitotoxic properties, glutamate is hypothesized to affect the progression of the disease, enhancing oxidative stress and damaging the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra.
Methods: The study was performed in 2 groups: 84 patients with PD and 70 controls. Venous blood was taken from the ulnar vein in the morning, on an empty stomach. The concentration of serum glutamate was determined using spectrophotometry at λ = 450 nm with the Glutamate Assay Kitt reagent kit (BioVision, USA). Statistical analysis was performed in IBM SPSS 23.0.
Results: As a result of the study, we identified a statistically significant (p <0,0001) increase in glutamate concentration in patients with PD (41,8 [33,3-51,6] μmol/L) in comparison with the control group (33,8 [27, 6-43,7] μmol/L). The serum glutamate concentration significantly differed in patients with motor subtypes of PD (p = 0,002): in patients with tremor-dominant type concentration was 54.7 [49,9-58,2] μmol/l and was significantly higher in comparison to patients with akinetic-rigid (38,2 [32,7-51,2] μmol/l, p = 0,004) and mixed subtype (41,7 [32,9-48,3] μmol/l, p = 0,001). Glutamate concentrations did not show correlation with the duration of the disease, cognitive deficits, anxiety, depression, and motor symptoms assessed with section III of UPDRS.
Conclusions: The obtained results contribute to the understanding of glutamate role in the pathophysiology of PD and warrant the further investigation which can be particularly useful for the development of new predictive models and treatment strategies.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
A. Latypova, I. Mironova, O. Izhboldina, I. Zhukova, N. Zhukova, E. Kolupaeva. Serum glutamate is associated with the motor subtype of Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2018; 33 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/serum-glutamate-is-associated-with-the-motor-subtype-of-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to 2018 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/serum-glutamate-is-associated-with-the-motor-subtype-of-parkinsons-disease/