Parkinson's disease and glutamate excitotoxicity
Abstract
AIM: To measure the concentration of glutamate in the serum of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and determine its association with clinical variants of disease course. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and ten patients with PD and 90 healthy people were examined. Glutamate concentration in the blood serum was determined with a spectrophotometric method. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Patients with Parkinson's disease had significantly higher levels of serum glutamate compared with healthy subjects (p<0,0001). Patients with a tremor-dominant subtype had significantly higher levels of serum glutamate compared to those in patients with akinetic-rigid and mixed subtypes. The results obtained allow us to expand our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease. Changes in the concentration of glutamate may reflect neurodegenerative process in PD.