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Evidence that folic acid deficiency is a major determinant of hyperhomocysteinemia in Parkinson´s disease

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Abstract

In the present work we measured blood levels of total homocysteine (tHcy), vitamin B12 and folic acid in patients with Parkinson´s disease (PD) and in age-matched controls and searched for possible associations between these levels with smoking, alcohol consumption, L-DOPA treatment and disease duration in PD patients. We initially observed that plasma tHcy levels were increased by around 30 % in patients affected by PD compared to controls. Linear correlation, multiple regression and comparative analyses revealed that the major determinant of the increased plasma concentrations of tHcy in PD patients was folic acid deficiency, whereas in controls tHcy levels were mainly determined by plasma vitamin B12 concentrations. We also observed that alcohol consumption, gender and L-DOPA treatment did not significantly alter plasma tHcy, folic acid and vitamin B12 levels in parkinsonians. Furthermore, disease duration was positively associated with tHcy levels and smoking was linked with a deficit of folic acid in PD patients. Considering the potential synergistic deleterious effects of Hcy increase and folate deficiency on the central nervous system, we postulate that folic acid should be supplemented to patients affected by PD in order to normalize blood Hcy and folate levels, therefore potentially avoiding these risk factors for neurologic deterioration in this disorder.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful by the financial support of CNPq, FAPERGS, PRONEX and the FINEP research grant Rede Instituto Brasileiro de Neurociência (IBN-Net) # 01.06.0842-00.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Canoas, RS, Brazil

    Eliseu Felippe dos Santos & Moacir Wajner

  2. Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Rua Ramiro Barcelos, 2600 – Anexo, CEP 90035-003, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Ângela Zanatta & Moacir Wajner

  3. Serviço de Genética Médica, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Estela Natacha Brandt Busanello, Anelise Miglioranza, Alethea Gatto Barchak, Carmen Regla Vargas & Moacir Wajner

  4. Departamento de Análises, Faculdade de Farmácia, PPGCF, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Carmen Regla Vargas

  5. Serviço de Neurologia, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Jonas Saute, Sandro René Pinto de Sousa Miguel & Carlos Roberto de Mello Rieder

  6. Serviço de Neurologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Charles Rosa, Maria Júlia Carrion, Daiane Camargo, André Dalbem & Jaderson Costa da Costa

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  1. Eliseu Felippe dos Santos
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  2. Estela Natacha Brandt Busanello
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Correspondence to Moacir Wajner.

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dos Santos, E.F., Busanello, E.N.B., Miglioranza, A. et al. Evidence that folic acid deficiency is a major determinant of hyperhomocysteinemia in Parkinson´s disease. Metab Brain Dis 24, 257–269 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-009-9139-4

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