Brain Autopsy Study Identifies Higher Alzheimer’s Pathology in Women with Parkinson’s
What we found was, in women, particularly those with Parkinson’s disease dementia, they had higher rates of Alzheimer’s amyloid pathology,
said Erika Driver-Dunckley, M.D., a movement disorder neurologist at Mayo Clinic and one of the lead researchers on a new autopsy analysis published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.
Researchers examining 230 autopsy cases through the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders and Brain and Body Donation Program discovered that women with Parkinson’s disease dementia had higher rates of Alzheimer’s amyloid pathology compared to men. While overlapping neurodegenerative disease markers are common during post-mortem evaluations, the distinct sex difference in amyloid accumulation offers new avenues for targeted treatment research.
Uncovering Mixed Pathologies in Brain Donations
Finding signs of more than one neurodegenerative condition in a single brain remains a frequent discovery for neuropathologists. According to Dr. Driver-Dunckley, many individuals enter a brain bank carrying a single clinical diagnosis, but subsequent autopsies reveal multiple overlapping disease processes.
The analysis tracked 230 cases from the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders and the Brain and Body Donation Program. While the presence of mixed pathologies is standard in these brain bank evaluations, the sex difference in Alzheimer’s-related amyloid plaques specifically in women with Parkinson’s disease dementia marked the study’s primary finding. Conversely, researchers did not find a difference between women and men in tau pathology or levels of cognitive impairment.
Study Existing Alzheimer Drugs for Parkinson Patients
The discovery of higher rates of amyloid pathology in specific women with Parkinson’s disease dementia opens the possibility of investigating whether existing Alzheimer’s therapeutics could offer clinical benefits outside their current indications. Anti-amyloid medications hold regulatory approval for specific patient populations diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Driver-Dunckley noted that these findings establish a foundation for studying whether current anti-amyloid interventions might eventually help certain patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia who also have increased amyloid pathology. The findings could help better understand the relationship between Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
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