Expression data from human patients with slow or rapid Parkinson's Disease progression. Homo sapiens

Parkinson’s Disease is a multi-system, disabling progressive neurodegenerative condition. Clinical progression is highly heterogeneous and, thus far, there are not available biomarkers to accurately predict the rate of disease progression. Thus, identifying molecular signatures that allow discriminating between different progression rates might significantly assist the therapeutic strategy, and enable improved outcomes in clinical trials. We performed an exploratory cross-sectional study aimed at determining whether gene expression differences in peripheral blood may be used to discriminate between patients with slow or rapid Parkinson’s disease progression Overall design: Based on distinct disease stages and rates of motor disease progression, 70 Parkinson's Disease patients were clinically evaluated and divided into the two groups: slow (n=35) or rapid (n=35) progression. RNA was extracted from whole blood samples of these patients. RNA quality was assessed using RIN in the two groups of patients, which displayed mean RIN values of 7.14 (rapid progressors) and 7.02 (slow progressors). From the 70 RNA samples, 3 had RIN<6 and were not included in subsequent analysis (this corresponded to 1 rapid and 2 slow progressors samples). Expression analysis included 67 array samples (34 rapid and 33 slow progressors).. Gene expression profiling was performed using RNA expression data generated by genome array plates (Affymetrix Human Genome U219 platform, HG-U219). Patients Classification: Patients Classification: Patients were consecutively recruited from the movement disorders outpatient clinic of the Lisbon University Hospital. Neurologists with expertise in movement disorders interviewed and examined all cases. Patients were divided into two distinct groups with “Slow” or “Fast” progression, depending on the absence or presence of postural instability, respectively. Postural instability was defined by item 3.12 of the MDS-UPDRS, part III. Slow progression if scored 0 (no postural instability) and rapid progression if scored ≥ 1. Sample Collection: Venous blood from Parkinson's Disease patients was collected in PAXgene tubes