Abstract
Background
Animal data and postmortem studies suggest a role of oxidative stress in the Huntington's disease (HD), but in vivo human studies have been scarce.
Aim
To assess the presence of oxidative stress in HD patients and its occurrence relative to clinical symptoms.
Methods
Oxidative stress markers were determined in plasma of HD patients (n = 19), asymptomatic HD gene carriers (with > 38 CAG repeats) (n = 11) and their respective sex and agematched healthy controls (n = 47 and n = 22) in a cross-sectional study.
Results
With adjustment for age and sex, HD patients had higher plasma lipid peroxidation (LP) levels (ratio 1.20, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.32, p < 0.001) and lower reduced glutathione (GSH) levels (ratio 0.72, CI 0.55 to 0.94, p = 0.011) than their age and sex-matched controls. Although considerably younger, HD gene carriers did not differ from HD patients regarding LP and GSH levels, and had higher plasma LP (ratio 1.16, CI 1.02 to 1.32, p = 0.016) and lower GSH than their matched controls (ratio 0.73, CI 0.5 to 1.05). They had higher LP (ratio 1.18, CI 1.02 to 1.34, p = 0.019) and lower GSH (ratio 0.75, CI 0.51 to 1.11) than the healthy subjects matched to HD patients.
Conclusions
Oxidative stress is more pronounced in HD patients and asymptomatic HD gene carriers than in healthy subjects. Differences in plasma LP and GSH are in line with the brain findings in animal models of HD. Data suggest that oxidative stress occurs before the onset of the HD symptoms.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albers DS, Beal MF (2000) Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in aging and neurodegenerative disease. J Neural Transm 59:133–154
Andersen JK (2004) Oxidative stress in neurodegeneration: cause or consequence? Nat Med 10:18–25
Bates G (2003) Huntingtin aggregation and toxicity in Huntington's disease. Lancet 361:1642–1644
Beal MF (2000) Mechanisms of cell death in neurodegenerative disorders. Eur J Neurol 7 (Suppl. 2):1–4
Browne SE, Ferrante RJ, Beal MF (1999) Oxidative stress in Huntington's disease. Brain Pathol 9:147–163
Brouillet E, Jacquard C, Bizat N, Blum D (2005) 3-Nitropropionic acid: a mitochondrial toxin to uncover physiopathological mechanisms underlying striatal degeneration in Huntington's disease. J Neurochem 95:1521–1540
Butterfield DA,Kanski J (2001) Brain protein oxidation in age-related neurodegenerative disorder that are associated with aggregated proteins. Mech Ageing Dev 122:945–962
Christofiades J, Bridel M, Egerton M, Mackay GM, Forrest CM, Stoy N, Darlington LG, Stone TW (2006) Blood 5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and melatonin levels in patients with either Huntington's disease or chronic brain injury. J Neurochem 97:1078–1088
Delanty N, Dichter MA (2000) Antioxidant therapy in neurological diseases. Arch Neurol 57:1265–1270
Dringen R,Hirrlinger J (2003) Glutathione pathways in the brain. Biol Chem 384:505–516
Feigin A, Zgaljardic D (2002) Recent advances in Huntington's disease: implications for experimental therapeutics. Curr Opin Neurol 15:483–489
Hague SM,Klaffke S, Bandmann O (2005) Neurodegenerative disorders: Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 76:1058–1063
Hećimović S, Klepac N, Vlašić J,Vojta A, Janko D, Škarpa-Prpić I, Canki- Klain N,Marković D, Božikov J, Relja M, Pavelić K (2002) Genetic background of Huntington disease in Croatia:Molecular analysis of CAG, CCG, and Delta2642 (E2642del) polymorphisms. Hum Mutat 20:233
del Hoyo P, Garcia-Redondo A, de Bustos F,Molina JA, Sayed Y, Alonso-Navarro H, Caballero L, Arenas J, Jimenez-Jimenez FJ (2006) Oxidative stress in skin fibroblasts cultures of patients with Huntington's disease. Neurochem Res 31:1103–1109
Huntington's Disease Collaborative Research Group (1993) A novel gene containing a trinucleotide repeat that is expanded and unstable on Huntington's disease chromosome. Cell 72: 971–983
Huntington Study Group (1996) Unified Huntington's disease rating scale: reliability and consistency. Mov Disord 11:136–142
Inoue M, Koyama K (1994) Determination of superoxide and vitamine C radicals using cytochrome c and superoxide dismutase derivatives. Methods Enzymol 56:338–343
Johansson LH, Borg LA (1988) A spectrophotometric method for determination of catalase activity in small tissue samples. Anal Biochem 174:331–336
Lang C,Naryshin S, Schneider DL, Mills BJ, Linderman RD (1992) Low blood glutathione levels in healthy aging adult. J Lab Clin Med 20:720–725
Levine RL, Gardland D, Olivier CN, Amici A, Climent I, Lenz AG, Ahn BW, Shaltiel S, Stadtman ER (1990) Determination of carbonyl content in oxidatively modified proteins. Methods Enzymol 186:464–478
Lowry OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall LJ (1951) Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem 193:263–275
Mariani E, Polidori MC, Cherubini A, Mecocci P (2005) Oxidative stress in brain aging, neurodegenerative and vascular diseases: an overview. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 827:65–75
Marklund S,Marklund G (1974) Involvement of the superoxide anion radical in the antioxidation of pyrogallol and a convenient assay for superoxide dismutase. Eur J Biochem 47:469–474
Myers RH (2004) Huntington's disease genetics. NeuroRx 1:255–262
Ohkawa H, Ohishi N, Yagi K (1979) Assay for lipid peroxidases in animal tissue by thiobarbituric acid reaction. Annal Biochem 95:351–358
Perez-Severiano F, Rios C, Segovia J (2000) Striatal oxidative damage parallels the expression of a neurological phenotype in mice transgenic for the mutation of Huntington's disease. Brain Res 862:234–237
Santamaria A, Perez-Severiano F, Rodriquez-Martinez E, Maldonado PD, Pedraza-Chaverri J, Rios C, Segovia J (2001) Comparative analysis of superoxide dismutase activity between acute pharmacological models and transgenic mouse model of Huntington's disease. Neurchem Res 26:419–424
Sian J, Dexter DT, Lees AJ, Daniel S, Agid Y, Javoy-Agid F, Jenner P,Marsden CD (1994) Alterations in glutathione levels in Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders affecting basal ganglia. Ann Neurol 36:348–355
Stoy N, Mackay GM, Forrest CM, Christofides J, Egerton M, Stone TW, Darlington LG (2005) Tryptophan metabolism and oxidative stress in patients with Huntington's disease. J Neurochem 93:611–623
Taiq M, Khan HA, Elfaki I, Al Deeb S, Al Moutaery K (2005) Neuroprotective effect of nicotine against 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP)-induced experimental Huntington's disease in rats. Brain Res Bull 67:161–168
Tarpey MM; Fridovich I (2001) Methods of detection of vascular reactive species: nitric oxide, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and peroxynitrite. Circ Res 89:224–236
Warner JP, Barron LH, Brock DJH (1993) A new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the trinucleotide repeat that is unstable and expanded on Huntington's disease chromosomes. Molecular Cellular Probes 7:235–239
Zoghbi HY, Orr HT (2000) Glutamine repeats and neurodegeneration. Annu Rev Neurosci 23:217–247
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klepac, N., Relja, M., Klepac, R. et al. Oxidative stress parameters in plasma of Huntington's disease patients, asymptomatic Huntington’s disease gene carriers and healthy subjects. J Neurol 254, 1676–1683 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-007-0611-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-007-0611-y