Study Rationale: Constipation is one of the most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). It occurs in 50 to 80 percent of people with PD and doubles the risk of PD diagnosis after 10 years. Its presence and severity worsen PD progression and may lead to poorer response to treatment. Up to one quarter of the general adult population report constipation; however, only a few will eventually develop PD. Understanding the unique features of PD-associated constipation is therefore critical to help identify individuals at higher risk of developing PD and to provide novel targets for PD interception and treatment.
Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the constipation that accompanies PD has unique characteristics that distinguish it from other types of constipation and that these features can be used to predict who will develop the PD early on and to design new treatment or prevention strategies.
Study Design: We will use advanced technologies to compare various features across different groups of archived and newly collected tissue samples from the intestines of PD patients with and without constipation and from healthy controls with and without constipation. For each sample, we will generate molecular, biochemical and histological data, including a catalog of RNAs and proteins. We will use this information to identify the genes and proteins differentially expressed in people with PD-associated constipation compared to the other groups.
Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s disease: The ability to recognize the unique biomarkers of PD-associated constipation in individuals with constipation symptoms may help identify those who are at high risk of developing PD in the future and reveal novel drug targets for preventing and treating PD.
Next Steps for Development: In this study, we will identify features of PD-associated constipation that can help unlock the early processes of PD development before the disease symptoms appear. This information can be used to design drugs or other interventions to prevent PD initiation and progression and ease symptoms in people with PD.