• Adela Dănău, Laura Dumitrescu, Antonia Lefter, and Bogdan Ovidiu Popescu.
• Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Colentina Clinical Hospital Neurology Division, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 020021 Bucharest, Romania.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2022 Feb 6; 58 (2).

AbstractBackground and Objectives: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative condition responsible for progressive motor and non-motor symptoms. Currently, no prophylactic or disease-modifying interventions are available. Uric acid (UA) is a potent endogenous antioxidant, resulting from purine metabolism. It is responsible for about half of the antioxidant capacity of the plasma. Increasing evidence suggests that lower serum UA levels are associated with an increased risk of developing PD and with faster disease progression. Materials and Methods: We conducted an electronic medical record database study to investigate the associations between UA levels and different characteristics of PD. Results: Out of 274 datasets from distinct patients with PD, 49 complied with the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Lower UA levels were significantly associated with the severity of parkinsonism according to the Hoehn and Yahr stage (rs = 0.488, p = 0.002), with the motor complications of long-term dopaminergic treatment (r = 0.333, p = 0.027), and with the presence of neurocognitive impairment (r = 0.346, p = 0.021). Conclusions: Oxidative stress is considered a key player in the etiopathogenesis of PD, therefore the involvement of lower UA levels in the development and progression of PD is plausible. Data on the potential therapeutic roles of elevating serum UA (e.g., by precursor administration or diet manipulation) are scarce, but considering the accumulating epidemiological evidence, the topic warrants further research.

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