Forte, G; Alimonti, A; Pino, A; Stanzione, P; Brescianini, S; Brusa, L; Sancesario, G; Violante, N; Bocca, B
The levels of 26 metals and the oxidative status in 71 patients (53 men and 18 women; mean age, 65.5±9.4 years) with Parkinson's disease (PD) and in 44 healthy individuals (33 men and 11 women; mean age, 51.9±4.0 years) from Italy were compared to identify potential biomarkers of PD. In the patients, the following significant imbalances were found (P≤0.05): (i) in serum, an increment of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), nickel (Ni), silicon (Si) and vanadium (V), and a decrement of cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), lithium (Li), tin (Sn), zinc (Zn) and zirconium (Zr); (ii) in blood, raised levels of Co, Li, Ni and Si and decreased of Al, beryllium (Be), Ca, Cd, Fe, Mg, molybdenum (Mo), Sn, Zn and Zr; (iii) increased formation of oxidant species and lowered antioxidant capacity (P≤0.001 for both). Barium, bismuth, chromium, copper, mercury, manganese, lead, antimony, strontium, thallium and tungsten did not change with the disease. The best discriminating variables between patients and controls were Cd, Co, Fe, Ni and Si levels in serum (91.2% of cases correctly classified), and Al, Cd, Co, Fe, Mo and Si levels in blood (98.2% of cases properly classified).