2025 Hyper Recent •CC0 1.0 Universal

This work is dedicated to the public domain. No rights reserved.

Access Preprint From Server
March 11th, 2025
Version: 2
UK Dementia Research Institute at The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
neuroscience
biorxiv

Molecular and cellular signatures differentiate Parkinson's disease from Parkinson's disease with dementia

Fairbrother-Browne, A.Open in Google Scholar•Grant-Peters, M.Open in Google Scholar•Brenton, J. W.Open in Google Scholar•Nelvagal, H.Open in Google Scholar•Reynolds, R. H.Open in Google Scholar•Lim, Y. M.Open in Google Scholar•Gustavsson, E. K.Open in Google Scholar•Macpherson, H.Open in Google Scholar•Montgomery, K.Open in Google Scholar•Evans, J. R.Open in Google Scholaret al.

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects millions of people worldwide, and up to 40% of these patients develop dementia, profoundly affecting their quality of life. Whether Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD) simply represents a late stage of PD or constitutes a distinct neurodegenerative process remains unresolved. To clarify this, we generated the largest single nuclear transcriptomic atlas of PD and PDD to date - almost one million nuclei derived from the anterior cingulate cortex and inferior parietal lobule of 64 post-mortem donors. By integrating these data with long-read RNA-seq, we found that the cellular compositions, biological pathways, and molecular profiles diverge substantially between PD and PDD, with minimal overlap in differentially expressed genes and pathways. While PD was characterised by widespread upregulation of gene expression programs and robust regional signatures, PDD showed extensive pathway downregulation, loss of cortical regional identity, and significant shifts in transcript usage, including alterations in APP isoforms that may influence pathological amyloid beta accumulation. These findings reveal that PD and PDD represent fundamentally distinct disease states, offering important insights for understanding their underlying mechanisms and will guide the development of targeted therapies and more effective clinical trials.

Similar Papers

biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
Enhanced anti-nociception by novel dual antagonists for 5HT2aR and mGluR5 in preclinical models of pain
Significant research has focused on developing anti-nociceptive pain treatments by targeting specific molecular candidates. The serotonin 2a receptor (5-HT2aR) and metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) are recognized as key mediators in neuropathic pain. However, the combined effects of simultaneous inhibition of these targets remain unexplored. This current study investigated the therapeutic...
Choi, D.
•
Heo, H. J.
•
Shin, H.
•
Im, J.
...•
Lee, H.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
SPONTANEOUS VISUAL IMAGERY DURING EXTENDED MUSIC LISTENING IS ASSOCIATED WITH RELIABLE ALPHA SUPPRESSION
Music is widely recognised as being able to evoke images in the mind\'s eye. However, the neural basis of visual imagery experiences during music listening remains poorly understood. Here, we combined probe-caught experience sampling methodology with 32-channel electroencephalography (EEG) recordings in order to investigate the neuro-oscillatory correlates of music-evoked visual imagery and examin...
Hashim, S.
•
Omigie, D.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
The neural mechanisms of fast versus slow decision-making
Is more haste less speed? Decision time variability has been attributed to speed/accuracy trade-offs(1), internal mental architecture(2), and noisy evidence accumulation(3-5). However, exploring these possibilities is difficult in rodents that consistently behave impulsively. Here, we demonstrate a novel floating-platform system that allows head-fixed mice to voluntarily vary decision times, akin ...
Nashaat, M.
•
Oraby, H.
•
Krasniqi, F.
•
Goh-Sauerbier, S. T.
...•
Larkum, M.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
Semi-automatic Geometrical Reconstruction and Analysis of Filopodia Dynamics in 4D Two-Photon Microscopy Images
Background: Filopodia are thin and dynamic membrane protrusions that play a crucial role in cell migration, axon guidance, and other processes where cells explore and interact with their surroundings. Historically, filopodial dynamics have been studied in great detail in 2D in cultured cells, and more recently in 3D culture as well as living brains. However, there is a lack of efficient tools to t...
Brence, B.
•
Brummer, J.
•
Dercksen, V. J.
•
Ozel, M. N.
...•
Baum, D.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
Scaling, but not instruction tuning, increases large language models' alignment with language processing in the human brain
Transformer-based large language models (LLMs) have significantly advanced our understanding of meaning representation in the human brain. However, increasingly large LLMs have been questioned as valid cognitive models due to their extensive training data and their ability to access context thousands of words long. In this study, we investigated whether instruction tuning, another core technique i...
Gao, C.
•
Ma, Z.
•
Chen, J.
•
Li, P.
...•
Li, J.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
Face-, color-, and word-specific patches in the human orbitofrontal cortex
The human ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) contains multiple category-specific areas, organized along posterior-to-anterior and medial-to-lateral axes. However, the role of regions beyond the VOTC in category-specific processing remains less explored. Here, we report the presence of face-, color- and word-specific patches in the human orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and systematically describe th...
Liu, J.
•
Cohen, L.
•
Zhan, M.
•
Bartolomeo, P.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
Stimulant medications affect arousal and reward, not attention
Prescription stimulants such as methylphenidate are being used by an increasing portion of the population, primarily children. These potent norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors promote wakefulness, suppress appetite, enhance physical performance, and are purported to increase attentional abilities. Prior functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have yielded conflicting resul...
Kay, B. P.
•
Wheelock, M. D.
•
Siegel, J. S.
•
Raut, R.
...•
Dosenbach, N. U. F.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
PATZ1 Reinstates a Growth-Permissive Chromatin Landscape in Adult Corticospinal Neurons After Injury
As CNS neurons mature, chromatin at growth-related genes becomes increasingly inaccessible but when this shift happens, what drives it, and whether it's reversible in adults has been unclear. We profiled chromatin accessibility in corticospinal neurons across development and found two distinct waves of restriction: a partial closure between P0 to P4 and a stronger, widespread restriction from P7 i...
Menon, A. S.
•
Kumaran, M.
•
Beji, D. S.
•
Kesireddy, D. K.
...•
Venkatesh, I.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
Brain State Convergence and Divergence as Resting State FMRI Biomarkers: A Large-Scale Study of Continuous, Overlapping, Time-resolved States Differentiates Four Psychiatric Disorders
Identifying biomarkers- objective, quantifiable biologically-based measures to complement traditional clinical assessments- is critical for studying the links between brain and disorders. Recent advances in neuroimaging have shifted biomarker discovery from traditional univariate brain mapping techniques, which analyze individual brain regions separately, to multivariate predictive models that con...
Soleimani, N.
•
Wiafe, S.-L.
•
Iraji, A.
•
Pearlson, G. D.
•
Calhoun, V.
biorxiv
Thu May 22 2025
The Modulation of the Blood-Brain Barrier by Focused Ultrasound Stimulates Oligodendrogenesis
Objective: The current study aims to fill a gap in knowledge on the effects of focused ultrasound (FUS)-mediated blood-brain-barrier (BBB) modulation on the proliferation and development of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). Researchers established that FUS combined with intravenous microbubbles can modulate BBB in a controlled, reversible, localized, and non-invasive manner to facilitate th...
Noseworthy, K. S.
•
Silburt, J.
•
Hynynen, K.
•
Aubert, I.