[PHNUTR-L] Plasma Urate and Risk of Parkinson's Disease

[Kathrynne Holden]

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  American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on 
June 20, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwm127

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kwm127v1


American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2007 by the Johns Hopkins 
Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Original Contribution

Plasma Urate and Risk of Parkinson's Disease

MG Weisskopf1,2, E O'Reilly2, H Chen3, MA Schwarzschild4 and A Ascherio2,5

1 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 
Boston, MA
2 Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
3 Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health 
Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC
4 Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
5 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

Correspondence to Dr. Marc G. Weisskopf, Department of Environmental 
Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Landmark Center, Third Floor 
East, P.O. Box 15697, Boston, MA 02215 (e-mail: mweissko at hsph.harvard.edu).

Received for publication December 11, 2006. Accepted for publication 
March 13, 2007.

Oxidative stress contributes to dopaminergic neuron degeneration in 
Parkinson's disease. Urate, a potent antioxidant, could be 
neuroprotective. To determine whether higher plasma concentrations of 
urate predict a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, the authors 
conducted a nested case-control study among participants in the Health 
Professionals Follow-up Study, a cohort comprising over 18,000 men who 
provided blood samples in 1993–1995. Eighty-four incident cases of 
Parkinson's disease were diagnosed through 2000, and each was randomly 
matched to two controls by year of birth, race, and time of blood 
collection. Rate ratios of Parkinson's disease according to quartile of 
uricemia were estimated by use of conditional logistic regression. The 
mean urate concentration was 5.7 mg/dl among cases and 6.1 mg/dl among 
controls (p = 0.01). After adjustment for age, smoking, and caffeine, 
the rate ratio of Parkinson's disease for the highest quartile of 
uricemia compared with the lowest was 0.43 (95% confidence interval: 
0.18, 1.02; ptrend = 0.017). This association was stronger in analyses 
excluding cases diagnosed within 4 years (median) from blood collection 
(rate ratio = 0.17, 95% confidence interval: 0.04, 0.69; ptrend = 
0.010). These results suggest that high plasma urate concentrations may 
decrease the risk of Parkinson's disease, and they raise the possibility 
that interventions to increase plasma urate may reduce the risk and 
delay the progression of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson disease; prospective studies; uric acid

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval
-- 
Kathrynne Holden, MS, RD < fivestar at nutritionucanlivewith.com >
"Ask the Parkinson Dietitian"  http://www.parkinson.org/
"Eat well, stay well with Parkinson's disease"
"Parkinson's disease: Guidelines for Medical Nutrition Therapy"
http://www.nutritionucanlivewith.com/