Disruption of locus coeruleus-related functional networks in Parkinson’s disease
Junyan Sun, Jinghong Ma, Linlin Gao, Junling Wang, Dongling Zhang, Lili Chen, Jiliang Fang, Tao Feng, Tao Wu
Abstract
Abstract Locus coeruleus (LC) is severely affected in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). However, alterations in LC-related resting-state networks (RSNs) in PD remain unclear. We used resting-state functional MRI to investigate the alterations in functional connectivity (FC) of LC-related RSNs and the associations between RSNs changes and clinical features in idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) and PD patients with (PD RBD+ ) and without RBD (PD RBD− ). There was a similarly disrupted FC pattern of LC-related RSNs in iRBD and PD RBD+ patients, whereas LC-related RSNs were less damaged in PD RBD− patients than that in patients with iRBD and PD RBD+ . The FC of LC-related RSNs correlated with cognition and duration in iRBD, depression in PD RBD− , and cognition and severity of RBD in patients with PD RBD+ . Our findings demonstrate that LC-related RSNs are significantly disrupted in the prodromal stage of α-synucleinopathies and proposed body-first PD (PD RBD+ ), but are less affected in brain-first PD (PD RBD− ).