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Diagnostics
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Neurodegenerative Disease and Cognitive Impairment in Neurological Pathologies—Diagnosis and Management
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Neurodegenerative Disease and Cognitive Impairment in Neurological Pathologies—Diagnosis and Management

A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Pathology and Molecular Diagnostics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2024) | Viewed by 3928

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ionica Pirici

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Anatomy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Craiova, 200349 Craiova, Romania
Interests: neurodegenerative disorders; Epilepsy; Parkinson’s disease; Alzheimer’s disease
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Neurodegenerative diseases represent a generic term for a series of conditions that affect neurons. Neurons are basically the "foundation stone" of the nervous system that cannot be replaced. Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable diseases that lead to the progressive degeneration and death of nerve cells.

Among others, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases affect more than 45 million people worldwide. They usually appear as we get older and unfortunately the treatment has limits.

Patients suffering from these disorders experience changes both in terms of mood and cognitive level.

The impact is also felt by the family and friends of the patient, and it is more difficult, since these conditions cannot be cured. Through studies on laboratory animals and human subjects, it was tried to reduce the evolution of diseases and discover the exact causes and appropriate treatments.

In addition, it has been identified important similarities between neurodegenerative disorders made in the fields of genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology. All these efforts revealed the presence of abnormal proteins and raised questions about how these proteins interfere with normal cellular functions and how they spread in the brain.

Additionally, cognitive disorders associated with neurological diseases such as epilepsy can have a negative impact on the quality of life. The relationship between epilepsy and memory disorders is complex and multifactorial and differs from one person to another.

This Special Issue welcomes submissions of original research and review articles related to any aspect of the diagnosis, molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases or cognitive impairment associated with neurological pathologies, as well as the follow-up and features of novel biomarkers and treatment options.

Dr. Ionica Pirici
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cognitive disorder
  • Parkinson disease
  • epilepsy
  • Alzheimer disease

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1801 KiB  
Article
The Impact of the Dietary Intake of Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, and Vitamin D3 on Homocysteine Levels and the Health-Related Quality of Life of Levodopa-Treated Patients with Parkinson’s Disease—A Pilot Study in Romania
by Adina Turcu-Stiolica, Mihaela-Simona Naidin, Steliana Halmagean, Ana Maria Ionescu and Ionica Pirici
Diagnostics 2024, 14(15), 1609; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14151609 - 26 Jul 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2228
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Previous studies have shown that the levodopa treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) elevates circulating homocysteine levels, which are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and neurological disorders, or thrombosis. The present trial aimed to examine whether the intake of [...] Read more.
Background and Objectives: Previous studies have shown that the levodopa treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) elevates circulating homocysteine levels, which are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and neurological disorders, or thrombosis. The present trial aimed to examine whether the intake of vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin D3 supplements improved homocysteine level and quality of life (QoL). Materials and Methods: An interventional prospective trial was conducted in multiple centers across Romania. Participants with clinically established PD taking at least 300 mg/day of levodopa for more than 1 year received a daily tablet of a supplement containing 800 UI of vitamin D3, 1000 µg of folic acid, and 15 µg of vitamin B12. They were followed for 6 months and their serum homocysteine, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and QoL scores were measured at baseline and at 6 months of treatment. QoL was measured using a 15D questionnaire, which assesses mobility, vision, hearing, breathing, sleeping, eating, speech, excretion, usual activities, mental function, discomfort and symptoms, depression, distress, vitality, and sexual activity. Results: Twenty-four PD patients with a mean age of 71 ± 5.04 years (54.2% male and 45.8% female) finished the study. After the intervention, the mean score of speech, mental function, discomfort and symptoms, depression, and QoL significantly increased (p < 0.05 for all). Also, the serum homocysteine and vitamin D were significantly enhanced (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.025, respectively). Changes in vitamin B12 were not statistically significant at 6 months of treatment (p = 0.996). No gender differences were found among the changes that we have demonstrated for homocysteine, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and QoL levels (p < 0.05 for all). Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that the dietary intake of vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin D3 remarkably decreased the dimensions of homocysteine and finally increased the total score of QoL in PD patients. We have successfully captured the potential benefits of the supplementation regimen over time and provided insights into the broader implications for managing PD with a focus on nutritional support. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurodegenerative Disease and Cognitive Impairment in Neurological Pathologies—Diagnosis and Management)
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15 pages, 1110 KiB  
Article
Evaluation and Limitations of the Novel Chemiluminescent Enzyme Immunoassay Technique for Measuring Total Tau Protein in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Human Prion Disease: A 10-Year Prospective Study (2011–2020)
by Kong Weijie, Toshiaki Nonaka and Katsuya Satoh
Diagnostics 2024, 14(14), 1520; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14141520 - 15 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1174
Abstract
Background: Recently, the investigation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for diagnosing human prion diseases (HPD) has garnered significant attention. Reproducibility and accuracy are paramount in biomarker research, particularly in the measurement of total tau (T-tau) protein, which is a crucial diagnostic marker. Given [...] Read more.
Background: Recently, the investigation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for diagnosing human prion diseases (HPD) has garnered significant attention. Reproducibility and accuracy are paramount in biomarker research, particularly in the measurement of total tau (T-tau) protein, which is a crucial diagnostic marker. Given the global impact of the coronavirus disease pandemic, the frequency of measuring this protein using one of the world’s fully automated assays, chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay (CLEA), has increased. At present, the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological diseases mainly rely on traditional methods, but their accuracy and responsiveness are limited. There is limited knowledge of the accuracy of CLEA in tau measurements. We aimed to measure T-tau protein using CLEA and to elucidate its merits and limitations. Methods: We randomly selected 60 patients with rapidly progressive dementia, using ELISA and CLEA analysis of cerebrospinal fluid specimens. Additionally, we used Western blotting to detect the presence of 14-3-3 protein and employed real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assays to analyze the same set of samples. Furthermore, we examined the correlation coefficient between ELISA and CLEA results in a subset of 60 samples. Moreover, using CLEA, we evaluated the diurnal reproducibility, storage stability, dilutability, and freeze–thaw effects in three selected samples. Results: In 172 patients, 172 samples were extracted, with each patient providing only one sample, and a total of 88 (35 men and 53 women) tested positive for HPD in the RT-QuIC assay. In contrast, all CSF samples from the remaining 84 patients without HPD (50 men and 34 women) tested negative in the RT-QuIC assay. Both ELISA and CLEA showed perfect sensitivity and specificity (100%) in measuring T-tau protein levels. In addition, ELISA and CLEA are similar in terms of measurement sensitivity and marginal effect of detection extrema. CLEA analysis exhibited instability for certain samples with T-tau protein levels exceeding 2000 pg/mL, leading to low reproducibility during dilution analysis. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that CLEA outperforms ELISA in terms of diurnal reproducibility, storage stability, and freeze–thaw effects. However, ELISA demonstrated superior performance in the dilution assay. Therefore, it is imperative to develop innovative approaches for the dilution of biomarker samples for CLEA measurements during clinical trials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurodegenerative Disease and Cognitive Impairment in Neurological Pathologies—Diagnosis and Management)
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