Cuneus atrophy and Parkinsonian phenoconversion in cognitively unimpaired patients with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder.

Isolated rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) is a strong predictor of Parkinson's disease and Dementia with Lewy bodies. Previous studies indicate that cortical atrophy in iRBD patients may be linked to cognitive impairment, but the pattern of atrophy is inconsistently reported. This study aimed to elucidate cortical atrophy patterns in a cognitively unimpaired iRBD cohort, focusing on regions associated with cognitive functions, particularly the cuneus/precuneus, and evaluated the predictive value for future phenoconversion.

GEDI: An R Package for Integration of Transcriptomic Data from Multiple Platforms for Bioinformatics Applications.

Transcriptomic data is often expensive and difficult to generate in large cohorts relative to genomic data; therefore, it is often important to integrate multiple transcriptomic datasets from both microarray- and next generation sequencing (NGS)-based transcriptomic data across similar experiments or clinical trials to improve analytical power and discovery of novel transcripts and genes. However, transcriptomic data integration presents a few challenges including reannotation and batch effect removal. We developed the Gene Expression Data Integration (GEDI) R package to enable transcriptomic data integration by combining existing R packages.

Cholinergic dysfunction in isolated rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder links to impending phenoconversion.

Background And Purpose: Most patients with isolated rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) progress to a parkinsonian alpha-synucleinopathy. However, time to phenoconversion shows great variation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cholinergic and dopaminergic dysfunction in iRBD patients was associated with impending phenoconversion.

Microglial Activation and Progression of Nigrostriatal Dysfunction in Isolated REM Sleep Behavior Disorder.

Background: Using C-(R)-PK11195-PET, we found increased microglia activation in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) patients. Their role remains to be clarified.

Objectives: The objective is to assess relationships between activated microglia and progression of nigrostriatal dysfunction in iRBD.

Progression of brain cholinergic dysfunction in patients with isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder.

Background: Reduced cortical acetylcholinesterase activity, as measured by C-donepezil positron emission tomography (PET), has been reported in patients with isolated rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (iRBD). However, its progression and clinical implications have not been fully investigated. Here, we explored the relationship between longitudinal changes in brain acetylcholinesterase activity and cognitive function in iRBD.