Comparison of The Expression Levels of PI3K/Akt Pathway Factors in Parkinson’s Disease and Lung Cancer

DOI: 10.26650/experimed.2018.18003 Objectives: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that affects >0.2% of the population aged >40 years. Several studies have reported a low prevalence of cancer in individuals with PD. Therefore, the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway has received increasing research attention. Investigating variations in expression levels of components associated with this pathway might aid in improving novel treatment methods and biomarkers for PD. Material and Method: We evaluated expression levels of components of the DJ-1-PI3K/Akt signaling pathway in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with PD, those with lung cancer (LC), and healthy controls and attempted to identify a possible correlation between expression levels and clinical features of PD. Results: Levels of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and apoptosis-inducing factor-1 significantly decreased, whereas those of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) significantly increased in patients with PD than in healthy controls. In patients with LC, levels of PTEN, caspase-3, and α-synuclein significantly increased, whereas those of IGF-1 significantly decreased. Furthermore, a correlation was observed between the clinical subtypes of PD and levels of α-synuclein, IGF-1, caspase-3, DJ-1, mechanistic target of rapamycin, Mdm2, and Akt-1 factors. Conclusion: Patients with PD showed decreased expression levels of proapoptotic PTEN and increased levels of components of the antiapoptotic PI3K/Akt pathway, which suggests an activation of the antiapoptotic pathway to compensate for the increased neuronal destruction in PD. The correlation between expression levels of components of several PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and clinical parameters suggests that these factors can be used as disability and prognostic markers in patients with PD. Decreased expression levels of antiapoptotic factors in patients with PD having postural instability, in particular, suggests a close relationship between neuronal destruction and this symptom