Abstract
Several neurodegenerative pathologies can clinically mimic Parkinson’s disease, including neurodegenerative diseases with glial pathology. However, the glial aggregates are typically composed of known pathogenic proteins and are associated with prominent neuronal loss in the substantia nigra. Here we present an unusual case of a 91-year-old man with a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, but whose autopsy findings showed a ubiquitin-positive astrogliopathy without significant neuronal loss in the substantia nigra. These glial aggregates affected the basal ganglia, cortex, and cerebellum, and were negative for tau, alpha-synuclein, TDP-43, FUS, and p62. This case is a rare example of an unknown glial neurodegenerative pathology mimicking Parkinson’s disease without significant loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 164 |
Journal | Acta Neuropathologica Communications |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, and by the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (P30-AG066507).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
Keywords
- Astrogliopathy
- Neurodegeneration
- Parkinsonism
- Ubiquitin