Ubiquitin-positive astrogliopathy clinically mimicking Parkinson’s disease

Meaghan Morris, Abhay Moghekar, Haidan Guo, Olga Pletnikova, Javier Redding-Ochoa, Marilyn Albert, Susan M. Resnick, Liam Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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 languageEnglish (US)
Article number164
JournalActa Neuropathologica Communications
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 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

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