Department of Neurology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Department of Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2020 Sep 4;10(1):14651. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-70732-5.
The neurotransmitter noradrenaline (NA) mediates arousal, attention and mood, and exerts anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. Alterations of monoamine signalling were reported in multiple sclerosis (MS) and psychiatric illness and may account for the high prevalence of comorbid depression and fatigue in MS patients. We assessed central noradrenaline transporter (NAT) availability using positron emission tomography (PET) and the NAT selective radiotracer S,S-[C]O-methylreboxetine in immunotherapy-naïve patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS; n = 11) compared to healthy controls (HC; n = 12), and its association to lesion load, time since manifestation, the expanded disability status scale (EDSS), the fatigue scale Würzburger Erschöpfungsinventar bei MS (WEIMuS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). We found NAT availability to be increased in the thalamus, amygdala, putamen and pons/midbrain of MS patients. No relation to clinical or psychometric variables was found. These first data indicate higher NAT availability in subcortical brain regions of immunotherapy-naïve RRMS patients. If these changes of noradrenergic neurotransmission predispose to psychiatric symptoms or associate with disease activity needs to be investigated in longitudinal studies or a larger sample which allows subgroup analyses.
神经递质去甲肾上腺素（NA）介导觉醒、注意力和情绪，并发挥抗炎和神经保护作用。多发性硬化症（MS）和精神疾病中报道了单胺信号的改变，这可能是 MS 患者合并抑郁和疲劳的高患病率的原因。我们使用正电子发射断层扫描（PET）和选择性去甲肾上腺素转运蛋白（NAT）放射性示踪剂 S,S-[C]O-甲基瑞波西汀评估了免疫治疗初治的复发缓解型多发性硬化症（RRMS；n=11）患者与健康对照组（HC；n=12）的中枢 NAT 可用性，及其与病灶负荷、发病时间、扩展残疾状况量表（EDSS）、多发性硬化症 Würzburger 疲劳量表（WEIMuS）和贝克抑郁量表（BDI）的关系。我们发现 MS 患者的丘脑、杏仁核、壳核和桥脑/中脑的 NAT 可用性增加。未发现与临床或心理计量学变量有关。这些初步数据表明，免疫治疗初治 RRMS 患者的皮质下脑区 NAT 可用性增加。如果这些去甲肾上腺素能神经传递的变化易患精神症状或与疾病活动相关，需要在纵向研究或允许亚组分析的更大样本中进行研究。
