Ghrelin and Dementia in Parkinson’s Disease

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Plasma acyl-ghrelin: A biomarker for cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease?

  • IRAS ID

    141456

  • Contact name

    David Burn

  • Contact email

    david.burn@ncl.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    R&D Officer

  • Research summary

    Up to four in five people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) will develop dementia (PDD) during the course of their illness. As many as three quarters of PD patients will lose weight as a complication of PD. Those who lose weight are more likely to develop problems with their memory (cognitive impairment) and have symptoms such as hallucinations than those who do not. The reasons behind this are not yet clear. One possibility is that hormones (chemical messengers) which normally act on the brain to both make people hungry and help with memory don’t work properly in some people with PD. A hormone called ghrelin could link weight loss and cognitive impairment. We wish to study whether ghrelin levels are abnormal in people with PDD compared to people with PD who don't have memory problems and healthy people of similar ages (controls). In order to do this we will measure ghrelin before participants eat a standard meal and at regular intervals for three hours thereafter and compare levels between groups. We also wish to find out if people with PD, PDD and controls have different levels of hunger, food intake or food choices. We will, therefore, ask participants to rate their levels of hunger before and after eating. At the end of the study we will invite participants to eat as much as they like from a selection of foods and compare food choices and intake between groups. The study will be carried out at the Clinical Ageing Research Unit at Newcastle University. Participants will be recruited from the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust Movement Disorder Service and from the Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research network (DeNDRoN) local Case Register. There will be no change to any of the participants’ usual care.

  • REC name

    North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    14/NE/0002

  • Date of REC Opinion

    4 Mar 2014

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion