Ricerc@Sapienza

Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is the second most common form of neurodegenerative dementia, however it is underrecognized and frequently misdiagnosed. Differently from Alzheimer's disease (AD), direct biomarkers specific to DLB pathology are not yet available for clinical diagnosis. DLB pathology is characterized by Lewy bodies at autopsy, consisting of abnormal aggregates of alpha-synuclein. Alpha-synuclein detection is one of the potential cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for DLB, however, findings from different studies are not conclusive. Lewy body pathology has been also found in submandibular glands in patients with Lewy body disease (LBD) and salivary alpha-synuclein has been detected in patients with Parkinson's disease. In this project we aim at investigating salivary alpha-synuclein total and oligomeric levels in DLB patients compared to Healthy controls (HC), to assess whether salivary alpha-synuclein can be used to differentiate DLB patients from HC. Specifically, we propose to perform the first two phases of the biomarker validation process. First, we will test whether salivary alpha-synuclein levels in DLB patients differ from those in HC and second, we will assess the accuracy of alpha-synuclein salivary test in detecting DLB, defining its sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values. We also aim at investigating whether salivary alpha-synuclein can differentiate DLB from AD and we will explore possible correlations between the DLB core features and salivary alpha-synuclein levels.
Hopefully, the results of the present project may provide evidence that salivary alpha-synuclein is a possible and easy testing biomarker and will open new opportunities for DLB diagnostic biomarkers.