TY - JOUR
T1 - Striatal dopamine synthesis capacity and neuromelanin in the substantia nigra
T2 - A multimodal imaging study in schizophrenia and healthy controls
AU - van Hooijdonk, Carmen F.M.
AU - van der Pluijm, Marieke
AU - Smith, Charlotte
AU - Yaqub, Maqsood
AU - van Velden, Floris H.P.
AU - Horga, Guillermo
AU - Wengler, Kenneth
AU - Hoven, Monja
AU - van Holst, Ruth J.
AU - de Haan, Lieuwe
AU - Selten, Jean Paul
AU - van Amelsvoort, Therese A.M.J.
AU - Booij, Jan
AU - van de Giessen, Elsmarieke
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by a Veni grant ( 91618075 ) from the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) (EvdG) , Stichting J.M.C. Kapteinfonds (JPS) , and NWO/Aspasia grant (RvH) . The funders had no role in the study design, data collection or analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - [18F]F-DOPA PET is an established in-vivo method for investigating striatal dopamine synthesis capacity (DSC) and has demonstrated abnormalities in striatal DSC in schizophrenia. Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI) is a promising, more accessible, tool that indirectly assesses dopaminergic functioning in the substantia nigra (SN). However, how [18F]F-DOPA PET and NM-MRI, as measures of nigrostriatal dopaminergic functioning, interrelate is still unknown. We hypothesize that NM-MRI signal in the SN is positively correlated with striatal DSC in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and healthy controls (HC). We acquired NM-MRI and dynamic [18F]F-DOPA PET scans in 12 patients with SSD and 16 HC. In both groups, we assessed the correlation between nigral NM-MRI signal and DSC in the whole, associative, limbic, and sensorimotor striatum using voxelwise analyses within the SN. In HC, we found subsets of voxels within the SN where NM-MRI signal correlated negatively with DSC in the whole and limbic striatum. There were no significant associations between NM-MRI and DSC in the associative or sensorimotor striatum in HC and no significant associations in patients. These results show that NM-MRI signal and striatal DSC are negatively related in HC, but not in patients. Our results indicate that [18F]F-DOPA PET and NM-MRI reflect different aspects of dopaminergic functioning. The negative correlation in HC might be explained by vesicular monoamine transporter-2 (VMAT-2) functioning. A lack of a correlation in patients might be due to the small sample size, effects of symptom severity or antipsychotic medication.
AB - [18F]F-DOPA PET is an established in-vivo method for investigating striatal dopamine synthesis capacity (DSC) and has demonstrated abnormalities in striatal DSC in schizophrenia. Neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI) is a promising, more accessible, tool that indirectly assesses dopaminergic functioning in the substantia nigra (SN). However, how [18F]F-DOPA PET and NM-MRI, as measures of nigrostriatal dopaminergic functioning, interrelate is still unknown. We hypothesize that NM-MRI signal in the SN is positively correlated with striatal DSC in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and healthy controls (HC). We acquired NM-MRI and dynamic [18F]F-DOPA PET scans in 12 patients with SSD and 16 HC. In both groups, we assessed the correlation between nigral NM-MRI signal and DSC in the whole, associative, limbic, and sensorimotor striatum using voxelwise analyses within the SN. In HC, we found subsets of voxels within the SN where NM-MRI signal correlated negatively with DSC in the whole and limbic striatum. There were no significant associations between NM-MRI and DSC in the associative or sensorimotor striatum in HC and no significant associations in patients. These results show that NM-MRI signal and striatal DSC are negatively related in HC, but not in patients. Our results indicate that [18F]F-DOPA PET and NM-MRI reflect different aspects of dopaminergic functioning. The negative correlation in HC might be explained by vesicular monoamine transporter-2 (VMAT-2) functioning. A lack of a correlation in patients might be due to the small sample size, effects of symptom severity or antipsychotic medication.
KW - Dopamine synthesis capacity
KW - Neuromelanin
KW - Schizophrenia
KW - Striatum
KW - Substantia nigra
U2 - 10.1016/j.nsa.2023.101134
DO - 10.1016/j.nsa.2023.101134
M3 - Article
SN - 2772-4085
VL - 2
JO - Neuroscience Applied
JF - Neuroscience Applied
M1 - 101134
ER -