Daytime sleepiness and the COMT val158met polymorphism in patients with Parkinson disease.

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE:

A preliminary study by our group suggested an association between daytime sleepiness and the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met polymorphism (rs4680) in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). We sought to confirm this association in a large group of patients with PD.

DESIGN:

Genetic association study in patients with PD.

SETTING:

Movement disorder sections at 2 university hospitals.

PARTICIPANTS:

PD patients with and without episodes of suddenly falling asleep matched for antiparkinsonian medication, disease duration, sex, and age, who participated in a previous genetic study on dopamine-receptor polymorphisms.

INTERVENTIONS:

Not applicable.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS:

In this study, 240 patients with PD (154 men; age 65.1 +/- 6.1 years; disease duration 9.4 +/- 6.0 years) were included. Seventy had the met-met (LL), 116 the met-val (LH), and 54 the val-val (HH) genotype. In the combined LL+LH group (featuring reduced COMT activity), the mean Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score was 9.0 +/- 5.9 versus 11.0 +/- 6.1 in the HH (high COMT activity) group (P = .047). Forty-seven percent of the LL and LH patients had sudden sleep onset compared with 61% of the HH patients (P = .07). Logistic regression, however, showed that both pathologic ESS scores (i.e., > 10) and sudden sleep onset were predicted by subjective disease severity (P < .001 each) but not by the COMT genotype.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our previous finding that the L-allele may be associated with daytime sleepiness could not be confirmed in the present study. Altogether, our data do not support a clinically relevant effect of the COMT genotype on daytime sleepiness in PD.

• Authors: Ida Rissling, Birgit Frauscher, Florian Kronenberg, Mehdi Tafti, Karin Stiasny-Kolster, Anne-Catherine Robyr, Yvonne Körner, Wolfgang Hermann Oertel, Werner Poewe, Birgit Högl, Jens Carsten Möller
• Journal: Sleep (Sleep) Vol. 29 Issue 1 Pg. 108-11 (Jan 2006) ISSN: 0161-8105 [Print] United States
• PMID: 16453988 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Codon
• Dopamine Agonists
• Catechol O-Methyltransferase
• Dopamine

Topics

• Aged
• Catechol O-Methyltransferase (genetics)
• Circadian Rhythm
• Codon
• Disorders of Excessive Somnolence (epidemiology, genetics)
• Dopamine (genetics)
• Dopamine Agonists (therapeutic use)
• Female
• Genotype
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Parkinson Disease (drug therapy, epidemiology)
• Polymorphism, Genetic (genetics)
• Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction