Serotonin transporters are preserved in the neocortex of anxious Alzheimer's disease patients.

Journal article

Densities of serotonin transporters (5-HTT) in the postmortem neocortex of behaviorally assessed Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and aged controls were measured by radioligand binding with [3H]citalopram. It was found that 5-HTT sites in the temporal cortex of AD patients with prominent antemortem anxiety were unaltered compared with controls, but were reduced in non-anxious AD subjects. Furthermore, homozygosity for the high activity allele of a functional polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene promoter region (5-HTTLPR) was associated with both increased [3H]citalopram binding and occurrence of anxiety in the AD subjects. Since serotonin-synthesizing neurons are known to be lost in the AD cortex, this study suggests that the preservation of 5-HTT may exacerbate serotonergic deficits and underlie anxiety symptoms in AD.

Authors: Tsang, S; Lai, M; Francis, P; Wong, P; Spence, I

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Neuroreport
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 1297-1300
• Publication date: 2003-07-01
• DOI: 10.1097/00001756-200307180-00002
• EISSN: 1473-558X
• ISSN: 0959-4965
• Language: English
• Keywords: Membrane Glycoproteins; Neocortex; Temporal Lobe; Radioligand Assay; Tritium; Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors; Carrier Proteins; Genotype; Male; Citalopram; Alleles; Membrane Transport Proteins; Aged; Humans; Case-Control Studies; Alzheimer Disease; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Frontal Lobe; Anxiety; Female; Analysis of Variance; Nerve Tissue Proteins; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Aged, 80 and over