Cerebrospinal fluid levels of thiamine in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Thiamine is an essential cofactor for several important enzymes involved in brain oxidative metabolism, such as the alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (KGDHC), pyruvate-dehydrogenase complex, and transketolase. The activity of KGDHC is decreased in the substantia nigra or patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We measured cerebrospinal (CSF) levels of thiamine-diphosphate, thiamine-monophosphate, free thiamine, and total thiamine, using ion-pair reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography, in 24 PD patients and 40 matched controls. The mean CSF levels of thiamine-derivatives did not differ significantly from those of controls, with the exception of lower CSF free thiamine levels in the PD-patient group. PD patients under levodopa therapy had significantly higher CSF thiaminediphosphate and total thiamine than those not treated with this drug. CSF thiamine levels were not correlated with age, age at onset, duration of the disease, scores of the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale of the Hoehn and Yahr staging in the PD group. These results suggest that low CSF free thiamine levels could be related with the risk for PD.