Post-mortem ventricular cerebrospinal fluid cell-free-mtDNA in neurodegenerative disease

Cell-free mitochondrial DNA (cfmtDNA) is detectable in almost all human body fluids and has been associated with the onset and progression of several complex traits. In-life assessments indicate that reduced cfmtDNA is a feature of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. However, whether this feature is conserved across all neurodegenerative diseases and how it relates to the neurodegenerative processes remains unclear. In this study, we assessed the levels of ventricular cerebrospinal fluid-cfmtDNA (vCSF-cfmtDNA) in a diverse group of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) to determine if the in-life observations of reduced cfmtDNA seen in lumbar CSF translated to the post-mortem ventricular CSF. To investigate further, we compared vCSF-cfmtDNA levels to known protein markers of neurodegeneration, synaptic vesicles and mitochondrial integrity. Our data indicate that reduced vCSF-cfmtDNA is a feature specific to Parkinson’s and appears consistent throughout the disease course. Interestingly, we observed increased vCSF-cfmtDNA in the more neuropathologically severe NDD cases, but no association to protein markers of neurodegeneration, suggesting that vCSF-cfmtDNA release is more complex than mere cellular debris produced following neuronal death. We conclude that vCSF-cfmtDNA is reduced in PD, but not other NDDs, and appears to correlate to pathology. Although its utility as a prognostic biomarker is limited, our data indicate that higher levels of vCSF-cfmtDNA is associated with more severe clinical presentations; suggesting that it is associated with the neurodegenerative process. However, as vCSF-cfmtDNA does not appear to correlate to established indicators of neurodegeneration or indeed indicators of mitochondrial mass, further work to elucidate its exact role is needed.