Effect of microglial activation on progression of nigrostriatal dysfunction in patients with iRBD

In patients with isolated rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD), a condition widely considered a synucleinopathy and a prodromal phenotype of parkinsonism, the severity and extent of nigrostriatal dysfunction significantly increased during a 3‐year period, researchers have reported.

In the study by specialists from centers in Denmark, Spain, and UK, the decline in nigrostriatal function was more severe in patients who had greater microglial activation in the nigrostriatal pathway at baseline.