Coffee and Parkinson’s Disease: What is the connection?

Abstract

Epidemiological and animal models have demonstrated that coffee and its constituent compounds are associated with decreased Parkinson’s Disease (PD) risk. However, the precise mechanisms underlying coffee’s neuroprotectivity remain unresolved. I carried out a meta-analysis to calculate pooled associations between PD risk and coffee consumption. Coffee intake was associated with decreased PD incidence (odds ratio = 0.47, 95% CI:0.15-1.52). To further investigate this relationship, I undertook one of the most comprehensive cohort studies to date regarding the interplay between coffee and PD. Few studies have unraveled interactions between PD molecular markers and coffee consumption. Instead, the focus has been primarily on symptom development. This thesis extends the understanding of coffee’s neuroprotective properties by assessing their effects on PD pathologies as measured through genetic sequencing, cerebrospinal fluid assays, dopamine transporter imaging, and glucocerebrosidase activity assays. These analyses indicated that coffee may be attenuating defects in dopamine levels and the autophagy-lysosome pathway. Evaluating cross talk between each of these measures and coffee is beneficial for understanding the complex molecular networks that mediate PD.