Dopamine Transporter Availability in Early Parkinson's Disease is Dependent on Sunlight Exposure

Preliminary studies suggested seasonality of dopaminergic functioning, but it is unknown whether dopamine transporter (DAT) expression in humans is also dependent on the seasons. We, therefore, investigated seasonal and sunlight-dependent effects on DAT availability in early Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and healthy controls.

DAT single-photon emission computed tomography scans (n = 730) were gathered from the Parkinson's Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) database. We used global horizontal irradiance (GHI) as proxy for sun exposure/month and assessed associations between striatal DAT availability and season (autumn/winter versus spring/summer), GHI and latitude of the PPMI site.

In PD patients, DAT availability in the left caudate nucleus was higher in spring/summer (B [standard error (SE)] = 0.05 [0.02], P = 0.03) and positively associated with higher sun exposure (B [SE] = 0.59 [0.22] × 10^-3 , P = 0.007). Latitude (in degrees north) of the PPMI site was negatively associated with DAT availability in both PD and healthy controls.

Striatal DAT availability may be influenced by daylight exposure. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.