Shared Pathogenic Pathways Between REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and Neurodegenerative and Psychiatric Disorders

Isolated/idiopathic rapid-eye-movement (REM)-Sleep Behavior Disorder (iRBD) is characterized by dream enactment behaviors associated with loss of REM atonia. iRBD is in most cases a prodromal synucleinopathy, and emerging evidence suggests associations between RBD and other neurological and psychiatric conditions. In this study, we performed pathway-based polygenic risk score (PRS) and rare variant burden analyses to examine these potential associations. Pathway-specific PRS were constructed from genome-wide association study summary statistics of five neurodegenerative and seven psychiatric traits across 10 biologically relevant pathway categories, including a total of 279 pathways, in 1,573 iRBD cases and 16,022 controls from the International RBD Study Group and UK Biobank. Rare variant burden tests were performed in 1,264 iRBD cases and 2,581 controls. We identified multiple potential pathways indicating shared polygenic risk between RBD and both neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Lewy body diseases and post-traumatic stress disorder had the most shared polygenic risk pathways in neurological and psychiatric disorders, respectively. Two pathways, the serotonin transport pathway and the chaperone-mediated autophagy pathway, showed the strongest association with iRBD, and gene-based rare variants analyses revealed five genes associated with iRBD: <i>GBA1</i>, <i>PLEKHM1</i>, <i>LRP2</i>, <i>P2RX1</i>, and <i>HAP1.</i> Subsequent analysis of these genes in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies replicated several associations. Together, these findings provide novel insights into the shared genetic architecture underlying iRBD, neurodegenerative disorders, and psychiatric traits, with implications for early identification and mechanistic understanding.