Objective: To investigate the levels of cytokines in the cerebrospinal fluid of subjects with Parkinson disease (PD) and matched healthy controls.

Background: Neuroinflammation is thought to be play a role in the pathogenesis of PD. As such it is possible that there are alterations in the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the brain that may be reflected in the CSF profiles of patients with PD. Though a number of studies have examined the expression of CSF cytokines in people with PD, results have varied significantly across studies highlighting the need for further studies in this area.

Methods: Participants included 20 people with PD and 20 healthy controls. Basic demographics including age, gender and cognitive status were recorded. CSF was collected as per standard protocols and stored at -80 until it was analysed. CSF then underwent multiplex ELISA analysis for the cytokines Interleukin (IL)4, IL6, IL8 and IL10; TNF-alpha and Interferon-gamma. Data on amyloid-beta 42, total tau and phosphorylated tau levels were also available from previous testing. Data was analyzed using graph pad prism.

Results: 20 PD subjects and 20 controls were analyzed. ­­­Mean age was 64.13 years (range 45-89 years) and 64.55 years (range 52-85 years) for control and PD groups. CSF levels for IL6 were 1.51±0.41 pg/ml and 0.98±0.09pg/ml in the control and PD groups, respectively (p=0.22). CSF levels for IFN-gamma were 0.28±0.07pg/ml and 0.20±0.04pg/ml in the control and PD groups, respectively (p=0.33). CSF levels for IL10 were 0.08±0.03pg/ml and 0.06±0.01pg/ml in the control and PD groups, respectively (p=0.67). CSF levels for TNF-alpha were 0.04±0.01pg/ml and 0.046±0.01pg/ml in the control and PD groups, respectively (p=0.77). CSF levels for IL8 were 79.85±0.73pg/ml and 79.85±0.8pg/ml in the control and PD groups, respectively (p= 0.996). IL4 was undetectable in the CSF of controls and PD subjects.

Conclusions: Although cytokines were detectable in the CSF, they were present at very low levels, with the exception of IL8 whose expression was significantly greater than the others tested. We found no significant differences in cytokines between the two patient groups. Further review of potential confounding variables and methodological differences in our study compared to other similar studies is ongoing, but our data suggests that there is not a pro-inflammatory CSF profile in people with PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/evaluation-of-csf-cytokine-profiles-in-people-with-parkinson-disease-and-age-matched-controls/