Objective: We aim to assess IL-1 β and IL-6 serum levels in patients with PD and in controls and to explore their associations with clinical features of motor and non-motor symptoms.

Background: Inflammation was first associated with PD in 1988, and in recent years, several lines of evidence, have pointed that inflammation plays a major role in the initiation and progression of PD. The inflammation is not just contained within the CNS, and it extends to the enteric nervous system/ gastrointestinal tract as well as the blood.

Method: We have conducted a two-year observational cross-sectional retrospective study including patients diagnosed with idiopathic PD recruited from the neurological department of Charles Nicolle hospital and who had blood tests for IL-1β and IL-6.

26 patients and 30 controls were included. Our patients were evaluated for motor impairment with the MDS-UPDRS-III and with Modified Hoehn and Yahr Scale. Overall non-motor symptoms were assessed for each patient, using NMS scale. To evaluate non motor symptoms, we used: mini mental examination scale (MMSE), Frontal assessment battery (FAB), Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), geriatric depression scale (GDS), Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson’s disease Autonomic Dysfunction (SCOPA-AUT), the gastrointestinal dysfunction scale for Parkinson’s disease (GIDS-PD) and RBD questionnaire.

Serum levels of IL-1β, IL-6, in both groups were analyzed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results: The concentration of both IL-1β and IL‑6 in PD patients was significantly higher than in the control group (p =0.0001).

UPDRS-III score and with H-Y stage positively correlate with Plasma IL-1β(p=0.006, p=0.009) but not with IL-6.

Plasma IL-6 was positively correlated with NMSS gastrointestinal subscore (p= 0.001) and with NMSS urinary subscore (p=0.046) but not with other NMSS subscores.

Gastro-intestinal dysfunction and urinary problems as assessed by SCOPA-AUT score were positively correlated to IL-6 serum levels (p=0.017, p=0.032).

Specifically, GIDS-PD bowel irritability and upper gastrointestinal subscores were positively correlated to IL-6 serum levels.

Conclusion: We were able to prove that serum levels of IL-1β and IL-6 could be considered as diagnostic biomarkers, we were also able to prove that IL-6 could be considered as potential prognostic biomarkers for autonomic dysfunction in PD patients.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/serum-levels-of-il-1%ce%b2-and-interleukin-6-in-parkinsons-disease/