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Review
. 2019 Jun 5;20(11):2759.
doi: 10.3390/ijms20112759.

Are Circulating Cytokines Reliable Biomarkers for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?

Laura Moreno-Martinez  1 , Ana Cristina Calvo  2 , María Jesús Muñoz  3 , Rosario Osta  4
Affiliations
Review

Are Circulating Cytokines Reliable Biomarkers for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?

Laura Moreno-Martinez et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that has no effective treatment. The lack of any specific biomarker that can help in the diagnosis or prognosis of ALS has made the identification of biomarkers an urgent challenge. Multiple panels have shown alterations in levels of numerous cytokines in ALS, supporting the contribution of neuroinflammation to the progressive motor neuron loss. However, none of them is fully sensitive and specific enough to become a universal biomarker for ALS. This review gathers the numerous circulating cytokines that have been found dysregulated in both ALS animal models and patients. Particularly, it highlights the opposing results found in the literature to date, and points out another potential application of inflammatory cytokines as therapeutic targets.

Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; biomarkers; blood; cerebrospinal fluid; cytokines; diagnosis; inflammation; plasma; prognosis; serum.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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