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. 2021 Apr 30:13:617370.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.617370. eCollection 2021.

Evidence for Peripheral Immune Activation in Parkinson's Disease

Xueping Chen  1 , Weihua Feng  2 , Ruwei Ou  1 , Jiao Liu  1 , Jing Yang  1 , Jiajia Fu  1 , Bei Cao  1 , Yongping Chen  1 , Qianqian Wei  1 , Huifang Shang  1
Affiliations

Evidence for Peripheral Immune Activation in Parkinson's Disease

Xueping Chen et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Background: Accumulating evidence has revealed that peripheral immunity is involved in Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the results regarding the percentage of T-cell subsets are inconsistent, and the changes of immunoglobins levels have been seldom studied in PD patients.

Methods: Serum levels of the percentage of T-cell subsets and immunoglobulins were measured in 761 PD patients and 761 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The correlations between the variables of peripheral immune activation (PIA) and the clinical characteristics of PD were analyzed using correlation analysis.

Results: The pooled results showed that PD patients had higher proportional levels of CD3+ T and CD4+ T lymphocytes than healthy controls. CD8+ T cell percentages were similar in PD patients and controls, and the CD4/CD8 ratio was significantly higher in the PD population. No significant differences in IgG, IgA, or IgM levels between these two groups were found. CD4+ T cell percentage was inversely correlated with the H&Y stage, and IgG level was positively correlated with disease duration and UPDRS part III. Subgroup analyses showed that these associations existed in female patients, but not in male patients.

Conclusion: The enhanced immune activation in the peripheral system is indicated in PD, and dynamic alterations in CD4+ T cell percentage and IgG level suggest an active role for peripheral immunity in the disease progression, especially in female PD patients.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; cellular immune; disease process; humoral immune; peripheral immunity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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