[reverett123]

Cytokines are a family of chemicals produced by the immune system. There are a dozen or so. Some turn the flame of inflammation higher and some turn it down. As the paper noted below shows, one pro-inflammatory cytokine is particularly suspect. Called TNF<alpha> it is a problem in many illnesses with PD being one. Cytokines are what make your symptoms worse when you are sick, but they are also at work when you seem OK. One school of thought says that this is a primary cause of PD.


1. Psychosomatics. 2010 Nov;51(6):474-9.

The role of inflammatory cytokines in cognition and other non-motor symptoms of
Parkinson's disease.

Menza M, Dobkin RD, Marin H, Mark MH, Gara M, Bienfait K, Dicke A, Kusnekov A.

Psychiatry & Neurology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, D207A, 671 Hoes Lane,
Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. menza@umdnj.edu

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) affects patients' lives with more than just
physical impairment. Many of the non-motor aspects of PD, such as cognitive
impairment, depression, and sleep disturbances, are common and are associated
with a variety of poor outcomes. However, at present, the pathophysiology and
clinical management of these symptoms are poorly understood.
OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to determine the associations between various
illness-associated cytokines, cortisol, and the non-motor symptoms of PD.
METHOD: The authors examined a panel of cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α) and
cortisol in a cohort of 52 PD patients with depression.
RESULTS: There were a number of significant correlations between the non-motor
symptoms and TNF-α. Specifically, the authors found that TNF-α (but not IL-1β,
IL-6, IL-10, or cortisol) was significantly correlated with measures of
cognition, depression, and disability. In regression analyses accounting for all
variables, TNF-α was consistently significant in explaining variance in
cognition, depression, sleep, and disability.
CONCLUSION: These data are consistent with a growing body of literature that
implicates inflammatory cytokines in neural and behavioral processes and further
suggests that TNF-α may be involved in the production and/or maintenance of
non-motor symptoms in PD.


PMCID: PMC2987579 [Available on 2011/11/1]
PMID: 21051678 [PubMed - in process]