(That's sarcasm BTW)


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]