Cerebrospinal fluid monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 correlates with progression of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) have overlapping symptoms, challenging a correct early diagnosis. Prognostic information is needed to predict disease progression and provide appropriate counseling. Neuroinflammation plays a role in the pathology of both disorders, as shown in genetic and postmortem tissue studies. Monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and neuroleukin (NLK) are two inflammatory proteins with potential to serve as biomarkers of the neuroinflammatory process. Here, we aimed to study the biomarker potential of both MCP-1 and NLK protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a longitudinal cohort study (Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands), consisting of PD patients (n = 46), MSA patients (n = 17) and control subjects (n = 52) using ELISA. We also correlated MCP-1 and NLK levels in CSF to several parameters of disease. We showed that MCP-1 levels in CSF positively correlate with PD progression (ρ = 0.363; p = 0.017) but could not differentiate between PD, MSA, and controls. NLK levels in CSF neither differentiated between PD, MSA, and controls, nor correlated with disease progression. Our results indicate that MCP-1 levels in CSF cannot distinguish between PD, MSA, and controls but correlate with disease progression in PD patients, suggesting that neuroinflammation is associated with clinical progression in PD. The correlation with disease progression was only moderate, so MCP-1 levels in CSF should be included in a larger battery of prognostic biomarkers that also tackle different pathophysiological processes.