Peripheral Immune Cell Numbers and C-Reactive Protein in Parkinson's Disease: Results from a Population-Based Study

The immune system is known to be involved in Parkinson's disease (PD) pathogenesis, but the temporal relationship between peripheral immune responses and PD remains unknown.

We determined the association between peripheral immune cell numbers, C-reactive protein (CRP), and prevalent as well as incident PD.

This study was embedded in the population-based setting of the Rotterdam Study. We repeatedly measured peripheral immune cell numbers (differential leukocyte count and platelet count, granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio [GLR], platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio [PLR], and adapted systemic immune-inflammation index [adapted SII]) and CRP between 1990 and 2016. Participants were continuously followed-up for PD until 2018. We estimated the association of the markers with prevalent and incident PD using logistic regression models and joint models, respectively. Models were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, body mass index, and medication use. Odds ratios (OR) and hazard ratios (HR) are shown per doubling of the marker.

A total of 12,642 participants were included in this study. The mean age (standard deviation) was 65.1 (9.8) years and 57.5%were women. Participants with a higher lymphocyte count were less likely to have prevalent PD (adjusted OR: 0.34, 95%CI 0.17-0.68). Participants with a higher GLR, PLR, and adapted SII were more likely to have prevalent PD, but these effects were explained by the lymphocyte count. The peripheral immune cell numbers and CRP were not significantly associated with the risk of incident PD.

We found participants with a higher lymphocyte count to be less likely to have prevalent PD, but we did not find an association between peripheral immune cell numbers nor CRP and the risk of incident PD.