Plasma Levels of Chitinase 3-Like 1 Protein Increase in Patients With Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Small Cohort...

Neuroinflammation, widely regarded as a chronic inflammatory response of the central nervous system, is thought to be a key player in the initiation of neurodegeneration. While there is a great effort in finding useful biomarkers for early detection of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Parkinson's disease (PD), a precise biomarker capable of elucidating the disease progression and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions is needed.

The plasma NLRP3, ASC, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and CHI3L1 levels were measured in control subjects and patients with AD and PD by ELISA to evaluate whether these molecules can be biomarkers with a high diagnostic power.

While there is no significant difference in the levels of NLRP3, ASC, IL-1β, and IL-10, CHI3L1 was significantly elevated in the AD and PD patients compared to the healthy controls. In addition, in AD patients, IL-6 levels significantly increased and there was a positive correlation between IL-6 and CHI3L1 levels. In the PD patients, there was a negative correlation between IL-6 and CHI3L1. According to the ROC curves, the levels of CHI3L1 had better sensitivity and specificity than other parameters to distinguish AD and PD.

In summary, our results indicated that plasma CHI3L1 level can be useful as one of the biomarkers in AD and PD patients.