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Reduced Activated T Lymphocytes (CD4+CD25+) and Plasma Levels of Cytokines in Parkinson’s Disease

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Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. The cause of neurodegeneration in PD is not completely understood, and evidence has shown that inflammatory/immune changes may be involved in PD pathophysiology. Herein, we aimed to determine the profile of the peripheral immune system in patients with PD in comparison with controls. Forty patients with PD and 25 age- and gender-matched controls were enrolled in this study. From these, 23 PD patients and 21 controls were included in the immunophenotyping analyses. Peripheral blood was drawn on the same day of the clinical assessment and submitted to plasma separation for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or cytometric bead array. Immunophenotyping analyses of the peripheral blood were performed by flow cytometry. We found that patients with PD presented peripheral immune changes evidenced by decreased percentage of T lymphocytes (CD3+ cells), especially activated T lymphocytes (CD4+CD25+ cells), when compared with controls. In line with these results, we also found decreased plasma levels of the cytokines IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF, IFN-γ, and IL-17A in the PD group. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the production of cytokines by peripheral blood mononuclear cells harvested from healthy young donors was reduced after exposure to the anti-parkinsonian drugs levodopa and pramipexole. Our data corroborate the hypothesis that immunological mechanisms are involved in PD. It is not clear whether the differences that we have found are due to adaptive mechanisms or to changes associated with PD, including pharmacological treatment, or even directly related to the disease pathophysiology. Future studies are needed in this regard.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the participation of volunteers in this study and are indebted to their caregivers for their magnificent support. They also would like to thank Ilma Marҫal Souza for her skilled technical assistance, professor Mauro Martins Teixeira (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) for his support in the execution of this work, and Flavia Bastos and Andre Paiva for providing the drugs we used in this study. This study was funded by FAPEMIG, CNPq, and CAPES.

Authors’ Contributions

NPR, ALT, and HJR worked on the conception and organization of the research project. NPR, FA, ELMV, PLS, IGB, MSS, and PPC worked on the execution of the research project. NPR and ALT designed and executed the statistical analyses and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. HJR and ALT reviewed the statistical analyses and the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Investigação Médica (LIIM), Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Prof. Alfredo Balena, 190, Sala 281, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30130-100, Brazil

    Natalia Pessoa Rocha, Érica Leandro Marciano Vieira, Izabela Guimarães Barbosa & Antonio Lucio Teixeira

  2. Laboratório de Neurofarmacologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Presidente Antonio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Natalia Pessoa Rocha & Helton José Reis

  3. Neuropsychiatry Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 1941 East Road, Houston, TX, 77054, USA

    Natalia Pessoa Rocha & Antonio Lucio Teixeira

  4. Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Presidente Antonio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Frankcinéia Assis

  5. Laboratório de Neurobiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Presidente Antonio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, 31270-901, Brazil

    Paula Luciana Scalzo

  6. Departamento de Neurologia e Neurocirurgia, Santa Casa de Belo Horizonte Hospital, Av. Francisco Sales, 1.111 (9o. andar), Santa Efigênia, Belo Horizonte, MG, 30150-221, Brazil

    Mariana Soares de Souza & Paulo Pereira Christo

Authors
  1. Natalia Pessoa Rocha
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  2. Frankcinéia Assis
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  3. Paula Luciana Scalzo
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  4. Érica Leandro Marciano Vieira
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  5. Izabela Guimarães Barbosa
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  6. Mariana Soares de Souza
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  7. Paulo Pereira Christo
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  8. Helton José Reis
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  9. Antonio Lucio Teixeira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Natalia Pessoa Rocha.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

All subjects provided written informed consent before admission to the study. The Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, approved this study (reference number CAAE-0417.0.203.000-11).

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by FAPEMIG, CNPq, and CAPES, Brazilian government research-funding agencies. NPR and ELMV are currently CNPq and FAPEMIG fellowship recipients, respectively. ALT and HJR are CNPq fellowship recipients.

Additional information

Helton José Reis and Antonio Lucio Teixeira contributed equally to the study.

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Rocha, N.P., Assis, F., Scalzo, P.L. et al. Reduced Activated T Lymphocytes (CD4+CD25+) and Plasma Levels of Cytokines in Parkinson’s Disease. Mol Neurobiol 55, 1488–1497 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-017-0404-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-017-0404-y

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