Affiliations: Mersin University School of Medicine and Mersin
University School of Science and Letters, Mersin, Turkey
Note: [] Corresponding author: Aynur Özge, Associate Professor of
Neurology, Mersin University School of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey. Tel.: +90 324
3598904; Fax: +90 324 3594336; E-mail: [email protected] or
[email protected]
Abstract: In the past years, the possible involvement of inflammation in the
pathogenesis of dementia has been the subject of several investigations.
However there are restricted data about the profile of the inflammatory and
soluble proteins in well evaluated Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia
(VD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy controls. There are also no
reliable data regarding the relationship between the overlapping protein levels
and cognitive or functional decline. We measured levels of IL-1β,
IL-2, IL-6, IL-18, TNF-α, β-Amlyloid 1–40 and α _1-antichymotrypsin
levels in plasma in groups of total 82 subjects with AD, MCI, VD and controls
using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Our study samples
showed high levels of proinflammatory cytokine levels (especially IL-18) in all
patient groups but only high levels of α_1-antichymotrypsine in VD patients compared to controls. There is
no significant correlation between the laboratory and clinical variables except
for a link between IL-1β and NPI scores of AD. In
conclusion, this study yielded evidence of some shared mechanisms underlying AD
and VD and thus motivates further studies of inflammatory markers in various
types of dementia and MCI.
