Immunology, Autoimmunity, and Autoantibodies in Parkinson's Disease

Recent revelations of immune alterations in Parkinson's disease have led to the convergence that an autoimmune mechanism may play a role in the etiopathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disease. In the current study, 77 Parkinson's disease patients and 77 matched healthy controls were analyzed for the presence of seven autoantibodies previously found to be associated with central nervous system manifestations namely: antineuronal-cells, anti-brain lysate, anti-dsDNA, anti-phosphatidylserine, anti-cardiolipin, anti-serotonin, and anti-melanocytes antibodies. Patients underwent systematic assessments of demographics, clinical, and biochemical manifestations. Three autoantibodies were found to be more prevalent among Parkinson's disease patients (antineuronal cells10.3% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.017; anti-brain lysate 9.1% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.032; anti-dsDNA 10.3% vs. 2.6%, p = 0.049). Clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease, particularly dyskinesia and depression, were found to be associated with the presence of these autoantibodies.