Cerebrospinal fluid nitrite/nitrate levels in neurologic diseases.
Nitric oxide has been proposed to mediate cytotoxic effects in inflammatory diseases. To investigate the possibility that overproduction of nitric oxide might play a role in the neuropathology of inflammatory and noninflammatory neurological diseases, we compared levels of the markers of nitric oxide, nitrite plus nitrate, in the CSF of controls with those in patients with various neurologic diseases, including Huntington's and Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and HIV infection. We found that there were no significant increases in the CSF levels of these nitric oxide metabolites, even in patients infected with HIV or in monkeys infected with poliovirus, both of which have significantly elevated levels of the neurotoxin quinolinic acid and the marker of macrophage activation, neopterin. However, CSF quinolinic acid, neopterin, and nitrite/nitrate levels were significantly increased in a small group of patients with bacterial and viral meningitis.
Milstien
S
S
Laboratory of Neurochemistry, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Sakai
N
N
Brew
B J
BJ
Krieger
C
C
Vickers
J H
JH
Saito
K
K
Heyes
M P
MP
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D000818:Animals; D001708:Biopterins / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D019798:Neopterin; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D009566:Nitrates / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D009573:Nitrites / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D017378:Quinolinic Acid / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid
D009566:Nitrates; D009573:Nitrites; D001708:Biopterins; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D019798:Neopterin; D017378:Quinolinic Acid