Increased interleukin-17 in the cerebrospinal fluid in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a case-control study of rapidly progressive dementia.
BACKGROUND
Inflammatory responses in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) remain elusive.


METHODS
We conducted a case-control study, in which 14 patients with sCJD, 14 with noninflammatory neurological disorders, and 14 with autoimmune encephalitis were enrolled. We used the suspension array system to measure the concentrations of 27 cytokines in CSF. The cytokine titers of the three groups were compared, and the correlation between the relevant cytokine titers and clinical parameters was investigated in the patients with sCJD.


RESULTS
Levels of the two cytokines interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist and IL-17 were significantly elevated in the patients with sCJD compared with those in the patients with noninflammatory neurological disorders: IL-17 levels in sCJD were approximately ten times higher than in the noninflammatory neurological disorders (mean, 35.46 vs. 3.45 pg/ml; P < 0.001) but comparable to that in encephalitis (mean, 32.16 pg/ml). In contrast, levels of classical proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-12(p70) and tumor necrosis factor-α were increased only in encephalitis. Although not significant, IL-17 titers tended to be higher in the patients with shorter disease duration before CSF sampling (r = -0.452; P = 0.104) and in those with lower CSF total protein concentrations (r = -0.473; P = 0.086).


CONCLUSIONS
IL-17 is significantly increased in CSF in sCJD, which can be an early event in the pathogenesis of sCJD.
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan. kof198@gmail.com.
Koji
K
Fujita
Naoko
N
Matsui
Yukitoshi
Y
Takahashi
Yasushi
Y
Iwasaki
Mari
M
Yoshida
Tatsuhiko
T
Yuasa
Yuishin
Y
Izumi
Ryuji
R
Kaji
D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D007562:Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000276:immunology; D003704:Dementia / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000276:immunology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D008297:Male
D020381:Interleukin-17