C-Reactive Protein and Risk of Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Conclusions: This meta-analysis revealed that PD is associated with an increase of CRP levels. CRP might be a risk factor for PD or PD leads to an inflammatory response. Introduction Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most complex neuro-degenerative disorders next to Alzheimer's disease. It is characterized by bradykinesia, tremor, rigidity, abnormal postural, and gait (1). PD has been recognized by the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra pars compacta, whereas the exact etiology remains elusive (2). Previously, multiple inferences have reviewed the environmental and behavioral factors as the risk of developing PD, such as high milk and dairy consumption, exposure to pesticides and other environmental chemicals, history of melanoma, usage of amphetamine or methamphetamine, and traumatic brain injury, etc (3). However, the last decades, testable hypotheses were build that microglia-mediated neuroinflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of PD (4–7). Furthermore, epidemiological studies show that anti-inflammatory medications, especially nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have neuroprotective effects and greatly reduced the risk of PD, which forcefully corroborating the above mentioned hypothesis (8–11). C-reactive protein (CRP), a kind of acute-phase protein and regulated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, is the most studied bio-marker of systemic inflammation (12). Some researches suggest that el...
Source: Frontiers in Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research