Since neuroinflammation is present in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) andAlzheimer's disease (AD) and since cholinesterase inhibitors increases the level ofacetylcholine, the aim was to investigate whether inflammatory markers of cholinoceptive cellsare affected in these patients. Near a biological hallmark of AD, amyloid plaque, activatedastrocytes and microglia can be found and higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines, i.e. IL-1β. To study the inflammatory response, proteins GFAP and S100B are used as CSF glialmarkers. IL-1β can bind to the membrane-bound IL-1 receptor or soluble sIL-1β-RII. When IL-1β binds to the soluble receptor instead of the membrane-bound receptor, no intracellular signalpropagation occur, thereby sIL-1βRII exerts an antagonistic effect and diminishedinflammatory responses. Thus a reduction in ratio of IL-1β to sIL-1RII levels may be indicativeof anti-inflammatory response. Available data on CSF GFAP, S100B, IL-1β and sIL-1β-RIIlevels in AD patients and MCI patients was used. MCI group were longitudinally followedafter start of treatment with a cholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI). AD group had data from baselineand after short-term treatment with a ChEI. The statistics application StatView was used toanalyse data. The activity of the cholinesterase enzymes, BuChE and AChE showed significantinhibition in the CSF of the MCI patients compared to baseline CSF GFAP level wassignificantly lower in MCI than AD patients at baseline. The levels of both GFAP and S100Bwere increased with time in MCI patients to comparable levels in the AD patients, indicative ofastroglial activation in MCI patients. However, the ratio of IL-1β to sIL-1RII showed alongitudinal reduction in the MCI patients after the treatment with the ChEIso that this ratiowas significantly higher in AD than in MCI patients. Thus despite the activation of astroglialcells in the treated MCI patients the proinflammatory effect of IL-1β was prevented byinduction of sIL-1βRII levels indicative of an anti-inflammatory outcome of treatment. Thisstudy suggests that proper activation of astroglial cells may have beneficial effect on ADpathogenesis, and conversion of MCI to AD. It also suggests that cholinesterase inhibitors may have an anti-inflammatory effect.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-192975 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Forsström, Karin |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för farmaceutisk biovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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