Is amyloid involved in acute neuroinflammation? A CSF analysis in encephalitis
in: Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 2022.
Citation: Padovani, A., Canale, A., Schiavon, L., Masciocchi, S., Imarisio, A., Risi, B., Bonzi, G., De Giuli, V., Di Luca, M., Ashton, N.J., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Pilotto, A. (2022) Is amyloid involved in acute neuroinflammation? A CSF analysis in encephalitis, in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, doi: 10.1002/alz.12554.
Abstract: Introduction: several investigations argued for a strong relationship between neuroinflammation and amyloid metabolism but it is still unclear whether inflammation exerts a pro-amyloidogenic effect, amplifies the neurotoxic effect of amyloid or is protective. Methods: forty-two patients with encephalitis and 18 controls underwent an extended CSF panel of inflammatory, amyloid (Aβ40, 42 and 38, sAPP-α, sAPP-β), glial and neuronal biomarkers. Linear and non-linear correlations between CSF biomarkers were evaluated studying conditional independence relationships. Results: CSF levels of inflammatory cytokines and neuronal/glial markers were higher in ENC compared with controls, whereas the levels of amyloid-related markers did not differ. Inflammatory markers were not associated with amyloid markers but exhibited a correlation with glial and neuronal markers in conditional independence analysis. Discussion: By an extensive CSF biomarkers analysis, this study showed that an acute inflammation associated with glial activation and neuronal damage does not impact on amyloid homeostasis.