Background. Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most commonly neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease which occurs to nearly 1% of the population > 50 years old. Inflammatory and bone biomarkers have both become valuable tools for PD diagnosis and prognosis. However, no studies have examined these markers in Saudi patients diagnosed with PD. Objectives. To assess the biomarkers and proinflammatory cytokines from blood with PD in serum. Methods. In our study, we included 26 patients with PD and 24 controls. Blood samples were withdrawn from subjects with PD and their matched controls. Biomarkers multiplex assay from Milliplex was used to assess the levels of IL-1B, IL-6, TNF-α, osteoprotegerin (OPG), osteopontin (OPN), and PTH (parathyroid hormone). Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package, GraphPad Prism. Results. We found that IL-1ß cytokine is significantly higher in patients with PD (p value = 0.0014). However, there are no statistically significant variances found among the two studied groups with regard to the IL-6 and TNF-α cytokines levels. We also found that levels of PTH are decreased in the PD subjects than the age-matched controls (p value= 0.003). Also, the bone matrix glycoproteins, including osteoprotegerin (OPG) and osteopontin (OPN), are significantly upregulated (p value= 0.04 for OPG and p value= 0.003 for OPN), as compared to the controls. Conclusions. Our findings are reliable with the possibility that inflammatory and bone markers can be used as biomarkers in PD prognosis. However, to clarify the natural role and consequence of these markers in PD pathology, further larger cohort studies are needed.

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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. Amphetamine addiction may cause serious of psychotic and physical damage to humans. There is some evidence that shows that amphetamine may increase the risk of PD. Thus, this study is aimed at comparing the PD serum biomarkers between amphetamine addicts and PD patients and utilizing them as diagnostic biomarkers for the early detection of PD incidence among amphetamine addicts. In the current study, nineteen amphetamine addicts, aged <40, were recruited from the Al Amal Psychiatric hospital, Jazan, Saudi Arabia. Nineteen PD patients and 19 healthy controls, who have never taken amphetamine, were also recruited. Blood samples were withdrawn from all groups. A biomarker multiplex assay from MILLIPLEX was used to assess the levels of serum amyloid-P (SAP), complement C4, C-reactive protein (CRP), and CRP/albumin ratio in serum samples (Vitros 350® slide was used to assess the albumin). All data were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA. The results showed that SAP and CRP levels were significantly higher in amphetamine addicts compared to healthy controls ( p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0001 , respectively). The results of amphetamine addicts were comparable to PD levels. However, there are no significant differences between all studied groups concerning complement C4 level. Moreover, albumin levels were significantly decreased and CRP/Albumin ratio levels were significantly increased in amphetamine addicts ( p = 0.01 and p = 0.041 , respectively) in contrast with controls. These findings indicate that the increased level of these inflammatory biomarkers (SAP and CRP) in the amphetamine addicts may give a potential possibility of their serum level to be used as screening markers to detect PD development in the amphetamine addict. It may be useful to evaluate the changes in easily accessible and cost-effective parameters such as the serum CRP/albumin ratio.

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