BDNF as a potential predictive biomarker for patients with pediatric cerebral palsy

Abstract

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in children, which is instigated by damage to the developing brain that affects the ability to control the muscles. The main types of CP are spastic CP, dyskinesia CP and mixed CP. The aim of this work was to estimate the concentrations of complete blood count (CBC), erythrocytic sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in children with CP compared to the control group. Methods: A total of 75 Egyptian children were enrolled in this study, 45 had CP and 30 were controls. CBC, ESR, CRP, BDNF, and TNF-α were assessed. Results: The ESR, CRP and TNF-α levels showed statistically significant increases in cases compared with controls. While the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and the BDNF levels were significantly lower in CP compared with the controls. When comparing the different groups of CP with each other; there were no significant differences. Regarding the correlation of BDNF and different studied parameters, our study showed a positive correlation between BDNF and TNF levels only within the group with spastic CP. Conclusions: BDNF may be considered as a biomarker or treatment target for CP to avoid further complications as still there is insufficient progress in the prediction, early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CP. Furthermore, searching for novel strategies to increase BDNF levels may open a new opportunity for the treatment of CP.