BioProject

Background: Microarray technology may offer a new opportunity to gain insight into disease-specific global protein expression profiles. The present study was performed to apply a serum cytokine-array to screen for potential molecular biomarkers for Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal syndrome (CBS). Methodology/Principal Findings: Serum samples were obtained from patients with clinical diagnoses of PD (n=117), MSA (n=31) and PSP/CBS (n=38) and 99 controls. Cytokine profiles of sera of patients and controls were analyzed with a semiquantitative human cytokine antibody array. In a next step, significantly altered cytokines were individually validated by immunoassays. The cytokine array revealed a significantly altered expression of 12 cytokines. Immunoassay validation confirmed a significant increase of PDGF-BB in PSP/CBS, MSA and PD and a decrease of Prolactin in PD (Kruskal-Wallis p<0.05). A multivariate analysis taking into account diagnoses anti-Parkinsonian treatment, sex and age revealed that PDGF-BB levels were influenced only by the diagnoses (p<0.001), whereas Prolactin levels were influenced only by anti-Parkinsonian treatment (p<0.001). These findings could be corroborated by a subgroup analysis in untreated patients. Conclusions/Significance: In our unbiased cytokine array screening approach we found PDGF-BB to be elevated in PSP/CBS, MSA and PD. Increased PDGF-BB levels might be of relevance in a model of molecular biomarkers for Parkinsonian syndromes. Overall design: Screen serum samples from patients with Parkinson's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, multisystem atrophy and controls for deregulation of serum proteins using a cytokine-array detecting 174 secreted signaling proteins.