T-LYMPHOCYTE TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR-ALPHA RECEPTOR-BINDING IN PATIENTSWITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS), in which the cytokine network may be deranged, leading to an altered immunoregulation. Tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-alp ha, a cytokine with pleiotropic neuroimmune effects, has specific rece ptors on human lymphocytes, as well as on other cell types, even in th e CNS. The aim of the present study was to assay TNF-alpha binding on peripheral blood T cells from PD patients, as compared with healthy su bjects. We found on T lymphocytes from parkinsonian patients significa ntly more TNF-alpha receptors than on those from controls (B-max: 637 +/- 23 vs. 131 +/- 6 (mean +/- S.E.M.) receptors/cell). Such TNF-alpha binding sites are of the same type in patients and healthy subjects ( K-d: 66.8 +/- 5.1 vs. 70.7 +/- 5.6 (mean +/- S.E.M.) pM). These result s are discussed in terms of PD immunopathogenesis, since it has been r eported that activated T lymphocytes have increased amounts of TNF-alp ha receptors. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.