Effects of amantadine treatment on in vitro production of interleukin-2 inde-novo patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease

An involvement of immunological events in the process of neurodegeneration has frequently been reported. We investigated the cytokine producing capaci ty for interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and interleukin-1 0 (IL-10) in whole blood cultures of de-novo patients with idiopathic Parki nson's disease (PD) at the time of first diagnosis and after oral amantadin e treatment. Before treatment, productions of IL-2 and IFN-gamma were marke dly decreased in PD patients compared to patients with major depressive dis order and healthy controls. After amantadine treatment, the in vitro IL-2 s ecretion defect was corrected to normal levels in half of the patients, and the increase in IL-2 production was correlated with an increase in IFN-gam ma secretion. Our findings suggest that immunological abnormalities occur i n the course of PD and that a formerly unappreciated therapeutic potential of amantadine may arise from its immunomodulatory effects on altered T cell function in patients with PD. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.