1.Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, China.
2.Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
3.Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
4.State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510120, China.
5.Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830011, China.
6.Department of Neurology, Guangzhou Chinese Medical Integrated Hospital (Huadu), Guangzhou 510800, China.
7.Clinical Medicine Research Centre, Shunde Hospital of Southern Medical University, Foshan 528300, China
#These authors contributed equally to this work.
* Corresponding authors.

Abstract 

In this study, we conducted a clinical analysis of lymphocyte subtypes in 268 patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to assess their clinical impact as a potential marker of advanced PD in Chinese patients. The participants comprised 268 sporadic PD patients and 268 healthy controls. The numbers of natural killer (NK) cells and CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, and CD19+ lymphocytes from peripheral blood were determined by immunostaining and flow cytometric analysis and the percentages of these CD+ T cells were calculated. The ratio of regulatory T (Treg)/helper T 17 (Th17) lymphocytes from 64 PD patients and 46 controls was determined by flow cytometric analysis. The results showed that the percentage of NK cells was higher in advanced PD patients than in controls (22.92% ± 10.08% versus 19.76% ± 10.09%, P = 0.006), while CD3+ T cells are decreased (62.93% ± 9.27% versus 65.75% ± 9.13%, P = 0.005). The percentage of CD19+ B cells in male patients was lower (P = 0.021) than in female patients, whereas NK cells were increased (P < 0.0001). The scores on the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale in late-onset PD patients were significantly higher than those in early-onset patients (P = 0.024 and P = 0.007, respectively). The percentage of CD19+ B cells in patients with UPDRS scores >24 was lower than in those with scores <24 (10.17% ± 4.19% versus 12.22% ± 5.39%, P = 0.009). In addition, the Treg/Th17 ratio in female patients was higher than that in female controls (13.88 ± 6.32 versus 9.94 ± 4.06, P = 0.042). These results suggest that the percentages of NK cells, CD3+ T cells, and CD19+ B cells along with the Treg/Th17 ratio in peripheral blood may be used to predict the risk of PD in Chinese individuals and provide fresh avenues for novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic designs.

Keywords

Parkinson’s disease,Biological marker,Lymphatic cell

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