Longitudinal assessment of clinical and inflammatory markers in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Objective: To evaluate potential associations between clinical features and inflammatory markers in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Methods: A consecutive series of 68 patients (39 males and 29 females) with sporadic ALS were subjected to a comprehensive clinical assessment and blood draw. A subset of these patients underwent a new assessment within 6–12 months after the baseline visit. In addition, a group of 62 subjects composed by age and sex-matched healthy subjects (38 males and 24 females) was enrolled in this study. Peripheral blood was drawn and plasma levels of chemokines and cytokines were measured by cytometric bead array and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Our sample was composed by patients with ALS with an average age of 58 (±12.3) years old and 3 (±2.7) years of disease length at the baseline visit. Patients with ALS presented increased plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 in comparison with controls. After multivariate analysis, higher levels of IL-6 and lower levels of IL-2 were significantly associated with increased likelihood of ALS diagnosis. When evaluating the subset of patients assessed longitudinally, we did not find any significant difference in the levels of inflammatory markers between the two time points. Older age at ALS onset was the only factor associated with a faster rate of disease progression. Conclusions: IL-6 levels could discriminate between ALS and controls and may be regarded as a potential biomarker of ALS diagnosis. An increase in IL-2 levels was associated with a protective effect on the odds of ALS diagnosis. Older age at ALS onset predicted a fast rate of disease progression.