Work

Prodromal Peripheral Immune Cell Profile in Drug‐Induced Parkinsonism Relative to Parkinson's Disease

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Drug-induced Parkinsonism (DIP) is a predictor of future idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), yet the prodromal characteristics of DIP remain unexplored. OBJECTIVES: To compare prodromal peripheral immune cell profiles in DIP and PD. METHODS: We applied independent regression models to evaluate the peripheral immune cell profiles in individuals with incident DIP (n = 108) and PD (n = 1055) relative to 20,070 healthy controls from the UK Biobank. RESULTS: Approximately 9 years before diagnosis, both DIP and PD cases exhibited elevated neutrophil counts, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). Only PD cases showed reduced lymphocyte counts. After adjusting for psychiatric comorbidities, DIP-associated peripheral immune alterations were no longer significant. CONCLUSIONS: The elevated neutrophil counts in DIP and PD suggest a shared innate immune system involvement. However, in DIP, the peripheral immune changes appear driven by psychiatric comorbidities, whereas lymphopenia may represent a distinctive prodromal biomarker of PD.

Source: Movement Disorders Clinical Practice

DOI: 10.1002/mdc3.70476

Authors: Brandon Lien, Varun Kasibhatla, Mariel Mawad, Jenee Anekwe, Joseph H. Friedman, Saud Alhusaini

Institutions: Brown University, Butler Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital

Language: English

Topic: Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments

Subfield: Neurology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: Rhode Island Foundation