Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Jan-Mar;18(1):165-72.
doi: 10.1177/039463200501800117.

Altered cytokine and acute phase response protein levels in the blood of children with Downs syndrome: relationship with dementia of Alzheimer's type

F Licastro  1 , M Chiappelli, M Ruscica, V Carnelli, M M Corsi
Affiliations
Free article

Altered cytokine and acute phase response protein levels in the blood of children with Downs syndrome: relationship with dementia of Alzheimer's type

F Licastro et al. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2005 Jan-Mar.
Free article

Abstract

Downs syndrome (DS) subjects are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). Patients with AD often show altered levels of some immune molecules in their peripheral blood which correlate with cognitive impairment. However, whether the altered peripheral immune phenotype is a late and secondary phenomenon associated with dementia or an early impairment linked to mechanisms controlling neurodegeneration of the central nervous system (CNS) is still an unanswered question. Here we studied immune molecules in the blood of non demented children with DS to investigate whether altered peripheral immune phenotype could be present in these subjects without dementia, many years before the presentation of clinical signs of cognitive deterioration. Plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) were significantly higher in DS than in control children. Plasma levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-3 (sICAM-3), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) and C reactive protein (CRP) were also increased in DS. The increase of IL-6 and CRP from DS children was similar to that found in elderly patients with clinical AD. Peripheral altered immune phenotype in healthy young subjects with DS might be an early sign of CNS alterations leading many years later to cognitive deterioration and dementia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

  NODES
twitter 2