Background: During the acute inflammatory process, the CXCL13 chemokine plays an important role in B cell recruitment within the central nervous system (CNS).
Objective: The objective of the study consisted of the evaluation of CXCL13 chemokine cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and plasma levels in patients with acute infectious and non-infectious neurological diseases correlated with pleocytosis and CSF protein levels.
Material and method: This retrospective study was conducted over one year and included 72 patients. Thirty-eight patients (52.8%) suffering from infectious neurological disease, acute viral and bacterial meningitis, meningoencephalitis, and 34 patients (44.2%) diagnosed with non-infectious neurological diseases.
CXCL13 chemokine CSF and plasma levels were determined through the ELISA technique with the Human CXCL13/BLC/BCA-1 kit. CSF cell count, glucose and protein levels, along with anti-Borrelia burgdorferi antibodies were monitored using the ELISA technique.
Results: CXCL13 chemokine levels in the CSF of patients with acute infectious neurological diseases showed a median value of 23.07 pg/mL, which was significantly higher in comparison with the median value of 11.5 pg/mL of patients with noninfectious neurological diseases (p-0.03). CXCL13 median plasma concentration in patients with infectious neurological diseases was 108.1 pg/mL, in comparison with the second patient category, 50.7 pg/ml (p-0.001). We observed a statistically significant association between CXCL13 concentrations, CSF cell count and proteins. The higher the CXCL13 chemokine level, the more increased the cell count was.
Conclusions: CXCL13 levels in the CSF was significantly increased in patients with acute infectious neurological diseases compared with patients with non-infectious diseases. Moreover, CXCL13 chemokine concentration was significantly correlated with the number of cells and proteins in the CSF of patients suffering from neuroinfections.
