The role of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has not been previously investigated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) among patients with Parkinson's disease and to examine the relationship between these inflammatory markers. The cross-sectional design includes 51 patients with Parkinson's disease and 50 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. We investigated the differences in hs-CRP, CEA, and NLR levels between these two groups. CEA was significantly higher in PD patients relative to the control group (mean 2.40 ± 1.51 vs. 1.72 ± 0.87 (ng/mL), respectively; p = 0.015). Mean NLR was significantly higher in PD patients relative to the control group (mean 3.1 ± 1.3 vs. 2.1 ± 0.32, respectively; p < 0.001). Serum level of hs-CRP was higher in PD patients than in control group (mean 1.04 ± 0.62 and 0.54 ± 0.31, respectively; p < 0.01). Correlation analysis revealed significant correlation between hs-CRP, CEA, and Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (p < 0.05). This study demonstrates for the first time the association between CEA, hs-CRP, NLR, and PD. We found CEA, hs-CRP, and NLR levels to be significantly higher in the PD patients than in the normal controls.

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EE treatment may have beneficial effects on sepsis-induced lung injury, and therefore has potential for clinical use.

Migraine pathogenesis involves a complex interaction between hormones, neurotransmitters, and inflammatory pathways, which also influence the migraine phenotype. The Mediterranean fever gene (MEFV) encodes the pyrin protein. The major role of pyrin appears to be in the regulation of inflammation activity and the processing of the cytokine pro-interleukin-1β, and this cytokine plays a part in migraine pathogenesis. This study included 220 migraine patients and 228 healthy controls. Eight common missense mutations of the MEFV gene, known as M694V, M694I, M680I, V726A, R761H, K695R, P369S, and E148Q, were genotyped using real-time polymerase chain reaction with 5′ nuclease assays, which include sequence specific primers, and probes with a reporter dye. When mutations were evaluated separately among the patient and control groups, only the heterozygote E148Q carrier was found to be significantly higher in the control group than in the patient group (P=0.029, odds ratio [95% confidence interval] =0.45 [0.21–0.94]). In addition, the frequency of the homozygote and the compound heterozygote genotype carrier was found to be significantly higher in patients (n=8, 3.6%) than in the control group (n=1, 0.4%) (P=0.016, odds ratio [95% confidence interval] =8.57 [1.06–69.07]). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the allele frequencies of MEFV mutations between the patients and the healthy control group (P=0.964). In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that biallelic mutations in the MEFV gene could be associated with a risk of migraine in the Turkish population. Moreover, MEFV mutations could be related to increased frequency and short durations of migraine attacks (P=0.043 and P=0.021, respectively). Future studies in larger groups and expression analysis of MEFV are required to clarify the role of the MEFV gene in migraine susceptibility.

Despite recent advances in antibiotic therapy, sepsis remains a major clinical challenge in intensive care units. Here we examined the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of Ecballium elaterium (EE) on brain, and explored its therapeutic potential in an animal model of sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) [induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)].Thirty rats were divided into three groups of 10 each: control, sepsis, and treatment. Rats were subjected to CLP except for the control group, which underwent laparatomy only. The treatment group received 2.5 mg/kg EE while the sepsis group was administered by saline. Twenty-four hours after laparotomy, animals were sacrificied and the brains were removed. Brain homogenates were prepared to assess interleukin 1beta (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and total oxidant status (TOS). Brain tissue sections were stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) to semi-quantitatively examine the histopathologic changes such as neuron degeneration, pericellular/perivascular edema and inflammatory cell infiltration in the cerebral cortex.We found a statistically significant reduction in brain tissue homogenate levels of TNF-α 59.5 ± 8.4/50.2 ± 6.2 (p = 0.007) and TOS 99.3 ± 16.9/82.3 ± 7.8 (p = 0.01) in rats treated with EE; although interleukin 6 levels were increased in the treatment group compared to the sepsis group, this was not statistically significant. Neuronal damage (p = 0.00), pericellular/perivascular edema and inflammatory cell infiltration (p = 0.001) were also significantly lower in the treatment group compared to those in the sepsis group.These data suggest that Ecballium elaterium contains some components that exert protective effects against SAE in part by attenuating accumulation of proinflammatory cytokines, which may be important contributors to its anti-inflammatory effects during sepsis.