Association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and risk of early idiopathic Parkinson’s disease

Although neuroinflammation is known to play an important role in the pathogeneses of neurodegenerative diseases, few studies have been conducted on the association between Parkinson’s disease (PD) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), which is the most studied biomarker of systemic inflammation. Therefore, we conducted this study to determine the clinical correlates of hs-CRP levels in early PD patients by comparing findings with those of normal controls. Sixty-three drug-naïve patients with early PD and 117 healthy subjects were recruited, and hs-CRP level differences were investigated in these two groups. It was found that hs-CRP levels in the early PD group were higher than those of healthy controls. Furthermore, when compared with normal controls, the odds ratio for PD based on hs-CRP level cut-off of 0.5 was 2.094 (95% CI = 1.017–4.311, P = 0.045). In this study, our findings support the hypothesis that neuroinflammatory reactions play an important role in the pathogenesis of PD.