Parâmetros imunológicos na demência frontotemporal

Abstract

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is an umbrella term that groups several different neurodegenerative diseases characterized by predominant destruction of the frontal and temporal lobes. It is a clinical syndrome characterized by progressive changes in behaviour, personality and/or language. FTD presents three clinical variants: behaviour variantfrontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) and semantic dementia (SD). There is growing evidence to support that central nervous system (CNS) function is integrated with the immune system. Crosstalking between CNS and the immune system occurs mainly via cytokines, neurotransmitters and neuropeptide secretion. Peripheral cytokines can also promote signalling inside CNS. Studies suggest that inflammation is involved in the neurodegenerative cascade of dementias. Immunological mechanisms may be part of the pathophysiological process in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but up till now only vague evidence of such mechanisms has been presented. The aim of this study was to compare the expression of immune molecules in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of FTD to Alzheimer disease (AD).This study shows an increased expression of TNF- in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from frontotemporal dementia patients and an increase of BDNF in CD4+. A reduction of IL-1, CCL3 in monocytes CD14+, and CTLA-4 and HLA-DR in CD4+ were also observed. These alterations clearly show that immune system involved in FTD and AD is different.