Secretory Phospholipase A2 activity in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

An increasing body of evidence suggests that patients afflicted with multiple sclerosis (MS) show alterations in immunologic markers including increases in proinflammatory cytokine activity and inflammation. Secretory Phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) is one of the key molecules contributing to the production of inflammatory lipid mediators, mainly eicosanoids. They are considered proinflammatory enzymes and their inhibition has long been recognized as a desirable therapeutic target. The aim of this study was to measure the enzyme activity of sPLA2 both in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients. Twenty MS patients accompanied with 20 age-sex matched controls were recruited. The results showed that the enzyme activity of serum sPLA2 was 0.007 +/- 0.021 (mu mol/min/ml) in MS patients vs. 0.007 +/- 0.016 (mu mol/min/ml) in patients with other neurological diseases as a control group (P = 0.5). Our findings also indicated that there is no correlation (P = 0.6) between CSF sPLA2 enzyme activity and MS disease when the results of two groups were compared (0.072 +/- 0.020 in cases vs. 0.071 +/- 0.01 in control group). The results suggest that the enzyme activity of sPLA2 is not altered during the disease course. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.