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The chemokine CXCL13 in acute neuroborreliosis
  1. Makbule Senel1,
  2. Tobias A Rupprecht2,
  3. Hayrettin Tumani1,
  4. Hans W Pfister2,
  5. Albert C Ludolph1,
  6. Johannes Brettschneider1
  1. 1Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
  2. 2Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich-Grosshadern, Munich, Germany
  1. Correspondence to Dr Hayrettin Tumani, Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, Ulm 89081, Germany; hayrettin.tumani{at}uni-ulm.de

Abstract

Objective Recent studies have suggested an important role of the B cell chemoattractant CXCL13 in acute neuroborreliosis (NB). Our aim was to confirm the diagnostic role of CXCL13 and to evaluate its relevance as a therapy response and disease activity marker in NB.

Methods CXCL13 was measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum of patients with NB (n=28), systemic borreliosis (SB, n=9), Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS, n=11), Bell's palsy (BP, n=19), other cranial nerve palsies (CNP, n=5), cephalgia (C, n=20), bacterial CNS infections (B-CNS-I, n=16) and viral CNS infections (V-CNS-I, n=18). For follow-up studies, serial sample pairs were evaluated from 25 patients with NB (n=56), 11 with B-CNS-I (n=25) and 14 with V-CNS-I (n=36).

Results CSF-CXCL13 was significantly elevated in NB compared with other neurological diseases (p<0.001). Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, 337 ng/g was determined as a cut-off with a sensitivity of 96.4% and a specificity of 96.9%. Of all the parameters investigated, CSF CXCL13 showed the fastest response to antibiotic therapy, decreasing significantly (p=0.008) within 1 week. In untreated patients, CSF CXCL13 was elevated in patients with a short duration of disease. Borrelia burgdorferi antibody index showed no significant (p=0.356) change over follow-up.

Conclusions The study confirms the relevance of CXCL13 as a diagnostic biomarker of NB and suggests that CSF CXCL13 in NB is linked to duration of disease and could be a marker of disease activity and response to antibiotic therapy.

  • Neuroborreliosis
  • chemokines
  • CXCL13
  • cerebrospinal fluid
  • disease activity
  • borrelia
  • CSF

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by the Ethics committee, University of Ulm.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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