Calmodulin level is significantly increased in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Human prion diseases (PrDs) are a group of fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative disorders that are diagnosed definitively in post mortem brains. Calmodulin (CaM) is a ubiquitous calcium-binding protein. Increased brain CaM level has been reported in prion-infected rodent models and some scrapie-infected cells. However, the putative alteration of CaM in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of human PrDs is uncertain. Here, we try to figure out the profiles of CSF CaM in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

METHODS

Cerebrospinal fluid samples of 40 Chinese patients with probable sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (sCJD) and 40 cases without sCJD (non-PrDs) were recruited in this study. The presence of CaM in the CSF was assessed by Western blot, while total tau levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. In addition, the presence of CaM in another CSF panel consisting of 30 definite sCJD cases and 30 non-PrD cases was evaluated using CaM-specific Western blot analysis.

RESULTS

Cerebrospinal fluid CaM positivity was observed in 28/40 cases of probable sCJD and in 9/40 non-PrD cases. The CSF tau levels in the probable sCJD cases were markedly higher than those in the non-PrD cases. Logistic regression established a significant correlation between CSF CaM signal and total CSF tau level. Similar results were observed in the panel of cases with definite sCJD: the rates of CSF CaM positivity in the definite sCJD cases and the non-PrD cases were 22/30 and 6/30, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Although CSF CaM positivity might not be a sCJD-specific phenomenon, a significantly high rate of CaM-positive CSF in sCJD cases, especially in those with high CSF tau levels, rendered it a valuable diagnostic biomarker for sCJD.