Erdem Miray, Ozdogru Derya, Soker Elif Banu, Ademoglu Burak, Unal Nevzat, Gencler Onur Serdar
Department of Neurology, Adana City Training and Research Hospital, Health Science University, 4522 Street No:1, Yuregir, Adana, Turkey.
Department of Medical Microbiology, Adana City Training and Research Hospital, Health Science University, Adana, Turkey.
BMC Neurol. 2025 Aug 29;25(1):365. doi: 10.1186/s12883-025-04390-3.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by both motor and nonmotor symptoms. Galectin-3, a protein involved in the regulation of inflammatory responses, has emerged as a potential contributor to neurodegenerative processes. This study aimed to measure serum and urinary galectin-3 levels in patients with PD and to evaluate the associations of this biomarker with disease stages and clinical symptoms.
The present cross-sectional study included 30 PD patients and 29 healthy controls. Galectin-3 levels in serum and urine samples were measured via Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The clinical data recorded included demographic information, Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) stage, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor score, nonmotor symptom score (NMS), and total dopaminergic treatment dose parameters. Multivariate analyses were adjusted for age and sex due to demographic differences between groups.
Serum galectin-3 optical density (OD) levels (0.2 [0.1–1.4]) and urinary galectin-3 OD levels (0.2 [0.1–0.6]) were significantly higher in PD patients than in controls ( < 0.050). Serum and urinary galectin-3 concentration (C) values were also elevated in the PD group. A moderate negative correlation was observed between serum galectin-3 levels and both the H&Y stage ( = − 0.418, = 0.021) and the UPDRS motor score ( = − 0.541, = 0.002). After adjusting for age and sex, serum galectin-3 C remained independently associated with motor severity. ROC analysis revealed that serum galectin-3 levels demonstrated promising diagnostic performance, with high specificity and sensitivity in distinguishing patients with PD from healthy controls (AUC = 0.716, = 0.001). The serum/urine galectin-3 concentration ratio also showed significant discriminative value (AUC = 0.722, = 0.035).
Our findings suggest that elevated levels of galectin-3 in serum and urine are associated with Parkinson’s disease and may reflect underlying neuroinflammatory mechanisms contributing to its pathophysiology. The diagnostic performance of galectin-3 markers remained robust even after adjusting for age and sex. However, the strict exclusion criteria and the age imbalance between groups may limit the generalizability of these results to broader clinical populations. Therefore, these findings should be considered exploratory and require confirmation through larger, longitudinal studies to determine their diagnostic and prognostic utility.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12883-025-04390-3.
帕金森病（PD）是一种进行性神经退行性疾病，其特征为运动和非运动症状。半乳糖凝集素-3是一种参与炎症反应调节的蛋白质，已成为神经退行性过程的潜在促成因素。本研究旨在测量帕金森病患者血清和尿液中的半乳糖凝集素-3水平，并评估该生物标志物与疾病分期和临床症状的相关性。
本横断面研究纳入了30例帕金森病患者和29名健康对照。通过酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）测量血清和尿液样本中的半乳糖凝集素-3水平。记录的临床数据包括人口统计学信息、霍恩和雅尔（H&Y）分期、统一帕金森病评定量表（UPDRS）运动评分、非运动症状评分（NMS）以及总多巴胺能治疗剂量参数。由于各组之间存在人口统计学差异，多变量分析对年龄和性别进行了校正。
帕金森病患者的血清半乳糖凝集素-3光密度（OD）水平（0.2[0.1–1.4]）和尿液半乳糖凝集素-3 OD水平（0.2[0.1–0.6]）显著高于对照组（<0.050）。帕金森病组的血清和尿液半乳糖凝集素-3浓度（C）值也有所升高。观察到血清半乳糖凝集素-3水平与H&Y分期（r = -0.418，p = 0.021）和UPDRS运动评分（r = -0.541，p = 0.002）之间存在中度负相关。在对年龄和性别进行校正后，血清半乳糖凝集素-3 C仍与运动严重程度独立相关。ROC分析显示，血清半乳糖凝集素-3水平具有良好的诊断性能，在区分帕金森病患者与健康对照方面具有高特异性和敏感性（AUC = 0.716，p = 0.001）。血清/尿液半乳糖凝集素-3浓度比也显示出显著的鉴别价值（AUC = 0.722，p = 0.035）。
我们的研究结果表明，血清和尿液中半乳糖凝集素-3水平升高与帕金森病相关，可能反映了其病理生理学中潜在的神经炎症机制。即使在对年龄和性别进行校正后，半乳糖凝集素-3标志物的诊断性能仍然稳健。然而，严格的排除标准和组间年龄不平衡可能会限制这些结果在更广泛临床人群中的普遍性。因此，这些发现应被视为探索性的，需要通过更大规模的纵向研究进行证实，以确定其诊断和预后效用。
在线版本包含可在10.1186/s12883-025-04390-3获取的补充材料。
