The chemokine CXCL13 in acute neuroborreliosis

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),
Guillaine-Barre 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