The aims of the present study were to assess the concentrations of different
cytokines and
chemokines in blood serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples of patients with
Lyme neuroborreliosis and to identify the possible marker(s) that would enable a distinction between clinically evident and suspected
Lyme neuroborreliosis, as well as between
Lyme neuroborreliosis and
tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). Our additional interest was to evaluate the relationship between
cytokine and
chemokine concentrations and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato isolation from CSF, as well as intrathecal synthesis of specific borrelial
antibodies. We found that higher concentrations of CXCL13 and lower concentrations of
interleukin 10 (IL-10) in serum were associated with higher odds for clinically evident
Lyme neuroborreliosis compared to suspected
Lyme neuroborreliosis, as well as to TBE. The concentrations of
IL-2,
IL-5,
IL-6,
IL-10, and CXCL13 in the CSF were higher in patients with evident
Lyme neuroborreliosis than in those who were only suspected to have the disease. A comparison of CSF
cytokine and
chemokine levels in patients with and without intrathecal synthesis of specific borrelial
antibodies revealed that CXCL13 CSF concentration is significantly associated with intrathecal synthesis of borrelial
antibodies. A comparison of the
cytokine and
chemokine CSF concentrations in patients with clinically evident
Lyme neuroborreliosis according to CSF culture results revealed that higher concentrations of
gamma interferon (IFN-γ) were associated with lower odds of Borrelia isolation. Although several differences in the blood serum and CSF concentrations of various
cytokines and
chemokines between the groups were found, the distinctive power of the majority of these findings is low. Further research on well-defined groups of patients is needed to appraise the potential diagnostic usefulness of these concentrations.