Anti-Inflammatory Use May Reduce PD Risk in Patients With Autoimmune Diseases

The use of anti-inflammatory medications in patients with autoimmune diseases is associated with a reduced risk for Parkinson disease (PD), according to study results presented at the 2024 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual meeting, held from April 13 to 18, 2024, in Denver, Colorado.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study to determine the relationship between anti-inflammatory therapy exposure in patients with autoimmune disorders (rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn disease, ankylosing spondylitis, or psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis) and the incidence of PD.

The researchers sourced data on individuals diagnosed with an autoimmune disease between 2015 and 2022 from the US Komodo Health claims database. Patients were assigned to either the exposed to specific anti-inflammatory therapies (anti-tumor necrosis factor [TNF] or anti-interleukin [IL]-17) cohort or the unexposed cohort. Person-time incidence rates of PD were calculated and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were derived for association analysis. The researchers also calculated person-time incidence rates of PD per 100 person-years across quintiles of anti-TNF/anti-IL-17 exposure.

A total of 2,105,677 patients with autoimmune conditions were included in the analysis, 114,082 of whom received anti-TNF or anti-IL-17 treatment and 1,991,595 who did not receive treatment.

The incidence of PD was 0.661 per 100 person-years among patients in the exposed group vs 0.949 per 100 person-years among the patients in the unexposed group. When comparing patients exposed to anti-inflammatory treatments and those who were unexposed, the IRR was 0.696 (95% CI, 0.669-0.724). 

The PD incidence rates for patients in the exposed group were:

• Anti-TNF only: 0.665 (95% CI, 0.639-0.692)
• Anti-IL-17 only: 0.519 (95% CI, 0.412-0.645)

Compared with patients treated with anti-TNF, those treated with anti-IL-17 had a decreased likelihood of developing PD (IRR, 0.781; 95% CI, 0.626-0.975). 

A possible treatment-response relationship was demonstrated by the incidence rate of 5.295 (95% CI, 4.937-5.673) in the lowest exposure quintile and 0.158 per 100 person-years (95% CI, 0.139-0.179) in the highest exposure quintile.

“Our findings suggest that anti-TNF/anti-IL-17 treatment in patients with autoimmune disease reduces PD incidence, indicating that the mitigation of systemic inflammation could potentially lower the risk of developing PD,” the researchers concluded.

Disclosure: Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors’ disclosures.

This article originally appeared on Neurology Advisor