CCL2 and ischemic stroke: Elevated levels of MCP-1 have been also observed in several CNS-related pathologies and neurodegenerative diseases such as in the plasma of patients with Alzheimer’s disease [49, 50], amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) [51], in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with ischemic stroke [52], in peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from Parkinson’s disease and ALS patients [51, 53], and in HIV-associated dementia [54], schizophrenia [55] and epilepsy [56].