Rizzo Roberta, Zatelli Maria Chiara, Rotola Antonella, Cassai Enzo, Degli Uberti Ettore, Di Luca Dario, Caselli Elisabetta
Department of Medical Sciences - Section of Microbiology and Medical Genetics, University of Ferrara, Via Luigi Borsari, 46, 44121, Ferrara, Italy.
Section of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2016;897:113-20. doi: 10.1007/5584_2015_5010.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a very common autoimmune disease of the thyroid. In addition to genetic background, several viruses, including herpesviruses, have been suggested to play a role as possible environmental triggers of disease, but conclusive data are still lacking. Previous results showed that HT patients have an increased cellular immune response directed against the HHV-6 U94 protein and increased NK activity directed against HHV-6 infected thyrocytes.In this study, we characterized the antiviral antibody response and the NK cells activity and subtype in HHV-6 infected HT patients. The results showed that HT subjects have increased prevalence and titer of anti-U94 antibodies and a higher amount of CD3-CD56(bright)CD16(-)NK cell percentages compared to controls. Furthermore, the cell activation of CD3(-)CD56(bright) NK cells in HT patients significantly correlates with TPO and Tg Ab levels.The results suggest that HHV-6 might contribute to HT development, increasing NK cell secretion of inflammatory cytokines that could sustain the persistence of an inflammatory status in HT patients.
桥本甲状腺炎（HT）是一种非常常见的甲状腺自身免疫性疾病。除了遗传背景外，包括疱疹病毒在内的几种病毒被认为可能是引发该疾病的环境因素，但仍缺乏确凿的数据。先前的研究结果表明，HT患者针对人疱疹病毒6型（HHV-6）U94蛋白的细胞免疫反应增强，针对HHV-6感染的甲状腺细胞的自然杀伤（NK）活性增强。在本研究中，我们对HHV-6感染的HT患者的抗病毒抗体反应以及NK细胞活性和亚型进行了表征。结果显示，与对照组相比，HT患者中抗U94抗体的患病率和滴度增加，CD3-CD56（明亮）CD16（-）NK细胞百分比更高。此外，HT患者中CD3（-）CD56（明亮）NK细胞的细胞活化与甲状腺过氧化物酶（TPO）和甲状腺球蛋白抗体（Tg Ab）水平显著相关。结果表明，HHV-6可能有助于HT的发展，增加NK细胞炎性细胞因子的分泌，这可能维持HT患者炎症状态的持续存在。
