Institute of Dentistry, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
THERAMetrics Discovery AG, Stans, Switzerland.
Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2018 Nov-Dec;36(6 Suppl 115):53-62. Epub 2018 Oct 5.
Patients with Behçet's disease (BD) constantly complain of fatigue and many have problems with poor sleep. This ultimately has a major impact on all aspects of normal living. To attempt to understand this, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was used to identify potential biomarkers. These were alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and some inflammatory cytokines. We assessed the association of fatigue, quality of sleep and disease activity with circulating concentration of α-MSH, VIP and inflammatory cytokines.
There were 127 participants, 97 BD patients, and 30 healthy controls (HC). All completed the Multi-Dimensional Assessment of Fatigue questionnaire (MAF) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) on the day of their clinical assessment. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were used to evaluate the serum concentrations of α-MSH, VIP and cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α).
64% of BD patients experienced high fatigue scores, and 63% had poor quality of sleep. When BD and HC were compared the MAF and PSQI scores as well as the serum concentrations of α-MSH, VIP, and IL-6 were significantly higher in BD (p values were: 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, 0.004 and 0.036, respectively). Both α-MSH and IL-6 had significant impact on MAF and PSQI. Interestingly, VIP had a significant influence on PSQI and disease activity, but not on MAF.
A better understanding of these complex clinical and biochemical interactions between α-MSH, VIP and IL-6 might lead to the development of novel approaches to manage fatigue and sleep disorders as well as disease activity in BD patients.
贝切特病（BD）患者经常抱怨疲劳，许多人存在睡眠质量差的问题。这最终对正常生活的各个方面都有重大影响。为了试图了解这一点，使用人工智能（AI）来识别潜在的生物标志物。这些生物标志物包括α-黑素细胞刺激素（α-MSH）、血管活性肠肽（VIP）和一些炎症细胞因子。我们评估了疲劳、睡眠质量和疾病活动与循环α-MSH、VIP 和炎症细胞因子浓度之间的关联。
共有 127 名参与者，97 名 BD 患者和 30 名健康对照者（HC）。所有参与者在临床评估当天完成多维疲劳评估问卷（MAF）和匹兹堡睡眠质量指数（PSQI）。酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）用于评估血清α-MSH、VIP 和细胞因子（IL-1β、IL-6、IL-10 和 TNF-α）的浓度。
64%的BD 患者经历了高疲劳评分，63%的患者睡眠质量差。与 BD 和 HC 进行比较时，BD 患者的 MAF 和 PSQI 评分以及血清α-MSH、VIP 和 IL-6 浓度显著更高（p 值分别为：0.001、0.001、0.001、0.004 和 0.036）。α-MSH 和 IL-6 对 MAF 和 PSQI 均有显著影响。有趣的是，VIP 对 PSQI 和疾病活动有显著影响，但对 MAF 没有影响。
更好地理解α-MSH、VIP 和 IL-6 之间这些复杂的临床和生化相互作用，可能会导致开发新的方法来管理 BD 患者的疲劳和睡眠障碍以及疾病活动。
