Zhang Yanni, Zhu Kang, Xia Cui, Chen Jingguo, Yu Chao, Gao Tianxi, Yan Jing, Zhang Huihui, Ren Xiaoyong
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China.
J Inflamm Res. 2022 Jan 27;15:603-612. doi: 10.2147/JIR.S350003. eCollection 2022.
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common inflammatory airway disease, and allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is the only disease-modifying treatment for it. However, not all AR patients respond to AIT, and early prediction of patient response is extremely important. This study aimed to example serum levels of multiple cytokines in AR and explore their association with the efficacy of AIT.
A total of 74 AR patients treated with sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) were prospectively recruited. Serum samples were obtained before the onset of SLIT and cytokine levels detected by multiplex analysis. All patients were followed for >1 year, and associations between cytokine levels and the early efficacy of SLIT were evaluated. Significantly distinctive cytokines were further verified in another independent cohort.
Sixty patients completed the visit schedule set: 35 patients were put into a responder group and 25 a nonresponder group. Multiple-cytokine profiling showed that cytokine levels differed significantly between the two groups. The responder group had higher concentrations of BAFF and CCL11 and lower levels of CCL2, CCL7, IFNγ, IL8, IL10, IL16, and IL33 than the nonresponder group (<0.05). Receiver-operating characteristic curves highlighted that serum BAFF, IFNγ, IL10, and IL33 levels were strongly predictive of the efficacy of SLIT (area under the curve <0.7, <0.05). Serum IL10 and IL33 were overexpressed in nonresponders in the validation cohort. Patients in the responder group exhibited significantly higher IL10 levels and lower IL33 post-SLIT than pre-SLIT (<0.05), but no statistical difference was found in nonresponders (<0.05).
Our data indicated that serum multiple-cytokine profiling was associated with response to SLIT and that IL10 and IL33 might serve as novel biomarkers for early prediction of efficacy and be involved in the therapeutic mechanisms of SLIT in AR patients.
变应性鼻炎（AR）是一种常见的气道炎症性疾病，变应原特异性免疫疗法（AIT）是唯一能改变疾病进程的治疗方法。然而，并非所有AR患者对AIT均有反应，因此对患者反应进行早期预测极为重要。本研究旨在检测AR患者血清中多种细胞因子的水平，并探讨其与AIT疗效的相关性。
前瞻性招募74例接受舌下免疫疗法（SLIT）治疗的AR患者。在SLIT开始前采集血清样本，采用多重分析检测细胞因子水平。所有患者随访时间均超过1年，评估细胞因子水平与SLIT早期疗效之间的相关性。在另一个独立队列中进一步验证具有显著差异的细胞因子。
60例患者完成了设定的访视计划：35例患者被纳入反应者组，25例患者被纳入无反应者组。多种细胞因子分析显示，两组之间细胞因子水平存在显著差异。反应者组的BAFF和CCL11浓度高于无反应者组，而CCL2、CCL7、IFNγ、IL8、IL10、IL16和IL33水平低于无反应者组（<0.05）。受试者工作特征曲线表明，血清BAFF、IFNγ、IL10和IL33水平对SLIT疗效具有较强的预测性（曲线下面积<0.7，<0.05）。在验证队列中，无反应者血清IL10和IL33表达上调。反应者组患者SLIT后IL10水平显著高于SLIT前，IL33水平显著低于SLIT前（<0.05），而无反应者组无统计学差异（<0.05）。
我们的数据表明，血清多种细胞因子分析与SLIT反应相关，IL10和IL33可能作为早期预测疗效的新型生物标志物，并参与AR患者SLIT的治疗机制。
