Shen Yuhuan, Dong Xiaoyan, Liu Jinlin, Lv Huoyang, Ge Yumei
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Laboratory Medicine Center, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital (Affiliated People's Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College), Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Ningbo Blood Centers, Ningbo, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
Infect Drug Resist. 2022 Jul 14;15:3693-3702. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S366308. eCollection 2022.
Interleukin-26 (IL-26) is an atypical proinflammatory cytokine due to its binding to circulating double-stranded DNA and direct antibacterial activity. Although IL-26 has been confirmed to be involved in the pathophysiology of cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases and infections, the diagnostic and prognostic values of IL-26 levels in syphilis patients are not clear. This study aimed to investigate IL-26 levels in different stages of syphilis progression.
A total of 30 healthy controls and 166 patients with syphilis at different stages of disease progression were enrolled. Serum IL-26 levels were quantified in accordance with the protocols of RayBio Human Interleukin-26 Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kits. Clinical laboratory diagnostic parameters and blood analysis data were detected and collected according to clinical medical laboratory standards.
The levels of serum IL-26 were significantly higher in neurosyphilis patients than in healthy subjects (6.87 (4.36, 12.14) and 1.67 (0.09, 4.89) pg/μL, respectively; ****p < 0.0001), latent syphilis (1.48 (0.40, 2.05) pg/μL, ****p < 0.0001), seroresistant syphilis (0.81 (0.20, 2.91) pg/μL, ****p < 0.0001) and secondary syphilis (1.66 (0.41, 4.25) pg/μL, ****p < 0.0001) with data presented as the median with interquartile range. The concentration of serum IL-26 was most sensitive to serum low-density lipoprotein concentration (r = -0.438, **p = 0.004) in latent syphilis, urine epithelial cells (r = 0.459, **p = 0.003) in seroresistant syphilis, and serum creatinine levels (r = 0.463, **p = 0.004) and urea creatinine ratio levels (r = 0.500, **p = 0.008) in secondary syphilis patients. There was no significant correlation with the concentration of IL-26 and toluidine red unheated serum test (TRUST) titers in each type of syphilis patient.
Circulating IL-26 in serum displays diagnostic potential in the progression of neurosyphilis and warrants further evaluation in clinical trials.
白细胞介素-26（IL-26）是一种非典型促炎细胞因子，因其能与循环双链DNA结合并具有直接抗菌活性。尽管IL-26已被证实参与癌症、慢性炎症性疾病和感染的病理生理过程，但梅毒患者中IL-26水平的诊断和预后价值尚不清楚。本研究旨在调查梅毒进展不同阶段的IL-26水平。
共纳入30名健康对照者和166例处于疾病进展不同阶段的梅毒患者。根据RayBio人白细胞介素-26酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）试剂盒的方案对血清IL-26水平进行定量。按照临床医学实验室标准检测并收集临床实验室诊断参数和血液分析数据。
神经梅毒患者血清IL-26水平显著高于健康受试者（分别为6.87（4.36，12.14）和1.67（0.09，4.89）pg/μL；****p<0.0001）、潜伏梅毒（1.48（0.40，2.05）pg/μL，****p<0.0001）、血清抵抗性梅毒（0.81（0.20，2.91）pg/μL，****p<0.0001）和二期梅毒（1.66（0.41，4.25）pg/μL，****p<0.0001），数据以中位数和四分位间距表示。潜伏梅毒中血清IL-26浓度对血清低密度脂蛋白浓度最敏感（r=-0.438，**p=0.004），血清抵抗性梅毒中对尿上皮细胞（r=0.459，**p=0.003）最敏感，二期梅毒患者中对血清肌酐水平（r=0.463，**p=0.004）和尿素肌酐比值水平（r=0.500，**p=0.008）最敏感。在每种类型的梅毒患者中，IL-26浓度与甲苯胺红不加热血清试验（TRUST）滴度均无显著相关性。
血清中循环IL-26在神经梅毒进展中显示出诊断潜力，值得在临床试验中进一步评估。
