Sahebari Maryam, Rezaieyazdi Zahra, Khodashahi Mandana, Rafatpanah Houshang, Mehrad-Majd Hassan, Saadati Nayereh, Salari Masoumeh
Rheumatic Diseases Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Caspian J Intern Med. 2023 Summer;14(3):470-478. doi: 10.22088/cjim.14.3.470.
Glucocorticoid receptor α (GRα) gene is a transcription factor with clinically significant immune-modulating properties in various autoimmune diseases. However, the expression pattern of the GRα gene and associations with clinical features in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is controversial. This study aimed to assess the correlation between the GRα expression and different clinical and laboratory-related parameters in SLE patients.
A total of 45 women with newly diagnosed SLE and 31 gender and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCT) method evaluated the differences in GRα expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from cases and controls. The correlation between the GRα gene expression levels, clinicolaboratory features, and potential prognostic application was also analyzed.
Compared to the healthy individuals, the GRα gene expression in newly diagnosed SLE patients who did not receive any treatment was numerically reduced, but this reduction did not achieve statistical significance (P=0.87). No significant correlation was also found with the activity and severity of SLE according to SLEDAI2K (P=0.41). The GRα gene expression showed a negative correlation with CRP (P=0.034) and a positive correlation with lupus anticoagulant (P=0.039) levels in SLE. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that the GRα expression level might be a predictor biomarker for low CRP and positive lupus anticoagulant in SLE, respectively.
This study proposed that expression of the GRα in newly diagnosed lupus patients has no statistically significant difference with healthy age and sex-matched controls. Besides, its expression does not correlate with lupus disease activity according to SLEDAI2k. However, further studies in this area are required.
糖皮质激素受体α（GRα）基因是一种转录因子，在多种自身免疫性疾病中具有临床上显著的免疫调节特性。然而，系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）患者中GRα基因的表达模式及其与临床特征的关联存在争议。本研究旨在评估SLE患者中GRα表达与不同临床及实验室相关参数之间的相关性。
本横断面研究共纳入45例新诊断的SLE女性患者和31例年龄及性别匹配的健康对照。采用实时定量PCR（qRT-PCT）方法评估病例组和对照组外周血单个核细胞中GRα表达的差异。还分析了GRα基因表达水平、临床实验室特征及潜在预后应用之间的相关性。
与健康个体相比，未接受任何治疗的新诊断SLE患者中GRα基因表达在数值上有所降低，但这种降低未达到统计学意义（P = 0.87）。根据SLEDAI2K评估，GRα基因表达与SLE的活动度和严重程度也未发现显著相关性（P = 0.41）。在SLE中，GRα基因表达与CRP呈负相关（P = 0.034），与狼疮抗凝物呈正相关（P = 0.039）。受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线分析表明，GRα表达水平可能分别是SLE中低CRP和狼疮抗凝物阳性的预测生物标志物。
本研究提出，新诊断的狼疮患者中GRα的表达与年龄和性别匹配的健康对照相比无统计学显著差异。此外，根据SLEDAI2k，其表达与狼疮疾病活动度无关。然而，该领域还需要进一步研究。
