Laboratory of Dermatology and Immunodeficiencies, Department of Dermatology, Medical School, University of São Paulo Brazil/Institute of Tropical Medicine of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Laboratory of Immunohematology and Forensic Hematology-LIM40, Department of Forensic Medicine, Medical Ethics, Social Medicine and Work, University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil.
Front Immunol. 2024 Jun 19;15:1416476. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1416476. eCollection 2024.
Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is a unique retrovirus associated with both leukemogenesis and a specific neuroinflammatory condition known as HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy (HAM). Currently, most proposed HAM biomarkers require invasive CSF sampling, which is not suitable for large cohorts or repeated prospective screening. To identify non-invasive biomarkers for incident HAM in a large Brazilian cohort of PLwHTLV-1 (n=615 with 6,673 person-years of clinical follow-up), we selected all plasma samples available at the time of entry in the cohort (between 1997-2019), in which up to 43 cytokines/chemokines and immune mediators were measured. Thus, we selected 110 People Living with HTLV-1 (PLwHTLV-1), of which 68 were neurologically asymptomatic (AS) at baseline and 42 HAM patients. Nine incident HAM cases were identified among 68 AS during follow-up. Using multivariate logistic regression, we found that lower IL-10, IL-4 and female sex were independent predictors of clinical progression to definite HAM (AUROC 0.91), and outperformed previously suggested biomarkers age, sex and proviral load (AUROC 0.77). Moreover, baseline IL-10 significantly predicted proviral load dynamics at follow-up in all PLwHTLV-1. In an exploratory analysis, we identified additional plasma biomarkers which were able to discriminate iHAM from either AS (IL6Rα, IL-27) or HAM (IL-29/IFN-λ1, Osteopontin, and TNFR2). In conclusion, female sex and low anti-inflammatory IL-10 and IL-4 are independent risk factors for incident HAM in PLwHTLV-1,while proviral load is not, in agreement with IL-10 being upstream of proviral load dynamics. Additional candidate biomarkers IL-29/IL-6R/TNFR2 represent plausible therapeutic targets for future clinical trials in HAM patients.
人类 T 淋巴细胞白血病病毒 1 型(HTLV-1)是一种独特的逆转录病毒,与白血病发生和一种特定的神经炎症状况(称为 HTLV-1 相关性脊髓病,HAM)有关。目前,大多数提议的 HAM 生物标志物需要进行有创性的 CSF 取样,这不适用于大型队列或重复的前瞻性筛查。为了在巴西的一个大型 PLwHTLV-1 队列中(n=615 例,6673 人年的临床随访)确定发生 HAM 的非侵入性生物标志物,我们选择了队列入组时(1997-2019 年)所有可用的血浆样本,其中最多可测量 43 种细胞因子/趋化因子和免疫介质。因此,我们选择了 110 名人类 T 淋巴细胞白血病病毒 1 型感染者(PLwHTLV-1),其中 68 名在基线时神经无症状(AS),42 名 HAM 患者。在随访期间,在 68 名 AS 中发现了 9 例新的 HAM 病例。使用多变量逻辑回归,我们发现 IL-10、IL-4 水平较低和女性是临床进展为明确 HAM 的独立预测因子(AUROC 0.91),优于先前提出的年龄、性别和前病毒载量等生物标志物(AUROC 0.77)。此外,在所有 PLwHTLV-1 中,基线 IL-10 可显著预测随访时的前病毒载量动态。在一项探索性分析中,我们确定了其他能够区分 iHAM 与 AS(IL6Rα、IL-27)或 HAM(IL-29/IFN-λ1、骨桥蛋白和 TNFR2)的血浆生物标志物。总之,女性和低抗炎性 IL-10 和 IL-4 是 PLwHTLV-1 发生 HAM 的独立危险因素,而前病毒载量不是,这与 IL-10 是前病毒载量动态的上游因素一致。额外的候选生物标志物 IL-29/IL-6R/TNFR2 代表 HAM 患者未来临床试验中可能的治疗靶点。