Department of Clinical Laboratory, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, 87 Xiangya Road, Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 22;14(1):28945. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-80104-y.
The role of Interleukin-40 (IL-40) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not well understood, and this study was designed to explore serum IL-40 levels in RA patients to assess its potential as a disease biomarker. In this research, serum IL-40 levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 116 patients with RA, 40 with osteoarthritis (OA), 29 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and 66 healthy controls (HCs). Paired serum samples were collected from 86 of the 116 patients treated during follow-up visits at week 12. Group comparison analysis showed that serum IL-40 levels were significantly higher in patients with RA than in HCs, and the areas under the curve for IL-40 were 0.688, 0.865, and 0.870 for distinguishing patients with RA from HCs and those with OA and SLE, respectively. Furthermore, in RA, serum IL-40 levels were lower in patients with comorbidities of cardiovascular diseases or OA. Correlation analyses revealed that serum IL-40 levels were positively associated with RA-related autoantibodies and coagulation-related indicators, whereas no correlation was observed with disease activity-associated factors. When comparing paired samples, treatment with TNF inhibitors (TNFi) significantly reduced serum IL-40 levels, emphasizing its potential as a treatment guide.
白细胞介素-40（IL-40）在类风湿关节炎（RA）中的作用尚不清楚，本研究旨在探讨 RA 患者血清 IL-40 水平，评估其作为疾病生物标志物的潜力。在这项研究中，采用酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）检测了 116 例 RA 患者、40 例骨关节炎（OA）患者、29 例系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）患者和 66 名健康对照者（HCs）的血清 IL-40 水平。对 116 例患者中的 86 例进行了随访，在第 12 周采集了配对血清样本。组间比较分析显示，RA 患者血清 IL-40 水平显著高于 HCs，IL-40 的曲线下面积（AUC）分别为 0.688、0.865 和 0.870，用于区分 RA 患者与 HCs 和 OA、SLE 患者。此外，在 RA 患者中，合并心血管疾病或 OA 的患者血清 IL-40 水平较低。相关性分析显示，血清 IL-40 水平与 RA 相关自身抗体和凝血相关指标呈正相关，与疾病活动相关因素无相关性。在比较配对样本时，使用肿瘤坏死因子抑制剂（TNFi）治疗可显著降低血清 IL-40 水平，强调其作为治疗指导的潜力。
