Tian Ye, Dai Jinghua, Yang Yunfeng, Guo Xiaofeng, Wang Wei, Li Fengxia, Wang Juzi, Liu Ruiyun
Department of Gastroenterology, Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases, Shanxi Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Taiyuan, China.
School of Nursing, Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Taiyuan, China.
Front Microbiol. 2024 Dec 4;15:1498483. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1498483. eCollection 2024.
This study aimed to analyze the relationship between the risk of common opportunistic pathogens Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in intestinal mucosal tissues of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) patients and the number of peripheral blood NK cells.
UC patients admitted to a third-grade class-A hospital from January 2018 to December 2023 were selected as research population. Clinical data of the patients were collected from the electronic medical record system. Additionally, samples of intestinal mucosal tissues were obtained for real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR to detect and analyze the viral load of CMV and EBV. Blood samples were collected for lymphocyte subsets analysis. Multivariable logistic regression models analyses was used to determine the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the independent association between NK cells and EBV/CMV infections in UC. We further applied the restricted cubic spline analysis and smooth curve fitting to examine the non-linear relationship between them.
378 UC patients were enrolled. Of these patients, there were 194 patients (51.32%) with EBV /CMV infection. In multivariable logistic regression analyses NK cells was independently associated with EBV and/or CMV infection after adjusted potential confounders (OR 8.24, 95% CI 3.75-18.13, < 0.001). A nonlinear relationship was found between NK cells and EBV/CMV infections, which had a threshold around 10.169. The effect sizes and CIs below and above the threshold were 0.535 (0.413-0.692), < 0.001 and 1.034 (0.904-1.183), > 0.05, respectively.
There was a non-linear relationship between NK cells and EBV/CMV infections. The risk for EBV/CMV infections was not increased with increasing NK cells in individuals with NK cells ≥ 10.169%, whereas the risk for EBV and/or CMV infection was increased with an decreasing NK cells in those with NK cells < 10.169%. The risk of EBV/CMV infections increases when NK cells were below a certain level.
本研究旨在分析溃疡性结肠炎（UC）患者肠黏膜组织中常见机会性病原体爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒（EBV）和巨细胞病毒（CMV）感染风险与外周血自然杀伤（NK）细胞数量之间的关系。
选取2018年1月至2023年12月在某三甲医院住院的UC患者作为研究对象。从电子病历系统收集患者的临床资料。此外，获取肠黏膜组织样本，采用实时荧光定量聚合酶链反应检测并分析CMV和EBV的病毒载量。采集血液样本进行淋巴细胞亚群分析。采用多变量逻辑回归模型分析确定UC患者中NK细胞与EBV/CMV感染独立关联的比值比（OR）及95%置信区间（95%CI）。进一步应用受限立方样条分析和平滑曲线拟合来检验它们之间的非线性关系。
共纳入378例UC患者。其中，194例患者（51.32%）发生EBV/CMV感染。在多变量逻辑回归分析中，校正潜在混杂因素后，NK细胞与EBV和/或CMV感染独立相关（OR 8.24，95%CI 3.75 - 18.13，P < 0.001）。发现NK细胞与EBV/CMV感染之间存在非线性关系，阈值约为10.169。阈值以下和以上的效应量及95%CI分别为0.535（0.413 - 0.692），P < 0.001和1.034（0.904 - 1.183），P > 0.05。
NK细胞与EBV/CMV感染之间存在非线性关系。NK细胞≥10.169%的个体中，EBV/CMV感染风险不会随NK细胞数量增加而升高；而NK细胞<10.169%的个体中，EBV和/或CMV感染风险会随NK细胞数量减少而升高。当NK细胞低于一定水平时，EBV/CMV感染风险增加。
