Patients with Chikungunya Fever Have Increased Serum Levels of Proinflamatory Cytokines

Andrea Dantas¹, Claudia Marques², Nara Cavalcanti¹, Aline Ranzolin¹, Laurindo Rocha Jr³, Carolina Andrade¹, Paula Toche¹, Mariana Luna⁴, Kamila Vilar⁵, Pablo Cardoso⁶, Michelly Pereira⁷, Moacyr Rêgo⁷, Angela Duarte⁸ and Maira Pitta⁶, ¹Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, ²Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife - PE, Brazil, ³Rheumatology, Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira - IMIP, Recife, Brazil, ⁴Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, ⁵Departamento de bioquímica, Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Novas Abordagens Terapêuticas - UFPE, Recife, Brazil, ⁶Departamento de Bioquímica, Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Novas Abordagens Terapêuticas - UFPE, Recife, Brazil, ⁷Bioquimica, Laboratório de Imunomodulação e Novas Abordagens Terapêuticas - UFPE, Recife, Brazil, ⁸Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, s/n, Av. Prof. Moraes Rego, s/n, Recife, Brazil

Meeting: 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 28, 2016

Keywords: cytokines

Session Information

Date: Monday, November 14, 2016

Title: Infection-related Rheumatic Disease - Poster

Session Type: ACR Poster Session B

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose: Chikungunya fever (CHIK) is an arboviral disease characterized by sudden onset of fever and incapacitating polyarthralgia. Some patients develop chronic articular symptoms but the mechanisms by which this occurs and possible biomarkers are poorly understood. Interleukin (IL)-17A, IL-21, IL-22, IL-27 and IL-29 have been implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory joint diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the serum levels of these cytokines and to verify any association with clinical manifestations in CHIK-patients.

Methods: We evaluated 75 patients (58 female, mean age 52.7 ± 13.4 years old) with clinical manifestations of Chikungunya fever and sorological confirmation with IgM and/or IgG CHIK antibodies. All included patients had articular manifestation on the evaluation. From these patients, 30 had previous inflammatory rheumatologic diseases (17 rheumatoid arthritis, 6 systemic lupus erythematosus and 7 spondyloarthritis). Forty-nine age and gender matched healthy individuals served as controls.

Anti-CHIKV IgM and IgG antibodies were tested by ELISA (Euroimmun). IL-17A, IL-21, IL-22, IL-27 and IL-29 serum levels were measured with specific ELISA kits (eBioscience), according to the manufacturer’s protocol. The association between cytokines levels and clinical parameters were analyzed. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism (version 6.0) and results are expressed as the median and interquartile range.

Results: Serum IL-17A, IL-27 and IL-29 were detected in most of the patients but not in controls. Instead, IL-21 was only detected in healthy individuals’ serum but not in CHIK-patients. Serum IL-22 was not detected in both groups. There were no differences in IL-17A, IL-27 and IL-29 levels between rheumatic and non-rheumatic patients.

IL-27 serum levels were higher in patients with chronic symptoms (median 395.9 [62.5-1065] pg/ml) compared with acute/subacute patients (median 62.5 [62.5-451.3] pg/ml), p=0.008). In CHIK-patients, we found significant correlations between IL-27 levels and tender joints (r=0.32, p=0.006) and swollen joints (r=0.26, p=0.03). Also IL-17A levels were associated with swollen joints (r=0.32, p=0.006). Furthermore, patients who reported arthritis had higher IL-17 A levels (median 24.14 [20.6-27.1] pg/ml) than those who did not (median 20.15 [3.9-22.5] pg/ml).

Conclusion: Increased serum levels of IL-17 A, IL-27, and IL-29 were present in CHIK-patients and there was an important association with articular manifestations. This finding may reflect the inflammatory nature of CHIK infection in patients with joint symptons and may implicate the role of these cytokines in the pathophysiology of the disease, similar to what occurs in other inflammatory arthritis.

Disclosure: A. Dantas, None; C. Marques, None; N. Cavalcanti, None; A. Ranzolin, None; L. Rocha Jr, None; C. Andrade, None; P. Toche, None; M. Luna, None; K. Vilar, None; P. Cardoso, None; M. Pereira, None; M. Rêgo, None; A. Duarte, None; M. Pitta, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Dantas A, Marques C, Cavalcanti N, Ranzolin A, Rocha Jr L, Andrade C, Toche P, Luna M, Vilar K, Cardoso P, Pereira M, Rêgo M, Duarte A, Pitta M. Patients with Chikungunya Fever Have Increased Serum Levels of Proinflamatory Cytokines [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2016; 68 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/patients-with-chikungunya-fever-have-increased-serum-levels-of-proinflamatory-cytokines/. Accessed .

« Back to 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/patients-with-chikungunya-fever-have-increased-serum-levels-of-proinflamatory-cytokines/