Ioannis Gkougkourelas
Hippokration General Hospital Thessaloniki, Greece
Title: Soluble triggering receptor expressed on myelocytes as a biomarker in lupus. Correlation with SLEDAI
Biography
Biography: Ioannis Gkougkourelas
Abstract
Introduction: Soluble Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myelocytes -1 (sTREM-1) is an innate immunity receptor which participates in infectious as well as aseptic infl ammatory reactions. Its levels in serum indicate the magnitude of Systemic Infl ammatory Reaction Syndrome (SIRS) and can be used to discriminate between infectious and non-infectious causes. Recently, the plasma level of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (sTREM-1) has been proposed as a lupus biomarker, signifi cantly correlated with disease activity.
Methods: 16 treatment naive SLE patients (mean age: 32±11 years, female/male ratio: 15:1) and 17 healthy individuals of the same age were included in the present study. Th e diagnosis of SLE was based on 2012 Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) classifi cation criteria. All patients were recruited from the clinical immunology outpatient clinic of the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Hippokration Hospital of Th essaloniki, over a period of two years. We performed enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay in the serum by the commercially available kit (USCN Life Sciences) following the manufacturer's protocol. Results were expressed as mean +/- sd. Spearman correlation test was used to identify the statistical correlation between sTREM-1 levels in serum and SLEDAI.
Results: Median serum sTREM-1 levels were signifi cantly higher in patients with SLE (43.2, range 10.2–80.1 pg/ml) compared to healthy controls (5 pg/ml; range 3.3-8.3 pg/ml) with p<0.001. When using the Spearman’s rank correlation to study the correlation of s-TREM-1 with SLEDAI, it was found that s-TREM-1 levels positively correlated with activity score (r=0.65 p=0.43).
Conclusion: In conclusion, in spite of the enormous number of studies demonstrating lupus biomarkers, reliable biomarkers to predict lupus fl are and/or response to treatment have yet to be identifi ed. Larger studies are needed to clarify if sTREM-1 could play a role in determining the activity status of SLE or even herald a fl are.