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. 2024 Oct 8;14(1):23475.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-72564-z.

Cytokine profiles and their correlation with clinical and blood parameters in rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

Nancy Paola Duarte-Delgado  1   2 , Katherine Segura  1 , Oscar Gómez  3 , Sandra Pulido  4 , Catherin Tovar-Sánchez  5 , J M Bello-Gualtero  4 , Daniel G Fernández-Ávila  6   5 , Sandra B Amado-Garzón  5 , Consuelo Romero-Sanchez  4 , Stefano Cacciatore  2 , Luz-Stella Rodríguez C  7
Affiliations

Cytokine profiles and their correlation with clinical and blood parameters in rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

Nancy Paola Duarte-Delgado et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The abnormal biological activity of cytokines and their imbalance are implicated in developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Cytokine levels were measured in RA and SLE patients and compared to healthy controls using the Wilcoxon rank sum test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The relationship between cytokine levels and blood and clinical parameters was assessed using Spearman's correlation test. Compared to healthy controls, both RA and SLE patients exhibited elevated levels of GM-CSF, CX3CL1, IFN-α2, IL-12p70, IL-17A, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IFN-γ, which is evidence of their shared inflammatory signature. IL-2 levels were elevated exclusively in RA patients, while MCP-1 and IL-10 were uniquely increased in SLE patients. Notably, TNF-α showed the most significant increase in SLE patients. IL-4 was elevated in SLE patients with nephritis, correlating with IL-6, IL-10, sCD40L, and IL-8, suggesting B cell involvement in lupus nephritis. The negative correlation between CX3CL1 and TNF-α with HDL in RA and SLE respectively, highlights the potential association of these inflammatory markers with cardiovascular risk. These findings underscore the complex cytokine interplay in RA and SLE. CX3CL1 emerges as a potential therapeutic target for RA, while TNF-α and IL-4 show promise as therapeutic targets for SLE.

Keywords: Cytokines; Rheumatoid arthritis; Spearman’s correlation; Systemic lupus erythematosus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Plasma cytokine levels in Colombian RA and SLE patients. (a) Heatmap showing the cytokine levels and cytokine clusters. (b) Left: The Venn diagram illustrates the statistically significant cytokines in RA and SLE compared to HC. Right: The significance levels obtained by Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons of the cytokine alterations in RA and SLE compared to HCs are presented. (c) The levels of TNF-α (in pg/mL) in RA, SLE patients, and HCs. The numbers on top of the horizontal bars correspond to the p-values of Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlation between CX3CL1 and TNF-α levels with HDL in RA and SLE patients. Scatter plot depicting the relationship between CX3CL1 and HDL levels in RA patients (a) and TNF-α and HDL levels in SLE patients (b). The dashed lines represent the linear regression analysis with corresponding rho values and p-values.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
IL-4 cytokine network and its association with SLE. (a) The levels of IL-4 (in pg/mL) in SLE patients with and without nephritis. The number on top of the horizontal bar corresponds to the p-value of the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. (b) Network analysis of the correlations between cytokines and blood parameters in SLE. The positive correlations are shown as blue lines and the negatives as red lines.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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