Serum BPI as a novel biomarker in asthma

Salivary bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein: A novel inflammatory marker associated with periodontitis

OBJECTIVES

The present case-control study aims to investigate the salivary levels of bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1ß) in systemically healthy individuals with periodontitis and periodontally healthy for the evaluation of BPI's relation with periodontal inflammation and clinical diagnosis of periodontitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 100 participants were enrolled in this study and divided into periodontitis (P group) (n = 50) and periodontally healthy (H group) (n = 50) groups based on their full-mouth periodontal examination results including plaque index, probing pocket depth, gingival index, bleeding on probing, and clinical attachment level. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected. Salivary BPI and IL-1β levels were determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were created to determine the diagnostic value of BPI.

RESULTS

The levels of BPI and IL-1ß in saliva were significantly higher in the P group than in the H group (p<0.001). Moreover, salivary BPI and IL-1ß levels correlated significantly with all clinical periodontal parameters (all p<0.001). Interestingly, there was a strong positive correlation between salivary levels of BPI and IL-1ß (r=0.544, p<0.001). In addition, the results of the ROC curve analysis showed that BPI had a high diagnostic potential to distinguish periodontitis from healthy controls with an area under the curve value of 0.94% (p<0.000).

CONCLUSION

The significantly higher salivary levels of BPI in periodontitis patients together with strong positive correlations between all periodontal parameters and salivary IL-1ß levels suggest that BPI may be involved in the inflammatory process of periodontal disease.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

The present study for the first time report that salivary BPI levels may serve as a potential biomarker of inflammation in periodontal disease.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

Thai Clinical Trials.gov (TCTR20211222008) (22 December 2021).

Serum 14-3-3β protein: a new biomarker in asthmatic patients with acute exacerbation in an observational study

Background

The determination of systemic inflammatory markers is one of the important directions to study the pathogenesis of asthma and improve the diagnosis of asthma. Current studies have found that the 14-3-3 protein family subtypes interact with target proteins to participate in the pathogenesis of a variety of immune inflammatory diseases. However, studies on serum tyrosine3-monooxygenase/tryptophan5-monooxygenase activation protein β (14-3-3β) in asthma are scarce. This study aimed to assess the clinical significance of 14-3-3β in asthmatic patients.

Methods

We recruited 54 asthmatic patients with acute exacerbation and 50 asthmatic patients with chronic persistent. The normal control group included 54 healthy individuals. Clinical characteristics, clinical indicators [fractional expiratory nitric oxide (FeNO), eosinophil count, forced vital capacity (FVC), percent of predicted FVC (FVC% predicted), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), percent of predicted FEV1 (FEV1% predicted), the ratio of forced expiratory volume in one second to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) and serum 14-3-3β levels were measured to compare among each group. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between 14-3-3β and clinical indicators. Finally, Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis was used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of 14-3-3β.

Results

Our results showed that median (interquartile range) of serum 14-3-3β concentration (ng/mL) in acute exacerbation group of asthma (41.18 [33.06–51.76]) was much higher than that in normal control group (24.99 [17.43–29.91]; P < 0.001) and chronic persistent group of asthma (25.88 [21.03–34.55]; P < 0.001). Spearman’s correlation coefficient shows that the serum 14-3-3β level was positively correlated with FeNO (r = − 0.292, P = 0.032) and peripheral blood eosinophil count (r = 0.328, P = 0.016), and was negatively related to FEV1/FVC (r = − 0.293, P = 0.031) in the acute exacerbation group of asthma. At the same time, the serum 14-3-3β level was also negatively associated with FEV1 (r = − 0.297, P = 0.036) in the chronic persistent group of asthma. ROC curve analysis comparing acute exacerbation group of asthma with normal control group demonstrated a significant (P < 0.001) AUC of 0.90 (95% CI 0.85–0.96).

Conclusion

The serum 14-3-3β protein may become a potential biomarker in asthmatic patients with acute exacerbation.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13223-021-00608-4.