Inflammasome NLRP3 Expression in PBMCs and Plasma Interleukin-21 in Psoriasis

Document Type : New and original researches in the field of Microbiology.

Authors

1 Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt

2 Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Psoriasis is a persistent, immune-related complex condition that predominantly impacts both the skin and joints, involving multiple factors. Objectives: Our study aimed to make a comparison between the PBMCs expression levels of NLRP3 and plasma IL-21 levels in psoriatic patients with that of healthy controls and a correlation between these levels and the severity of psoriasis. Methodology: This observational cross-sectional study was performed on 40 psoriatic patients and 40 healthy individuals who served as the control group. We assessed the expression levels of NLRP3 in PBMCs using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), while plasma levels of IL-21 were determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) technique. Results: Psoriatic patients showed significantly higher PBMCs expression levels of NLRP3 (P< 0.001), and insignificantly different plasma IL-21 levels from those in the control group. The expression levels of NLRP3 demonstrated a significant positive correlation with the severity of psoriasis (P< 0.001). In contrast, there was no significant correlation detected between IL-21 levels and the severity of psoriasis. Additionally, no significant correlation was observed between NLRP3 and IL-21 levels. Conclusions: NLRP3 could be a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in psoriasis diagnosis with 92.5% sensitivity and 90% specificity and a promising therapeutic target. Additional studies are warranted to examine the exact contribution of IL-21 to the pathogenesis of psoriasis.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics