Association of peripheral blood MCP-1 and NLRP3 mRNA expression with clinical outcomes in pulmonary tuberculosis
REN Hong
QI Junping
Abstract：Objective To observe the levels of peripheral blood monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1)and nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain-containing receptor 3(NLRP3)mRNA in pulmonary tuberculosis(PTB)patients and analyze their relationship with patient prognosis.Methods Seventy-one patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and 31 patients with inactive pulmonary tuberculosis were selected from Lanzhou Pulmonary Hospital from January 2021 to January 2024.The general clinical data of patients and prognosis status at 2 months after treatment were collected.Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR)was used to detect peripheral blood MCP-1 mRNA and NLRP3 mRNA levels.These levels were compared among patients with different disease severities,in active PTB patients before and after treatment,and among patients with different prognoses.The correlation between MCP-1/NLRP3 mRNA levels and PTB severity,as well as their predictive value for PTB prognosis,were analyzed.Results The mRNA expression levels of MCP-1 and NLRP3 in peripheral blood were significantly higher in active PTB patients compared to inactive PTB patients(MCP-1 mRNA:1.90±0.60 vs.1.22±0.15,t=8.932,P<0.001;NLRP3 mRNA:3.01±0.98 vs.1.28±0.21,t=9.706,P<0.001).Levels were significantly higher in severe active PTB patients compared to mild-moderate active PTB patients[MCP-1 mRNA:2.77±0.46 vs.1.69±0.40,t=8.788,P<0.001;NLRP3 mRNA:4.34±1.06 vs.2.99±0.60,t=4.588,P<0.001).and the expression levels of these two indicators were positively correlated with severity of PTB(MCP-1 mRNA:r=0.625,NLRP3:r=0.569,P<0.05).The expression levels of peripheral blood MCP-1 mRNA and NLRP3 mRNA in patients with active PTB were downregulated after treatment compared to before treatment(MCP-1 mRNA:1.52±0.53 vs.1.90±0.60,t=5.667,P<0.001;NLRP3 mRNA:1.55±0.48 vs.3.26±0.89,t=21.034,P<0.001).At 2 months after treatment,47 patients with active PTB had good prognosis and 24 patients had poor prognosis.Compared with patients with good prognosis,the mRNA expression levels of MCP-1 and NLRP3 in peripheral blood of patients with poor prognosis were increased(MCP-1 mRNA:1.66±0.46 vs.2.40±0.54,t=6.096,P<0.001;NLRP3 mRNA:2.74±0.82 vs.3.56±1.06,t=3.599,P<0.001).The areas under the curve(AUC)for predicting PTB prognosis were 0.867 for MCP-1 mRNA and 0.756 for NLRP3 mRNA in peripheral blood.and the AUC of combination of two indicators was 0.876(P<0.001).Conclusions Excluding other pulmonary infections,active PTB patients exhibit elevated levels of MCP-1 and NLRP3 mRNA expression in peripheral blood,which are positively correlated with the severity of the disease.These levels are significantly downregulated after standard treatment,and the combination of both markers enhances the predictive value for the prognosis of PTB patients.
Keywords：pulmonary tuberculosismonocyte chemoattractant protein-1nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain-containing receptor 3gene exprssionprognosis
Publication Date：2025-10-28
Online Publishing Date：2025-11-24(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 345-349 )