Increased serum levels of IL‐33 and soluble ST2 in neonates with human cytomegalovirus infection

Abstract

Interleukin 33 (IL-33) and soluble form of ST2 (sST2) are involved in inflammation. This study aimed to assess the role of serum IL-33 and sST2 in neonates with HCMV infection. The concentration of serum IL-33 and sST2 in 20 patients and 16 healthy controls were measure by enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA). The clinical and laboratory data were described. Our results showed serum sST2 and IL-33 levels were significantly higher in the HCMV group than the control group. Significant positive correlation was observed between sST2 and IL-33 (r = 0.518, P = 0.001). Furthermore, there was a positive, moderate, and statistically significant correlation between sST2 and ALT levels in the control and HCMV groups (r = 0.579, P = 0.007; r = 0.66, P = 0.005, respectively). The AUC of sST2 and IL-33 was found to be 0.822 and 0.867 respectively. Further, at a cut-off value of 1823.4 ng/mL, sST2 gave 65% sensitivity and 93.7% specificity. Similarly, IL-33 gave 95% sensitivity and 68.7% specificity at a cut-off value 2.04 pg/mL. The Youden index of sST2 and IL-33 was found to be 0.587 and 0.637, respectively. In conclusion, this study revealed that sST2 and IL-33 have great potential to be used as biomarkers for early screening and indicate liver damage for HCMV patients in future after validation in large cohort study.