Cytokines and chemokines in respiratory secretion and severity of disease in infants with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection.
BACKGROUND
little is known about inflammatory mediators (IM); like cytokines, chemokines and receptors; in respiratory secretion as possible indicators of the severity of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease. Nor have systematic studies been published on the ratios between IM as such indicators.


OBJECTIVE
to define the role of IM ratios as possible indicators of the severity of RSV disease.


METHODS
about 46 infants aged 0-9 months with acute RSV infections were studied. Prematurity (PM) and/or underlying disease (UD) were present in 11 of them. The concentrations of seven different IM were measured by ELISA in samples of nasopharyngeal secretions (NPS), four cytokines; IL-1, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-alpha; the cytokine receptor TNF-R1 and the chemokines; IL-8 and RANTES. 21 IM ratios were calculated from these concentrations. The patients were assigned a clinical score (CS) ranging from 0 to 3 according to the severity of disease.


RESULTS
when 25 patients with severe disease (CS 2-3) and 21 patients with mild disease (CS 0-1) were compared with respect to different IM ratios, three ratios were related to severity of disease: IL-1/RANTES, IL-8/RANTES and TNF-R1/RANTES. When 12 patients with mild disease were compared with 16 patients with severe disease, omitting patients more than 5 months of age and patients with PM and/or UD, the following IM ratios were related to severity of disease: TNF-R1/RANTES, IL-8/RANTES and RANTES/IL-10.


CONCLUSIONS
of 21 IM ratios studied, TNF-R1/RANTES was related to severity of disease with greatest consistency.
Hornsleth
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A
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. a.hornsleth@immi.ku.dk
Loland
L
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Larsen
L B
LB
D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism; D018946:Chemokine CCL5 / Q000378:metabolism; D018925:Chemokines / Q000378:metabolism*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D007378:Interleukins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000378:metabolism*; D018124:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D047888:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor, Type I; D018357:Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D015703:Antigens, CD; D018946:Chemokine CCL5; D018925:Chemokines; D016207:Cytokines; D007378:Interleukins; D018124:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor; D047888:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor, Type I