title: Pentraxin 3: an immune modulator of infection and useful marker for disease severity assessment in sepsis.
abstract: The acute phase protein pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a pattern recognition receptor involved in regulation of the host immune response. This relatively newly discovered member of the pentraxin superfamily elicits both immunostimulatory and immunoregulatory functions preventing autoimmune pathology and orchestrated clearance of pathogens through opsonization of damage- and pathogen-associated molecular patterns (DAMP/PAMP). Thus, PTX3 has been described as a possible evolutionary precursor to immunoglobulins. While shown to provide protection against specific bacterial and fungal pathogens, persistent elevation of PTX3 levels following initial onset of infection appear to predict poor patient outcome and may contribute to disease sequelae such as tissue damage and coagulopathy. Measurement of PTX3 following onset of sepsis may improve patient risk assessment and thus be useful in guiding subsequent therapeutic interventions including steroidal anti-inflammatory and altered antibiotic therapies. In this review, we summarize the role of PTX3 in inflammatory syndromes and its utility as a marker of sepsis disease severity.
authors.affiliation: a Blood and Coagulation Program , United States Army Institute of Surgical Research , JBSA-Fort Sam Houston , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ketter
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biology , University of Texas at San Antonio , San Antonio , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Jieh-Juen
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: a Blood and Coagulation Program , United States Army Institute of Surgical Research , JBSA-Fort Sam Houston , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Cap
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biology , University of Texas at San Antonio , San Antonio , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Forsthuber
authors.affiliation: b Department of Biology , University of Texas at San Antonio , San Antonio , TX , USA.
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arulanandam
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component / Q000032:analysis*; D000099153:Pentraxins
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D000683:Serum Amyloid P-Component; D000099153:Pentraxins
keywords: PTX3; Pentraxin 3; coagulopathy; diagnostic markers; inflammation; pattern recognition receptor; regulation; sepsis