Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
addClaim

Peripheral whole blood FOXP3 TSDR methylation: a potential marker in severity assessment of autoimmune diseases and chronic infections

Authors: Lu, Q; Zhao, M; Liu, Y; Yung, SSY; Chan, DTM; Ngalamika, O; Liang, G; +3 Authors

Peripheral whole blood FOXP3 TSDR methylation: a potential marker in severity assessment of autoimmune diseases and chronic infections

Abstract

Immune dysregulation is a cardinal feature of autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections. In particular, regulatory T cells are downregulated in autoimmune diseases while upregulated in chronic microbial infections. FOXP3 is the master regulator of Treg development. Treg-specific demethylated region (TSDR) is a highly conserved locus on the FOXP3 gene that is fully demethylated in natural Tregs but methylated in effector T cells. In our study, we used high resolution melt-polymerase chain reaction (HRM-PCR) to determine the FOXP3 TSDR methylation status in autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections. We found that FOXP3 TSDR to have the highest mean melting temperature (highly methylated) in active SLE patients compared to all the other groups (p < 0.001). The psoriasis group also had a significantly high mean melting temperature (78.62 ± 0.20) when compared with the inactive SLE group (78.49 ± 0.29, p < 0.05) and control group (78.44 ± 0.25, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in melting temperature between inactive SLE and healthy controls. Disease activity in SLE was directly associated with methylation of the FOXP3 TSDR. On the other hand, patients with chronic microbial infections had significantly lower FOXP3 TSDR mean melting temperature (demethylated) when compared with healthy controls (78.28 ± 0.21 vs 78.44 ± 0.25, p < 0.05). Our results suggest that the use of HRM-PCR to detect FOXP3 TSDR methylation status is a reliable and easy method to predict natural regulatory T cell levels in peripheral blood in different disease conditions. Determining FOXP3 TSDR methylation status can be a useful tool in diagnosis, and monitoring the severity of autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections.

Country
China (People's Republic of)
Related Organizations
Keywords

Adult, Forkhead Transcription Factors, DNA Methylation, Middle Aged, Infections, Severity of Illness Index, T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory, Autoimmune Diseases, Young Adult, Chronic Disease, Humans, Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic, CpG Islands, Female, Biomarkers

  • BIP!
    Impact byBIP!
    selected citations
    These citations are derived from selected sources.
    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    50
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Top 10%
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Top 10%
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Top 10%
Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
50
Top 10%
Top 10%
Top 10%
Upload OA version
Are you the author of this publication? Upload your Open Access version to Zenodo!
It’s fast and easy, just two clicks!