The discriminative capacity of soluble Toll-like receptor (sTLR)2 and sTLR4 in inflammatory diseases

Abstract

BackgroundThe extracellular domains of cytokine receptors are released during inflammation, but little is known about the shedding of Toll-like receptors (TLR) and whether they can be used as diagnostic biomarkers.MethodsThe release of sTLR2 and sTLR4 was studied in in-vitro stimulations, as well as in-vivo during experimental human endotoxemia (n inverted question mark= inverted question mark11, 2 ng/kg LPS), and in plasma of 394 patients with infections (infectious mononucleosis, measles, respiratory tract infections, bacterial sepsis and candidemia) or non-infectious inflammation (Crohn inverted question marks disease, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, autoinflammatory syndromes and pancreatitis). Using C-statistics, the value of sTLR2 and sTLR4 levels for discrimination between infections and non-infectious inflammatory diseases, as well as between viral and bacterial infections was analyzed.ResultsIn-vitro, peripheral blood mononuclear cells released sTLR2 and sTLR4 by exposure to microbial ligands. During experimental human endotoxemia, plasma concentrations peaked after 2 hours (sTLR4) and 4 hours (sTLR2). sTLR4 did not correlate with cytokines, but sTLR2 correlated positively with TNF inverted question mark (rs inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.80, P inverted question mark< inverted question mark0.05), IL-6 (rs inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.65, P inverted question mark< inverted question mark0.05), and IL-1Ra (rs inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.57, P inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.06), and negatively with IL-10 (rs inverted question mark= inverted question mark-0.58, P inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.06), respectively. sTLR4 had a similar area under the ROC curve [AUC] for differentiating infectious and non-infectious inflammation compared to CRP: 0.72 (95% CI 0.66-0.79) versus 0.74 (95% CI 0.69-0.80) [P inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.80], while sTLR2 had a lower AUC: 0.60 (95% CI 0.54-0.66) [P inverted question mark= inverted question mark0.0004]. CRP differentiated bacterial infections better from viral infections than sTLR2 and sTLR4: AUC 0.94 (95% CI 0.90-0.96) versus 0.58 (95% CI 0.51-0.64) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.70-0.80), respectively [P inverted question mark< inverted question mark0.0001 for both].ConclusionssTLRs are released into the circulation, and suggest the possibility to use sTLRs as diagnostic tool in inflammatory conditions.