Open Access

ARTICLE

Predominance of Th2 cytokines, CXC chemokines and innate immunity mediators at the mucosal level during severe respiratory syncytial virus infection in children

Jesus F. Bermejo-Martin¹, Maria C. Garcia-Arevalo¹, Raul Ortiz De Lejarazu², Julio Ardura³, Jose M. Eiros², Ana Alonso³, Vanesa Matías³, Maria Pino³, David Bernardo¹, Eduardo Arranz¹, Alfredo Blanco-Quiros¹

1 Lab. de Inmunología de Mucosas, Dept. of Pediatrics and Immunology. Universidad de Valladolid, Facultad de Medicina, Ramón y Cajal 7, Valladolid 47005, Spain. Jesus F. Bermejo-Martin and Maria C. Garcia-Arevalo contributed equally to the development of this work.
2 Hospital Clínico, Microbiología, Valladolid, Spain
3 Hospital Clínico, Pediatría, Valladolid, Spain

European Cytokine Network 2007, 18(3), 162-167. https://doi.org/10.1684/ecn.2007.0096

Accepted 18 August 2007;

Abstract

Profiling of immune mediators in both nasal and plasma samples is a common approach to the study of pathogenesis in respiratory viral infections. Nevertheless, mucosal immunity functions essentially independently from peripheral immunity. In our study, 27 immune mediators were profiled in parallel, in nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPAs) and plasma from 22 < 2 year-old children with a severe respiratory syncytial virus infection involving the lower respiratory tract, using a multiplex assay. NPAs from 22 children with innocent heart murmurs were used as controls. Differences in mediator concentrations between NPAs from patients and controls were assessed using the Mann-Whitney test. Ratios of innate/adaptive-immunity mediators, Th2/Th1- cytokines and CXC/CC-chemokines were calculated for NPAs and plasmas and differences were assessed using the Wilcoxon test. Associations mediators, severity and leukocyte counts were studied using the Spearman-Karber test. Results: increased levels of Th1 cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-12p70, IFNγ, TNFα), Th2 cytokines (IL-13, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10), chemokines (IP-10, IL-8, MIP1a, MIP-1β), growth factors (FGFα, PDGFbb, GCSF) and IL-1RA, IL-17 were observed in patient NPAs in comparison to controls. In the relative comparisons between patient NPAs and plasmas, a predominance of innate immunity mediators, Th2 cytokines and CXC chemokines was found at the mucosal level. No association between the level of each mediator in NPAs and plasma was found. In plasma, PDGFbb, VEGF, MIP-1α, IL-8 correlated with severity; RANTES and IL-6 correlated with leukocyte counts. Conclusions: acute respiratory syncytial virus infection induces a relative predominance of innate-immunity mediators, Th2 cytokines and CXC chemokines in the mucosal compartment in infected children.

---

Keywords

---