Biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress in smokers and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Abstract

Identification of biomarkers for the novel therapeutics targets of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important area of current research. In this study, the level of inflammatory cytokines was investigated and correlated these levels with erythrocytic antioxidant activities in COPD patients with smokers and without smokers and parameters of severity. Material and Methods: Plasma levels of Interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and IL-10 concentrations were assayed by means of Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and erythrocytic glutathione-stransferase (GST) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities were estimated by spectrophotometric method. Results: Both IL-6 and IL-8 plasma levels showed a statistically significantly higher in COPD patients as compared to healthy controls (p<0.001; p<0.05). In contrast, the IL-10 was lower in COPD patients as compared to control group (p<0.05). FEV1 was significantly negatively correlated with plasma IL-6 (r= -0.565, p< 0.001) and IL-8 (r= -0.453, p <0.05). Plasma IL-6 was found negative association with erythrocytic GST (r= -0.018, p>0.05) and GPx activities (r= -0.080, p>0.05). Similarly IL-8 was also found negative association with GST (r= -0.260, p>0.05) and GPx activities (r= -0.268, p>0.05). Whereas, a significant positive association was observed between IL-10 and erythrocytic GST (r= 0.494, p <0.05) and GPx activities (r= 0.546, p < 0.001). Conclusion:In conclusion, Plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8 are related with severity of COPD and IL-10 and oxidative stress markers GST and GPx are co-dependent and strongly interrelated processes and may be used as a potential marker for the evaluation of COPD.