Evaluation of plasma CD36 and glutathione as potential biomarkers for intracranial aneurysm.

Abstract

The underlying mechanisms of intracranial aneurysm (IA) formation and rupture are still unclear. Evidence has proved that it might be closely related to inflammatory response and oxidative stress. Our objective was to identify novel inflammatory and oxidative stress related biomarkers to assist IA management. In this study, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to measure the expression levels of CD36 and glutathione (GSH) in the plasma of 30 IA patients and 30 healthy controls. Then, correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and logistic regression analysis were applied to investigate CD36 and GSH as potential biomarker for IA. The expression level of plasma CD36 in the IA patients was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.0001), and the level of plasma GSH in the IA patients was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.0001). The plasma level of CD36 and GSH did not show significant correlation with age, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Hunter-Hess score, aneurysm size, aneurysm height, aneurysm neck, and aspect ratio. ROC analysis showed that CD36 and GSH had high sensitivity (90.0%, 96.6%) and specificity (96.6%, 86.6%) for IA diagnosis. And the combined sensitivity and specificity achieved 100% and 100%, respectively. The AUC of logistic regression model based on CD36 and GSH was 0.505. Our results suggested that CD36 and GSH might participate in the process of IA formation and rupture but did not affect its morphology. Moreover, the combination plasma CD36 and GSH could serve as potential biomarker for IA rupture.