Expression of AIM2 inflammasome signaling pathway in primary EBV infection in children and its correlation with liver injury
JIN Longteng, SUN Yan, HUANG Jihong, WEN Zhengwang, SHI Haifan, CHEN Yiping.
Department of Childhood Infectious Diseases, the Second Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China
JIN Longteng,SUN Yan,HUANG Jihong, et al. Expression of AIM2 inflammasome signaling pathway in primary EBV infection in children and its correlation with liver injury[J]. JOURNAL OF WEZHOU MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, 2022, 52(3): 205-209.
Abstract：Objective: To explore the expression of absent in melanoma 2(AIM2) inflammatory signaling pathway in children with primary Epstein-Bark virus (EBV) infection and its correlation with liver injury. Methods: A total of 82 children with positive EB-VCA IgM and EBV-DNA from January 2020 to June 2021 were enrolled as primary EBV infection group, among whom 52 had liver injury and 30 had no liver injury; 50 healthy children with positive EBV-IgG (EB-VCA-IgG, EB-NA-IgG) and negative EB-VCA-IgM as previous EBV infection group and 50 healthy children with negative EBV-IgG/EBV-VCA IgM as the healthy control group.Real-time PCR was used to measure the mRNA expression of AIM2 inflammasome (AIM2, ASC and caspase-1) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The serum interleuk in (IL)-1β, IL-18 level was detected by ELISA.Results: Compared with previous EBV infection group and the control group, primary EBV infection group had significantly higher relative mRNA expression level of AIM2, ASC, and caspase-1 in PBMCs and serum level of IL-1β and IL-18 (P<0.05). The level of AIM2, ASC, caspase-1 mRNA in PBMCs and serum level of IL-1β, IL-18 were positively correlated with the virus load in serum (r=0.712, 0.494, 0.479, 0.384, 0.300, P<0.05). Compared with the control group, both liver injury group and no liver injury group had significantly higher relative mRNA expression level of AIM2, ASC, and caspase-1 in PBMCs and serum level of IL-1β and IL-18 (P<0.05). The liver injury group had significantly higher level of above-mentioned parameters than the no liver injury group (P<0.05).The relative expression level of AIM2 was positively correlated with the relative mRNA expression level of ASC and caspase-1 and the serum level of IL-1β and IL-18 (r=0.718, 0.729, 0.548, 0.529, P<0.05). Conclusion:The AIM2 inflammasome signaling pathway might be involved in the pathogenesis of primary EBV infection in children and is associated with the EBV hepatitis.
