Soluble CD24 is an inflammatory biomarker in early and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis

Xi Zheng; Ping Wang; Jing Song; Yundi Tang; Yang Xie; Xu Jin; Danxue Zhu; Xiangyu Fang; Chaonan Wei; Ru Li; Fanlei Hu; Zhanguo Li

doi:10.1080/07853890.2023.2246370

Soluble CD24 is an inflammatory biomarker in early and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis

Ann Med. 2023;55(2):2246370. doi: 10.1080/07853890.2023.2246370.

Authors

Xi Zheng^{1

2}, Ping Wang¹, Jing Song^{1

2}, Yundi Tang¹, Yang Xie¹, Xu Jin^{1

2}, Danxue Zhu^{1

2}, Xiangyu Fang¹, Chaonan Wei¹, Ru Li¹, Fanlei Hu^{1

3

4}, Zhanguo Li^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Peking University People's Hospital & Beijing Key Laboratory for Rheumatism Mechanism and Immune Diagnosis, Beijing, China.
² Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease characterized by autoantibody production, joint inflammation and bone destruction. Nearly 1/3 of RA patients with the active disease also exhibit a normal range of ESR and CRP. Here we assessed the performance and clinical significance of soluble CD24 (sCD24) as a biomarker of disease activity in RA.Methods: A total of 269 RA patients, 59 primary Sjogren's syndrome (SS) patients, 81 systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, 76 osteoarthritis (OA) patients and 97 healthy individuals (HC) were included in this study. Soluble CD24 in sera were detected by ELISA. Therefore, the concentration of sCD24 was analyzed in RA patients with different disease activity statuses.Results: The sCD24 was significantly increased in RA (2970 pg/mL), compared to other rheumatic diseases (380-520 pg/mL) and healthy individuals (320 pg/mL). Moreover, sCD24 was elevated in 66.67% of early RA and 61.11% of seronegative RA patients. In addition, sCD24 was significantly correlated with the disease duration and inflammatory indicators.Conclusion: The sCD24 could be an inflammatory biomarker in RA patients, especially in early and seronegative patients.

Keywords: Soluble CD24; disease activity; rheumatoid arthritis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Arthritis, Rheumatoid* / diagnosis
Biomarkers
CD24 Antigen
Clinical Relevance
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Humans
Rheumatic Diseases*

Substances

Biomarkers
CD24 protein, human
CD24 Antigen

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82171773, 81971523, and 81671604 to Dr. F. Hu, U1903210 and 32141004 to Dr. Z. Li) and the Beijing Nova Program (Z181100006218044 and Z211100002121163 to Dr. F. Hu), as well as by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities: Peking University Clinical Medicine Plus X-Young Scholars Project (PKU2021LCXQ014 to Dr. F. Hu) and the Peking University People’s Hospital Research and Development Funds (RZ2022-01 to Dr. F. Hu). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.