Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Teknologi MARA
  • 2 Universiti Putra Malaysia
  • 3 Ministry of Health Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a re-emerging zoonotic disease caused by Leptospira bacteria. The clinical manifes-tations of leptospirosis include mild-fever to a severe or even fatal. Increased levels of inflammatory cytokines pro-duced in response to the Leptospira infection by the host immune system were hypothesized as among the causes of severity in leptospirosis. Besides the classical presentation with the triad of febrile, jaundice, and renal failure, patients with leptospirosis also can pose with predominant sign and symptoms of pulmonary involvement. This study aimed to compare the levels of TNF-α, IL-1b, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17A, IL-18, and IL-22 In the plasma of samples of leptospirosis patients with and without pneumonia. Methods: Circulating cytokine levels in plasma were measured in seventeen patients hospitalized and diagnosed with leptospirosis in Malaysia (January 2016 – December 2017) and nineteen healthy individuals as controls. Patients were categorized into leptospirosis without pneumonia (n=12) and with pneumonia (n=5). Cytokine was measured using SimplePlexTM assays (San Jose, CA, USA). Measurement was performed in triplicate and statistical analysis was conducted using Graphpad® Prism v6 (San Diego, CA, USA). Results: Elevation of plasma TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-18, and IL-22 levels were observed among leptospirosis patients with pneumonia compared to without, although no statistical differences were observed between these two groups. Conclusion: There are no significant differences observed between the levels of plasma TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-18, and IL-22 in patients with pneumonia compared to without.