Correlation Between B-Cell Activating Factor of the Tumor Necrosis Factor Family Level in Serum and Immune Inflammation in Patients with Neuropsychiatric Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and its Clinical Value

ABSTRACT

Objective

Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is a form of SLE associated with severe NP syndromes causing mortality and morbidity. Respecting the fundamental of BAFF in NPSLE pathophysiology, we investigated its clinical value.

Methods

Totally 105 NPSLE and 101 SLE cases without NPSLE (non-NPSLE, control) were included. Serum BAFF/TNF-α/IL-6/IL-10 levels were measured using ELISA kits. T lymphocytes were detected by flow cytometry. The independent influencing factors for NPSLE, and the auxiliary diagnostic efficacy and the ability of BAFF levels to predict adverse prognosis of NPSLE patients were analyzed by multiple factor logistic regression, and ROC curve and survival curve.

Results

In NPSLE patients, serum BAFF level was increased and positively correlated with SLEDAI-2k, serum proinflammatory cytokines, while negatively correlated with CD4+T/CD8+T cells, and anti-inflammatory cytokine. High serum BAFF protein level was associated with a higher risk of developing NPSLE. The AUC of serum BAFF > 301.7 assisting in NPSLE diagnosis was 0.8196. Furthermore, high levels of serum BAFF were associated with a higher risk of adverse outcomes in NPSLE patients.          

Conclusion

Serum BAFF level in NPSLE patients was correlated with lymphocytes and high serum BAFF protein level could assist in diagnosis and to predict adverse outcomes in NPSLE patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus
• serum
• B-cell activating factor of the tumor necrosis factor family
• immunization
• lymphocytes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

JP, YL contributed to the study concepts, study design; JL contributed to the literature research; JP, RT, JL, FW contributed to the experimental studies and data acquisition; JP, YL, HX contributed to the data analysis and statistical analysis; JP, YL contributed to the manuscript preparation and JP contributed to the manuscript editing and review; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this article. Further enquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

The study was authorized by the academic ethics committee of Cangzhou Central Hospital. All procedures were strictly implemented according to Declaration of Helsinki. All subjects involved were fully informed of the study objective and signed the informed consent before sampling.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08820139.2024.2309567

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by grants from the Medical Science Research Project of Hebei Province [20200323].