Elevated Serum IL-17A but not IL-6 in Glioma Versus Meningioma and Schwannoma

Abstract

Background: There is a Th1/Th2 cytokine imbalance and expression of IL-17 in patients with brain tumours. We aimed to compare the levels of IL-17A and IL-6 in sera of glioma, meningioma and schwannoma patients as well as in healthy individuals. Materials and Methods: IL-17A and IL-6 levels were measured in sera of 38 glioma, 24 meningioma and 18 schwannoma patients for comparison with 26 healthy controls by commercial ELISA assays. Results: We observed an increase in the IL-17A in 30% of glioma patients while only 4% and 5.5% of meningioma and schwannoma patients and none of the healthy controls showed elevated IL-17A in their sera (0.29±0.54, 0.03±0.15 and 0.16±0.68 vs. 0.00±0.00pg/ml; p=0.01, p=0.01 and p=0.001, respectively). There was also a significant decrease in the level of IL-6 in glioma patients compared to healthy controls (2.34±4.35 vs. 4.67±4.32pg/ml; p=0.01). There was a direct correlation between the level of IL-17A and age in glioma patients (p=0.005). Glioma patients over 30 years of age had higher IL-17A and lower IL-6 in their sera compared to the young patients. In addition, a non-significant grade-specific inverse trend between IL-17A and IL-6 was observed in glioma patients, where high-grade gliomas had higher IL-17A and lower IL-6. Conclusions: Our data suggest a Th17 mediated inflammatory response in the pathogenesis of glioma. Moreover, tuning of IL-6 and IL-17A inflammatory cytokines occurs during progression of glioma. IL-17A may be a potential biomarker and/or immunotherapeutic target in glioma cases.

Th17 Cells in Autoimmune and Infectious Diseases

“…Moreover, Th17-related cytokines are expressed in glioma tissues, suggesting the role of these cells in glioma tumorigenesis and progression [47, 48]. Furthermore, the serum levels of IL-17 correlate with the disease, with age [49], and with the medium conditions of glioma cells that induce Th17 cell differentiation [47], thus supporting the role of Th17 cells in glioma.…”

IL-17A is elevated in sera of patients with poorly differentiated ovarian papillary serous cystadenocarcinoma

“…In our hands and by testing more than 279 healthy individuals of different ages and genders, IL-17A is not elevated in general population [Supplementary Fig. 1 [40,41]. However, it remains to be identified if IL-17A increases in the sera of patients with non-malignant ovarian conditions.…”

Association between the Interleukin-17A -197G>A (rs2275913) Polymorphism and Risk of Digestive Cancer

“…IL-17A is produced by a novel lineage of CD4+CD8+ T helper cells, namely TH17 cells (Moseley et al, 2003;Harrington et al, 2005;Bettelli et al, 2006), participating in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Several researches have found that high expression of IL-17A was associated with various tumor tissues, including gastric cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma, colorectal cancer and glioma (Kato et al, 2001;Alexandrakis et al, 2006;Zhang et al, 2008;Zhu et al, 2008;Doroudchi et al, 2013;Straus, 2013). IL-17A plays a pro-inflammatory role by recruiting neutrophils and inducing other inflammatory molecules, such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) or tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (Moseley et al, 2003;Kolls and Linden, 2004).…”