Analysis of the plasma concentration of interleukin-37 in patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction: a case-control study

Abstract

Acute Myocardial Infarction(AMI) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. The regulation of several pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines plays a crucial role during myocardial infarction. Interleukin-37 is one such anti-inflammatory cytokine. This case-control study aimed to investigate the concentration of plasma IL-37 between patients suffering from AMI compared with control groups. This study included 40 AMI patients ( STEMI=20 and NSTEMI=20) as the case group and 20 healthy individuals as the control group. Along with demographic and clinical information, Lipid profile tests, Troponin I, and CRP tests were performed from subjects' blood samples. Plasma was isolated to perform an ELISA test for measuring the concentration of IL-37, and clinical experimental data were analyzed statistically. Positive correlation was found between CRP level and IL-37 concentration in the case group (rho=0.3), clearly suggesting anti-inflammatory activity elevated in AMI patients as the disease progressed. However, there was no statistical significance(P=0.87>0.05) in the case of comparing the concentration of IL-37 between the case and control groups. CRP and Troponin I values were very high in the case group compared with the control group, indicating the continuous inflammation in the case subjects and inducing the activity of IL-37. Based on the correlation between IL-37 concentration and CRP value found in the subject group of this study, further large-scale research can pave the way to assess the anti-inflammatory role of IL-37 and its potential use as a biomarker and therapeutic agent that can help the clinician to manage cardiovascular diseases efficiently.