Evaluation of the immune checkpoint factors in patients with Behcet's syndrome compared to healthy controls

Abstract

Behçet's syndrome (BS) is a chronic inflammatory immune disease that affects multiple organs. The main clinical symptom is recurrent canker sores. Ocular inflammation, rheumatology, gastrointestinal and skin involvement may be present, and neurological symptoms and vascular complications may result in a significant level of morbidity. Its etiology is not yet fully understood. Pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin IL-1, IL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor α are increased in BS patients and are closely related to clinical symptoms and disease activity in BS. According to the explanations given, the purpose of this project is to investigate the level of immune system checkpoint factors in patients with Behçet's syndrome compared to healthy people.

Materials and methods:

Written and informed consent was obtained from patients with Behçet's syndrome and healthy individuals who are the control group. Then blood samples will be taken from these people in the number of 30 people in each group. In the next step, the peripheral blood mononuclear cells are separated using Ficoll. To measure gene expression, after extracting mRNA from cDNA, PBMC is made and the expression of CTLA-4, PD-1, LAG-3, TIM-3 markers is measured by Real Time-PCR technique. To measure the expression level Western blotting technique is used for CTLA-4, PD-1, LAG-3, TIM-3 proteins.

Results: The results of the study showed that the gene and protein expression levels of anti-inflammatory immune factors TIM-3, LAG3, PD-1 and CTLA-4 in Behcet's patients had a significant decrease compared to the real samples of healthy individuals.