Detection of IL-27 in Patients with Visceral leishmaniasis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32792/utq/utjsci/v12i1.1356Keywords:
Visceral leishmaniasis, IL-27, ELISA, biomarker, Iraq,Kala azar disease.Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by the protozoan parasites of the Leishmania donovani complex, remains one of the most significant neglected tropical diseases. Immune response mechanisms play a critical role in both resistance and pathogenesis of VL This study included 32 VL patients (19 females, 13 males, 2 months to 5 years old) and 30 healthy controls (1 month to 11 years old). Blood samples were obtained from the Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL). The serum was isolated by centrifuging blood samples at 1000g for 5 minutes. Human IL-27 levels were quantified using an ELISA kit (Elabscience Biotechnology Inc., USA; catalog No. E-EL-H2338) following the manufacturer's protocol. This study found significantly higher IL-27 levels in visceral leishmaniasis patients (54.120 pg/ml) compared to the control group (28.745 pg/ml). was a significant between the median levels of IL-27 in patients and the control group, where the p
IL-27 plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of visceral leishmaniasis. Its potential as a biomarker for active disease and for monitoring treatment response warrants further investigation, irrespective of the causative agent or geographic location.
Received: 2025-02-22
Revised: 2025-04-21
Accepted: 2025-05-05
References
C.E. Coles ,PC. Cosgrove and G. Robinson ʺA preliminary report of an outbreak of Kala-azar in a battalion of the King African Rifles" Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. , 36: 34–5,1992.
H.L.Al-Hayali , M.Al-Kattan" Overview on epidemiology of leishmaniasis in Iraqʺ Rafidain J Sci. ,30(1):28–37,2021.
G.W.Jones ,DG Hill ,A. Cardus and SA. Jones " IL-27" a double agent in the IL-6 familyʺ Clin Exp Immunol. ,193:37–46, 2018.
Q.Wang and J. Liuʺ Regulation and immune function of IL-27. In: Ma X, editor. ʺRegulation of Cytokine Gene Expression in Immunity and Diseases" Dordrecht: Springer; 2016. p. 191–211.
R.Maurya ,R. Kumar ,VK Prajapati ,KD Manandhar , D.Sacks ,S. Sundar and S. Nylén "Human visceral leishmaniasis is not associated with expansion or accumulation of Foxp3+ CD4 cells in blood or spleenʺ Parasite Immuno ,32(7):479-83,2010 .
B. Pérez-Cabezas, P. Cecílio, A. L. Robalo , R. Silvestre, E. Carrillo, J. Moreno, et al. ʺInterleukin-27 early impacts Leishmania infantum infection in mice and correlates with active visceral disease in humans" Front Immunol. ,7:478. 2016.
A. Jafarzadeh, M. Nemati, P. Chauhan , A. Patidar, A.Sarkar, I..Sharifi and B. Saha " Interleukin-27 Functional Duality Balances Leishmania Infectivity and Pathogenesisʺ Front Immunol. ,7;11:1573,2020.
GM.Konjević ,AM. Vuletić ,KMM Martinović ,AK Larsen and VB. Jurišić .ʺ The role of cytokines in the regulation of NK cells in the tumor environment" Cytokine,117:30–40, 2019 .
CA.Hunter ." New IL-12-family members: IL-23 and IL-27, cytokines with divergent functions Nat Rev Immunol., 5:521–31,2005.
J. P. Li , H Wu, W Xing, S G Yang, S H Lu, W T Du, et.al ʺ Interleukin-27 as a negative regulator of human neutrophil function" Scand J Immunol. ,72(4):284-92 ,2010 .
C. Garbers, B. Spudy, S. Aparicio-Siegmund,H. Georg H Waetzig, J. Sommer, C. Hölscher, et.al "An Interleukin-6 Receptor-dependent Molecular Switch Mediates Signal Transduction of the IL-27 Cytokine Subunit p28 (IL-30) via a gp130 Protein Receptor Homodimerʺ. J Biol Chem. Dec 3;288(6):4346–4354,2012.
P.Cecilio ,B. Perez-Cabezas ,N. Santarem , J.Maciel , V.Rodrigues V, Cordeiro da Silva A. ʺDeception and manipulation: the arms of Leishmania, a successful parasite" Front Immunol. ,5:480 ,2014.
E. E. Zijlstra, N S Daifalla, P A Kager , E A G Khalil, A M El-Hassan, S G Reed, H W Ghalib" rK39 Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosis of Leishmania donovani Infectionʺ Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. Sep;5(5):717–720,1998.
M. Carmen Arroyo Sanchez , B. Julieta Celeste, J. Angelo Lauletta Lindoso, M. Fujimori, R. Pacheco de Almeida , C. Magno Castelo Branco Fortaleza et al. "Performance of rK39-based immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic test for serodiagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis using whole blood, serum and oral fluid" PLoS One, Apr 2;15(4):e0230610. 2020.
D. Ozerdem , F. Eroglu, A.Genc, M. Demirkazik, I. Soner Koltas "Comparison of microscopic examination, rK39, and PCR for visceral leishmaniasis diagnosis in Turkeyʺ Parasitol Res, Dec;106(1):197-200,2009.
S. Sundar , M. Rai ʺ Laboratory Diagnosis of Visceral Leishmaniasis" Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. , Sep;9(5):951–958, 2002.
B. Pérez-Cabezas, P. Cecílio, A. Luisa Robalo, R.Silvestre, E. Carrillo, J. Moreno, J.V. San Martín, et al. "Interleukin-27 early impacts Leishmania infantum infection in mice and correlates with active visceral disease in humansʺ Front immunol. , 7:478,2016.
S. Aparicio-Siegmund , Garbers C. ʺThe biology of interleukin-27 reveals unique pro- and anti-inflammatory functions in immunity" Cytokine Growth Factor Rev , 26(5):579–86,2015 .
A.Maroof ,PM. Kaye." Temporal regulation of interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70) and IL-12-related cytokines in splenic dendritic cell subsets during Leishmania donovani infectionʺ Infect Immun, Jan;76(1):239-49. 2008.
A. NInfect,A. Immun,R. Kumar ,S. Gautam , S.Nylén , OP.Singh ,S. Sundar S, et al. ʺIL-27 and IL-21 are associated with T cell IL-10 responses in human visceral leishmaniasis" J Immunol. ,186:3977–85,2011.
C.Zhu ,R. Zhang ,L. Liu,ST Rasool , Y.Mu and W.Sun , et al. "Hepatitis B virus enhances interleukin-27 expression both in vivo and in vitro. Clin Immunol. ,131(1):92–7,2009.
F.A. De Oliveira Silva , CVO.Damascena, NP.Passos ,RO Duthie ,MS. Guderian ,JA. Bhatia , et al.
"High levels of soluble CD40 ligand and matrix metalloproteinase-9 in serum are associated with favorable clinical evolution in human visceral leishmaniasisʺ BMC Infect Dis. ,13:331,2013.
SdC. Gonçalves-de-Albuquerque ,R. Pessoa-e-Silva , LA.Trajano-Silva, TC.de Goes , RCS.de Morais , CNdC. Cíntia ,et al. ʺThe equivocal role of Th17 cells and neutrophils on immunopathogenesis of leishmaniasis" Front Immunol. , 8:1437,2017.
RJ.Faleiro,R. Kumar ,LM. Hafner,CR. Engwerda " Immune regulation during chronic visceral leishmaniasisʺ PLoS Negl Trop Dis. ,8,2014.
S.Aparicio-Siegmund , C.Garbers ʺThe biology of interleukin-27 reveals unique pro- and anti-inflammatory functions in immunity" Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. ,26(5):579–86 ,2015 .
H.Jarallah , H.Hantosh . "Visceral leishmaniasis in Thi-Qar Province (Iraq) for 10 years (2003–2012)ʺ Suez Canal Vet Med J. ,18(1):27–35,2013.
S. X. Leng, J. E. McElhaney, J.D. Walston, D. Xie, N. S. Fedarko, G. A. Kuchelʺ ELISA and Multiplex Technologies for Cytokine Measurement in Inflammation and Aging Research " ,The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 63, Issue 8, August Pages 879–884,.2008 .
S.Aydin " A short history, principles, and types of ELISA, and our laboratory experience with peptide/protein analyses using ELISA" Peptides. , Oct;72:4-15,2015.
GF.Quirino ,MS. Nascimento ,M. Davoli-Ferreira, LA.Sacramento , MH.Lima ,and RP Almeida , et al. ʺInterleukin-27 mediates susceptibility to visceral leishmaniasis by suppressing the IL-17-neutrophil response"Infect Immun , 84(8):2289–98,2016.
H. M. Obaid and H. A. Shareef " Epidemiological and clinical study of leishmaniasis in Kirkuk cityʺ Iraq,Iraqi journal of Science, Vol 59 No 3A ,2018 .
A. Alidadi, H.Ali Khazaei, B. Nakhjavan Shahraki, S. Andarzi,A. Jalili,A. Mirzaei, et al "comparison of IL-13 and IL-27 levels between schizophrenics and healthy subjects before and after antipsychotic administrationʺ International Journal of Medical Research &Health Sciences, 5, 9S:654-661,2016.
P. L. dos Santos,F. A. de Oliveira,M. L. B. Santos,L. C. S. Cunha,Michelle T. B. Lino,et al ʺThe Severity of Visceral Leishmaniasis Correlates with Elevated Levels of Serum IL-6, IL-27 and sCD14" , PLoS Negl Trop Dis,27,20162016 Jan 27;10(1):e0004375,2016.
R.Badaro ,TC Jones , EM.Carvalho , D.Sampaio , SG.Reed , A.Barral et al." New perspectives on a subclinical form of visceral leishmaniasis".J Infect Dis. , 154: 1003–1011,1986.
M.J.Sampaio, NV.Cavalcanti ,JG. Alves ,MJ. Filho , JB.Correia " Risk factors for death in children with visceral leishmaniasis"PLoS Negl Trop Dis.,4: e877,2010.
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2025 University of Thi-Qar Journal of Science

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.