Assessment of interleukin-35 expression in adult Egyptian immune thrombocytopenic purpura patients

Background Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune disease, in Egypt, it is one of the common disorders, this disease causes a considerable drop in the platelets rendering the patient at a very high risk of bleeding. For this, ongoing research to determine an accurate diagnostic tool that would help in rapid diagnosis and also the remote prognosis of the disease is continuous. Interleukin 35 (IL-35) is one of the interleukin family that now has been highlighted as a useful prognostic marker in many autoimmune diseases e.g.: SLE (1). In light of its significance that was detected in other autoimmune disease. This study was to specify this interleukin in the context of the diagnosis of ITP. Patients and method This pilot observational study was carried out on 60 patients and 20 normal controls. The patient group was categorized into newly diagnosed, relapsed, and resistant groups. IL-35 was measured in serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results This study demonstrated significantly lower plasma IL-35 levels in patients diagnosed with ITP than in healthy controls. Moreover, serum IL-35 levels and circulating platelets were positively correlated. Moreover, it was noted that a decrease in IL-35 contributes to the pathogenesis of ITP and an association of statistical significance between disease outcomes and IL-35 levels ( P =0.033). Specifically, patients with elevated IL-35 levels exhibited higher remission rates (28.8%) than patients experiencing only partial remission or resistance to treatment. Conclusion IL-35 may play a role in predicting or potentially influencing disease prognosis as suggested by these results.