BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1601145
This article is part of the Research TopicTargeting the Interleukin-1β/Interleukin-6/C-reactive Protein Pathway in Clinical Medicine - A Road Map to Clinical Trial DesignView all articles
C-Reactive Protein conformations and their association with the IL-1β/IL-6 pathway in ocular inflammatory conditions
Provisionally accepted
Mercedes S Nabaes Jodar
Victor Llorens
Marc Figueras-RocaMaite Sainz de la Maza
Alfredo Adan
Blanca Molins*- August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
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Introduction: C-reactive protein (CRP) plays a critical role in the innate immune system and serves as a biomarker for various inflammatory conditions. CRP is a dynamic protein undergoing conformational changes between pentameric (pCRP) and monomeric (mCRP) conformations. pCRP is the well-established systemic marker of inflammation, while mCRP is associated with localized tissue inflammation.Methods: This study aimed to evaluate systemic levels of pCRP, mCRP, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in patients with a variety of intraocular inflammatory conditions, including diabetic macular edema (DME) and non-infectious uveitis such as Behçet's disease (BD), Birdshot retinochoroidopathy (BSRC), HLA-B27-associated uveitis, and undifferentiated uveitis (UU).Results: A total of 77 subjects were included. mCRP levels were significantly elevated in BD, DME, and UU compared to controls (p = 0.014, p = 0.036, and p = 0.031, respectively). The mCRP/pCRP ratio was also significantly higher in DME and UU (p = 0.035 and p = 0.011, respectively). In addition, a strong positive correlation was observed between IL-6 and IL-1β (ρ = 0.638, p <0.0001). No significant differences in serum levels of pCRP, IL-6, or IL-1β were observed among the groups.Discussion: These findings suggest that mCRP, rather than pCRP, may be a more specific systemic biomarker for certain intraocular inflammatory conditions. The involvement of the CRP axis and the strong correlation between IL-6 and IL-1β underscore the interaction of these key inflammatory mediators, providing further insight into the targeting of CRP axis for therapeutic purposes.
Keywords: C-reactive protein (CRP), Interleukin-1b (IL-1b), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), ocular inflammation, Uveitis, diabetic macular edema
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 22 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nabaes Jodar, Llorens, Figueras-Roca, Sainz de la Maza, Adan and Molins. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Blanca Molins, August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
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