Study on the correlation between IL-12p70, IL-17A and migraine in children

Fan Yang; Hai-Zhen Liu; Jia-Ai Liu; Yao-Yao Chen; Su-Zhen Sun

doi:10.3389/fneur.2024.1347387

Study on the correlation between IL-12p70, IL-17A and migraine in children

Front Neurol. 2024 Jan 31:15:1347387. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1347387. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Fan Yang^#^{1

2}, Hai-Zhen Liu^#², Jia-Ai Liu³, Yao-Yao Chen³, Su-Zhen Sun^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
² International Liaison Office, Hebei Children's Hospital, Shijiazhuang, China.
³ College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China.
⁴ Department of Pediatric Neurology, Hebei Children's Hospital, Shijiazhuang, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: To compare the serum levels of 12 cytokines in migraine group, encephalitis with headache symptoms group, pneumonia without headache symptoms group and migraine subgroups to explore the cytokines associated with migraine in children and their levels.

Methods: A total of 44 children with migraine, 27 children in the encephalitis group with headache symptoms and 44 children in the pneumonia group without headache symptoms were selected from January 2022 to August 2023 in Hebei Children's Hospital. They were all tested for serum cytokines by immunofluorescence assay. The migraine group was further divided into subgroups according to different age, gender, course of disease, and presence of coinfection. The differences of serum cytokine levels among the above groups were compared, and the correlation analysis was carried out.

Results: Except IL-5, there were no significant differences in the expression levels of other 11 inflammatory cytokines between migraine subgroups. Compared with encephalitis with headache symptoms group and pneumonia without headache symptoms group the serum levels of IL-4, TNF-α, IL-17A, and IL-12p70 were higher in migraine group than in pneumonia group, and the levels of IL-12p70 were higher than those in encephalitis group (p < 0.05). An increase in serum IL-12p70 (OR = 1.267, 95%CI 1.054-1.523, p = 0.012) and IL-17A (OR = 1.066, 95%CI 1.016-1.119, p = 0.010) levels had a significant effect on migraine.

Conclusion: Elevated serum levels of IL-12p70 and IL-17A may increase the risk of migraine in children, which has certain diagnostic and predictive value.

Keywords: IL-12p70; IL-17A; IL-4; TNF-α; migraine in children; serum cytokines.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the Provincial Medical Outstanding Talents Project funded by the Provincial Government in 2022 (Leader): Research on the Pathogenesis, Diagnosis and Treatment of childhood Migraine (2022 Budget Approval No. 180 of Hebei Provincial Department of Finance) and Hebei International Joint Research Center of Childhood Disease and Health.