Objective: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a novel Bunyavirus. Recent data suggest that the physiological balance of multiple proinflammatory cytokines is substantially changed in cases of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) infection, and the inflammatory response probably plays an important role in disease progression. Angiotensin II is an important active substance of the renin-angiotensin system, and studies have demonstrated that angiotensin II is involved in key events in the inflammatory process and can regulate inflammatory cell responses.
Methods: In order to elucidate the role of angiotensin II in the pathogenesis of SFTS, we collected serum samples from SFTS patients in the acute or convalescent phase and tested the angiotensin II levels using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay as well as SFTSV viral RNA with real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, we explored possible correlations between the angiotensin II levels and clinical parameters in SFTS patients.
Results: Our data showed that the serum level of angiotensin II was significantly increased in the acute phase compared with that seen in the convalescent phase and the healthy controls, while there were no significant differences between the convalescent cases and healthy controls (p>0.05). A correlation analysis demonstrated that the level of angiotensin II positively correlated with the SFTS viral RNA load. The angiotensin II levels were also found to be correlated with clinical parameters indicating impairments in organ functions. Moreover, we also found that the angiotensin II levels were significantly increased in the severe cases versus the non-severe cases (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The serum angiotensin II levels in SFTS patients may be used to stratify the disease severity and are possibly predictive of disease outcomes.