Monomeric CRP is Elevated in Patients with COPD Compared to Non-COPD Control Persons

Revathy Munuswamy; Jana De Brandt; Chris Burtin; Wim Derave; Joseph Aumann; Martijn A Spruit; Luc Michiels

doi:10.2147/JIR.S320659

Monomeric CRP is Elevated in Patients with COPD Compared to Non-COPD Control Persons

J Inflamm Res. 2021 Sep 7:14:4503-4507. doi: 10.2147/JIR.S320659. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Revathy Munuswamy^#¹, Jana De Brandt^#², Chris Burtin², Wim Derave³, Joseph Aumann⁴, Martijn A Spruit^#^{5

6}, Luc Michiels^#¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Biomedical Research Institute BIOMED, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium.
² Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rehabilitation Research Center REVAL, Biomedical Research Institute BIOMED, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium.
³ Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
⁴ Department of Pneumology, Jessa Hospital, Hasselt, Belgium.
⁵ Department of Research and Development, CIRO, Horn, the Netherlands.
⁶ Department of Respiratory Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Chronic low-grade systemic inflammation is frequently observed in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), e.g., elevated pentameric CRP (pCRP). However, pCRP can dissociate to form monomeric CRP (mCRP) which exhibits a clear pro-inflammatory behaviour in contrast to the more anti-inflammatory properties of pCRP. Therefore, mCRP may be an informative biomarker to demonstrate chronic low-grade systemic inflammation. This was confirmed by analysing serum samples from 38 patients with COPD and 18 non-COPD control persons (NCCP). mCRP was significantly elevated in patients with COPD vs. NCCP, indicating that mCRP might be considered as a new sensitive marker of chronic low-grade systemic inflammation.

Keywords: COPD; low-grade systemic inflammation; mCRP; pCRP.

Grants and funding

De Brandt J. is funded by the Flemish government. The Research of FWO Aspirant De Brandt J. is sponsored by FWO-grant #11B4718N. Burtin C. is funded by Limburgs Kankerfonds.