Increased circulating levels of High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) in acute-phase Chikungunya virus infection: Potential disease biomarker

Abstract

Background: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes a febrile syndrome with intense and debilitating arthralgia that can persist for several months or years after complete virus clearance. As there is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine against CHIKV, identification of serological markers that help clinical management of CHIKV patients is urgent. The High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) protein is secreted to extracellular milieu and triggers an intense inflammatory process by inducing the overexpression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. HMGB1 plays an important role in several virus diseases as well as in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: This study focus on the investigation of HMGB1 serum levels in a sera panel from CHIKV-infected patients in an attempt to assess its potential as a biomarker for chikungunya clinical management.

Study design: Eighty CHIKV-positive samples and 32 samples from healthy donors were subjected to a quantitative HMGB1 ELISA assay to assess the HMGB1 circulating levels.

Results: HMGB1 levels were significantly higher in CHIKV-positive samples (516.12 ng/mL, SEM ± 48.83 ng/mL) compared to negative control (31.20 ng/mL, SEM ± 3.24 ng/mL, p < 0.0001). Circulating levels of HMGB1 persisted elevated during the whole acute-phase of disease and correlated with virus titer (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The present study is the first to describe increased serum levels of HMGB1 in CHIKV infection and its positive correlation with virus titer, suggesting its potential use as a biomarker for diagnosis and treatment of chikungunya fever.

Keywords: Chikungunya infection; Disease biomarker; High Mobility Group Box 1.