Background: Defensins are natural antimicrobial peptides that the human body secretes to protect itself from an infection. Thus, they are ideal molecules to serve as biomarkers for infection. This study was conducted to evaluate the levels of human β-defensins in patients with inflammation.
Methods: CRP, hBD2 and procalcitonin were measured in 423 sera of 114 patients with inflammation and healthy individuals using nephelometry and commercial ELISA assays.
Results: Levels of hBD2 in the serum of patients with an infection were markedly elevated compared to those of hBD2 in patients with inflammation of non-infectious etiology (p < 0.0001, t = 10.17) and healthy individuals. ROC analysis demonstrated that hBD2 showed the highest detection performance for infection (AUC 0.897; p < 0.001) followed by PCT (AUC 0.576; p = ns) and CRP (AUC 0.517; p = ns). In addition, analysis of hBD2 and CRP in patients' sera collected at different time points showed that hBD2 levels could help differentiate inflammation of infectious and non-infectious etiology during the first 5 days of hospitalization, while CRP levels could not.
Conclusions: hBD2 has the potential to serve as a diagnostic biomarker for infection. In addition, the levels of hBD2 may reflect the efficacy of antibiotic treatment.
Keywords: CRP; biomarker; defensins; hBD2; infection; procalcitonin.