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Published on: May 31, 2021
Serum Neuropeptides in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: Associations With Disease Activity and Clinical Phenotypes
Zhenrui Shi1, Xinyi Deng1,2, Jieru Ren1
1Department of Dermatology, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Neuropeptides have been implicated in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), but clinical data remain limited. We measured serum calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), neuropeptide Y (NPY), vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), and stem cell factor by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 80 patients with CSU and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. CSU patients were categorized as flare or non-flare at sampling according to the presence or absence of wheals on the day of blood collection, and disease activity was assessed using the Urticaria Activity Score and its 7-day version (UAS7). Median serum CGRP levels were significantly higher in CSU patients than in healthy controls (263.86 pg/mL vs. 235.13 pg/mL, P < 0.001). In the CSU group, there was a non-significant trend toward higher CGRP levels in the non-flare group compared to the flare group (283.74 pg/mL vs. 251.01 pg/mL, P = 0.062). Serum VIP levels correlated positively with UAS7 (r = 0.238, P = 0.035), whereas NPY showed no clear group differences. Stem cell factor was below the detection limit in most samples. These findings support a possible role of CGRP and VIP in CSU and VIP as a candidate biomarker of disease burden that warrants validation in larger, longitudinal, multi-center studies.
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