Evaluation of molecules with potential immunomodulatory properties in brucellosis infections

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacteria called Brucella. The mechanisms that play a role in the emergence of different clinical pictures in brucellosis are not sufficiently elucidated. In order to overcome of these deficiencies, it was aimed to reveal the potential roles of activin A, activin B and follistatin molecules with immunomodulatory properties in serum taken from patients with acute and chronic brucellosis, healthy controls and people who have recovered from brucellosis. Activins are members of the transforming growth factor-1 (TGF-β1) superfamily. The biological activities of activin A and B are similar, but in some cases they may show different effects. Follistatin, on the other hand, is a protein that inhibits or neutralizes the functions of activins and in this way it can regulate the inflammatory process. 40 acute, 36 chronic brucellosis patients, 40 healthy and 8 healed donors who had brucellosis and applied to the clinic and outpatient clinic of Bursa Uludağ University Medical Faculty, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology were included in our study. In addition, the patients and the healing group were evaluated by grouping them as those with (acute: 13; chronic: 15; recovered: 3) and without (acute: 27; chronic: 21; recovered: 5) bone joint involvement (osteoarticular). All immunomodulatory molecules were studied in serum with the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The values for activin A, activin B and follistatin molecules in the acute and chronic patient groups were lower than the values in the healthy controls and the healed group, but a statistically significant difference was found only for activin A and activin B molecules. There was no significant difference between acute and chronic groups, and between healthy control and recovery groups. Our results show that the expression of these three molecules is suppressed during brucellosis infection, and in recovery, the suppression disappears and rises back to normal levels.