Editorial: Hunting for inflammation mediators: identifying novel biomarkers for autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases
Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: Autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases are the costly trade-offs of a highly sophisticated and adaptable immune system. In the shared effort to identify biomarkers, sixteen studies spanning diverse disease types and employing both modern computational approaches and classical wet-lab techniques have converged.This collection comprises ten original research articles, two brief research reports, one case report, two reviews, and one systematic review.The active role of platelets in immune-mediated inflammation, via soluble cytokines and surface glycoproteins, has gained increasing recognition (1). In a retrospective study of 1,002 critically ill patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD), Zhang and Ni analysed systemic inflammatory biomarkers using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) database. A higher platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), reflecting elevated platelet counts and reduced lymphocyte counts, was most strongly associated with increased mortality risk and demonstrated a robust linear relationship with 30-day all-cause mortality, independent of demographics, disease severity, and comorbidities including respiratory failure, diabetes, renal disease or sepsis. These findings support PLR as an accessible and independent prognostic marker for early risk stratification in critically ill RHD patients. In a separate analysis, Xiong and Yu identified the neutrophil-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio subset, as a superior discriminative marker. This finding was linked to a pathogenic redistribution mechanism in which elevated renal CXCL13 recruits these cells from the circulation to inflamed kidney tissue. This work highlights circulating CXCR5 + T cells as a non-invasive biomarker of renal involvement in SLE.Cystatin C (Cys-C), a cysteine protease inhibitor that controls the turnover of multifunctional enzymes involved in immunological processes, has been implicated in inflammatory autoimmunity (2). Consistent with this, He et al. reported that higher Cys-C levels were associated with disease severity and a Th2-to-Th1 shift in acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive myasthenia gravis (MG), based on data from UK Biobank and Chinese cohorts. Ethnic differences can significantly influence the prevalence and seropositivity of autoantibodies in autoimmune diseases, particularly myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs) (3). In a retrospective study of a Taiwanese cohort, Hsiao et al.found that strong positivity for antibodies against small ubiquitin-like modifier 1activating enzyme subunit 1 (SAE1), a member of the MSAs, was closely associated with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). The CAM-1 (sICAM-1), vascular CAM-1(sVCAM-1), sE-selectin, sP-selectin, and sLselectin in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Both sICAM-1 and sEselectin were significantly elevated in IBD patients compared to controls, but only sICAM-1 was significantly higher in Crohn's disease (CD) vs ulcerative colitis (UC), and in active vs inactive disease groups, mirroring observations in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (5) and systemic sclerosis (6). Other CAMs showed nonsignificant trends toward elevation, which may be attributable to the smaller number of available studies.Despite limitations in specificity, CAMs may serve as adjunct biomarkers for monitoring inflammation activity rather than standalone diagnostic tools.The derangement of immune responses and uncontrolled inflammation are often intertwined with disruptions in other biological processes, such as sleep disturbance (7) and viral infection (8). Uncovering the underlying interactions may help identify druggable targets for therapeutic intervention. Wu et al. analysed Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets using bioinformatics tools and identified shared viral response-related genes and pathways in patients with insomnia and autoimmune uveitis (AU), suggesting a potential long-term and bidirectional etiological interaction among viral infection, insomnia and AU. Specifically, the interferon regulators IFI44 and IRF9 were proposed as diagnostic biomarkers for insomnia-associated AU. This modest yet diverse collection of biomarker studies has concluded, but our curiosity persists, and the quest continues.
Source: Frontiers in Immunology
Language: English
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7123355133