AIMS The aim of the present study was to assess serum cytokine and miRNA expression in visceral leishmaniasis-HIV (VL-HIV) co-infection and HIV mono-infection. METHODS AND RESULTS We analyzed 113 serum samples from HIV patients in areas endemic for leishmaniasis. The diagnosis of VL was confirmed in 65 of these 113 samples. The VL-HIV and HIV groups presented significant differences regarding hemoglobin level (p < 0.0001), lymphocyte count (p = 0.0444), white blood cell count (p = 0.0108), weight loss (p = 0.0310), HIV load (p < 0.0001) and CD4+ T-lymphocytes count (p = 0.0003). Levels of IL-6 and IL-10, IFN-γ and IL-6, IFN-γ and IL-10, TNF and IL-2 were positively correlated in VL-HIV co-infection, indicating higher serum levels of TNF and IL-4 (p < 0.0001). In addition, miR-182 expression was found to be significantly higher in HIV (p = 0.009), miR-210 exhibited no statistically significant difference between groups, and non-expression of miR-122 was found in both groups. CONCLUSION Together, TNF, IL-4 and miR-182 may represent circulatory biomarkers of VL-HIV co-infection.

中文翻译：

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内脏利什曼病-HIV合并感染患者的TNF和IL-4细胞因子水平较高，miR-182表达水平较低。

目的本研究的目的是评估内脏利什曼病-HIV（VL-HIV）合并感染和HIV单一感染中的血清细胞因子和miRNA表达。方法和结果我们分析了利什曼病流行地区的113例HIV患者的血清样本。在这113个样本中的65个样本中证实了VL的诊断。VL-HIV和HIV组在血红蛋白水平（p <0.0001），淋巴细胞计数（p = 0.0444），白细胞计数（p = 0.0108），体重减轻（p = 0.0310），HIV负荷（p < 0.0001）和CD4 + T淋巴细胞计数（p = 0.0003）。VL-HIV合并感染中IL-6和IL-10，IFN-γ和IL-6，IFN-γ和IL-10，TNF和IL-2的水平呈正相关，表明血清TNF和IL的水平较高-4（p <0.0001）。此外，发现miR-182表达在HIV中显着更高（p = 0.009），miR-210在各组之间没有统计学上的显着差异，并且在两组中均未发现miR-122的表达。结论TNF，IL-4和miR-182共同代表了VL-HIV合并感染的循环生物标志物。