Cytokine levels in patients with chikungunya virus infection

OBJECTIVE: To investigate cytokine profile in patients with chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. METHODS: Twenty eight pairs of serum samples collected from CHIKV infected patients during the outbreak of chikungunya fever in South Thailand in 2008 were obtained. A multiple cytokine assay for detection of 17 cytokines was performed. RESULTS: In the acute stage of CHIKV infection, the patients had significantly higher levels of interleukin-6, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, monocyte chemotactic protein 1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha than the control (P<0.001, P=0.023, P=0.015, P<0.001 and P=0.024, respectively). When the disease developed to the recovery stage, the patients had significantly lower levels of interleukin-6, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, monocyte chemotactic protein 1 and macrophage inflammatory protein beta than in the acute stage (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides additional information that these cytokines could play roles in pathogenesis of CHIKV infection and could be used as disease biomarkers or drug targets.