Evaluation of NLRP-3 Inflammanose as a biomarker in meningitis | ||
| Microbes and Infectious Diseases | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 10 October 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/mid.2025.411187.3087 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Nasser Abdallah1; Abdel Fatah Hanno1; Sara Lotfy Asser* 2; Basem Elbassiouny1; Marwa Deif1 | ||
| 1Tropical Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt | ||
| 2Medical Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Background: Early diagnosis and treatment of meningitis may improve clinical outcome; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and culture are the cornerstones in diagnosis. Nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat pyrin domain containing3 (NLRP3), belongs to inflammasomes family, are activated in response to microbial danger signals, and were shown to be involved in pathogenesis of many central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Aim: This study aims to evaluate role of CSF NLRP3 level as diagnostic marker of meningitis. Methods: This study was conducted on 80 patients admitted to fever hospital divided into two groups; group I: 40 patients diagnosed as bacterial meningitis confirmed by cultures, group II: 40 patients diagnosed as viral meningitis confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Physical evaluation and laboratory tests were done for the studied groups, also CSF analysis (with culture in (group I) or viral PCR in (group II) with evaluation of CSF NLRP3 level by ELISA. Results: CSF NLRP3 was significantly higher in bacterial meningitis than viral meningitis, median value of 1335.3 ng/ml among bacterial meningitis cases versus 454.8 ng/ml for viral cases. ROC curve analysis for NLRP3 had cut off value > 655 ng/ml, sensitivity of 90%, specificity of 82.5%, and area under the curve (AUC) was 0.967 (p <0.001). Moreover, its level correlated significantly with poor clinical prognostic sequalae. Conclusion: NLRP-3 can be a reliable diagnostic biomarker to discriminate bacterial and viral meningitis with good sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, level of NLRP3 correlated significantly with severity of infection and could predict the prognosis of patient’s disease. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| meningitis; CSF analysis; CSF NLRP3; PCR; inflammasomes | ||
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