Oxidative damage markers and inflammatory cytokines are altered in patients suffering with post-chikungunya persisting polyarthralgia

Redox homoeostasis is necessary for the maintenance of living systems. Chikungunya viral infection manifests into joint inflammation and debilitating polyarthralgia affecting the life style of the patient badly. The disease pathophysiology is poorly understood and there is a lack of targeted therapeutics. The pathogenic role of free radicals in arthritis is well established. This study aims for the first time to evaluate the status of several standard oxidative stress markers and their correlation in chikungunya patients suffering with polyarthralgia. Expression of Siglec-9 on monocytes; which can modulate oxidative stress is studied along with intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), cellular lipid and protein damage markers in chikungunya patients with/without persisting polyarthralgia along with healthy controls. Furthermore, plasma NO level, antioxidant status was investigated along with some inflammatory cytokines namely IL-6, IFN-gamma, CXCL-9, IL-10 and TGF beta 1. Interestingly, all oxidative damage markers are altered significantly in groups but their alteration levels vary in patients with/without persisting polyarthralgia. Siglec-9 expression level is increased in patients revealing cellular response to manage oxidative stress with respect to controls. Correlation studies reveal that intracellular ROS correlates well with most of the studied parameters but the correlation coefficient (Pearson r) differs with disease manifestation demonstrating strong role of these factors in a pro-oxidant milieu. The presence of free radicals increases the availability of neoantigens continuously, which possibly further cascades oxidative damage and development of persisting polyarthralgia.