Journal
ENDOCRINE
Volume 79, Issue 1, Pages 55-59Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s12020-022-03207-4
Keywords
Graves' disease; Ribonuclease T2 protein family; RNASET2; Cellular immunity; Autoimmunity; Alarmin
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This study found that the levels of RNASET2 protein were significantly higher in patients with Graves' disease compared to healthy controls, and after methimazole treatment, the levels decreased and became similar to those in healthy controls. These preliminary results suggest that RNASET2 may serve as an alarm signal to alert the immune system under specific conditions.
Genetic variation of the gene encoding for the only human enzyme of the T2 ribonucleases family (RNASET2) emerged in genome-wide association studies as a putative risk hotspot for Graves' disease (GD). T2 ribonucleases activities include immune regulation, induction of cell apoptosis and differentiation. Several reports supported the hypothesis that RNASET2 represents a danger message addressed to the innate immune system in peculiar conditions. This was a longitudinal, case-control study. RNASET2 protein levels were assessed in blood samples from 34 consecutive newly diagnosed GD patients and in healthy controls. At enrollment, RNASET2 levels were significantly higher in GD patients (98.5 +/- 29.1 ng/ml) compared to healthy controls (72.5 +/- 27.9 ng/ml, p = 0.001). After 6 months of methimazole treatment, RNASET2 levels significantly decrease and return to levels similar to healthy controls (62.4 +/- 22 ng/ml, p = 0.69). These preliminary results suggest that RNASET2 is overexpressed in patients with GD and might represent an alarm signal generated by thyroid cells in response to endogenous or environmental stress to alert the immune system.
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