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Dynamic salivary cytokine profile of recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients in thalidomide maintenance treatment

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Abstract

Objective

To dynamically compare the longitudinal (time axis) and transverse (between groups) differences of the salivary cytokines during thalidomide maintenance treatment of recurrent aphthous stomatitis.

Methods

A randomized, controlled, clinical trial was performed. After the initial prednisone treatment, thalidomide (50 mg/d vs. 25 mg/d) was used as a maintenance drug for 4 or 8 weeks. The salivary IL-4, 5, 6, 10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ were dynamically detected with a cytometric bead array.

Results

Overall, the level of six elevated salivary cytokines after prednisone treatment was significantly downregulated, remained low during thalidomide maintenance, and rebounded at recurrence. The effect of 50 mg/d thalidomide on the salivary cytokines was not superior to 25 mg/d medication. The relapse-free period following drug withdrawal was the longest in the subgroup using 25 mg/d thalidomide for 8 weeks. The order of magnitude of IL-6 was the most obvious, and at week 8, only the level of IL-6 in the group (25 mg/d thalidomide for 8 weeks) continued to decline compared with the other groups.

Conclusion

Thalidomide maintenance treatment can effectively sustain low levels of salivary IL-4, 5, 6, 10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ of recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients. IL-6 displayed a good correlation with the disease and is expected to become an index for diagnosis and follow-up.

Clinical relevance

Low-dose long-term thalidomide maintenance treatment was supported for recurrent aphthous stomatitis.

Trial registration

Trial registration number of ChiCTR‐IPR‐16009759 at http://www.chictr.org/index.aspx.

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Acknowledgements

We thank International Science Editing for editing this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82205200, 82101008).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Wei Wei and Yiwen Deng contributed equally to this work and are co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine Ear Institute, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine On Ear and Nose Diseases, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wei Wei

  2. Department of Oral Medicine, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, National Center for Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Shanghai, 200011, China

    Yiwen Deng, Yufeng Wang, Hui Yao, Guanhuan Du & Guoyao Tang

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  1. Wei Wei
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Yiwen Deng, Yufeng Wang, Hui Yao, and Guanhuan Du. Analyses were conducted by Wei Wei. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wei Wei and Yiwen Deng, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Guanhuan Du and Guoyao Tang provided methods, reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Guanhuan Du or Guoyao Tang.

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Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital (SH9H-(2016)01).

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Informed consent was obtained from all the subjects.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wei, W., Deng, Y., Wang, Y. et al. Dynamic salivary cytokine profile of recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients in thalidomide maintenance treatment. Clin Oral Invest 28, 140 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-024-05531-7

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