Elevated Serum IL-6/IL-10 Ratio as a Promising Diagnostic and Disease Grading Biomarker for Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

Lei Li, Yang Chen, Guojun He, Yang Gao, Yongqing Cheng, Jin Chen, Dingming Sun, Mingyu Shi Department of Neurology, The Yancheng Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, The First People’s Hospital of Yancheng, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224005, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Mingyu Shi, The Yancheng Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, The First People’s Hospital of Yancheng, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224005, People’s Republic of China, Email xzmcashi@126.comBackground: Chronic inflammation and the imbalance of M1/M2 phenotype of microglia contribute to the onset and progression of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Currently, no effective biomarkers for diagnosing CSVD are found. Our research aims to explore the efficacy of IL-6/IL-10 ratio in the diagnosis of CSVD and assessment of its severity, establishing IL-6/IL-10 as an independent predictive biomarker.Patients and Methods: A total of 155 participants admitted to the First People’s Hospital of Yancheng City from February 2022 to September 2024 were grouped based on MRI and CSVD imaging scoring. Clinical and laboratory data were collected and analyzed.Results: Compared with the healthy control group, the CSVD group showed significant increases of IL-6/IL-10 ratio in peripheral blood (P=0.001); while compared with the CSVD (score 0– 1) group, IL-6/IL-10 ratio was statistically significant elevation in the CSVD (score 2– 4) group (P=0.002). The area under the curve (AUC) of IL-6/IL-10 ratio in the diagnosis of CSVD was 0.816, the sensitivity and specificity were 67.9% and 85.7%. Besides, the AUC of IL-6/IL-10 ratio in evaluating the severity of CSVD was 0.687.Conclusion: IL-6/IL-10 ratio is a potential circulating biomarker for diagnosing CSVD, with good diagnostic efficacy and has the ability to distinguish the severity of the disease to a certain degree.Keywords: cerebral small vessel disease, neuroinflammation, biomarker, microglia polarization, IL-6/IL-10