Abstract
Sjögren’s disease (SjD) is a systemic autoimmune condition for which reliable diagnostic and stratification biomarkers are still lacking. Several molecules have been implicated in its pathogenesis, and this study aimed to evaluate their potential as biomarkers in a monocentric cohort of SjD patients. Sera from 40 SjD patients (2016 ACR/EULAR criteria) and 41 matched controls were analyzed for 23 soluble inflammatory mediators using a Luminex® multiplex immunoassay. Clinical and laboratory correlations were examined, and multivariate logistic regression was performed. Compared with controls, SjD patients had significantly higher levels of IL-15 (11.52 ± 24.95 vs. 1.37 ± 1.26 pg/ml, P = 0.0009), monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 (683.6 ± 1127 vs. 654.8 ± 608.9 pg/ml, P = 0.0203), TNFRII (8588 ± 2889 vs. 5505 ± 1007 pg/ml, P < 0.0001), and MMP-8 (6382 ± 12,697 vs. 6247 ± 6950 pg/ml, P = 0.0141), while IL-1RII was reduced (6267 ± 1699 vs. 8514 ± 2255 pg/ml, P < 0.0001). IL-15 correlated with hypergammaglobulinemia and monoclonal component, MCP-1 with focus score and sicca severity, and IL-1RII with anti-SSB positivity. Logistic regression identified TNFRII and IL-1RII as the strongest independent predictors of SjD (AUC = 0.89). This study supports the association of IL-15, TNFRII, and MCP-1 with immune dysregulation in SjD and highlights MMP-8 and IL-1RII as promising serological biomarkers. Validation in larger, longitudinal cohorts is warranted.
Similar content being viewed by others
Acknowledgements
We thank Professor Gabriele Di Sante and Mario Rende for their helpful discussions concerning the manuscript content.
Funding
Prof. Perricone and Prof. Bartoloni are supported by PRIN-PRNN 2022 “AMICI-SjS Analysis of Microbes, Immune and Clinical Insights in Sjögren’s Syndrome” P2022LTTXE, Ministry of Universities and Research, Italy, CUP J53D23014150001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Perricone, C., Cafaro, G., Nicchi, M. et al. Distinct molecular profile in Sjögren’s syndrome is associated with disease activity and clinical manifestations. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-54557-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-54557-2
