Aug 2026· Al-Kufa University Journal for Biology· Vol 18· 0 citations
TL;DR
Findings emphasise the vital function of inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways in GI pathologies and suggest these biomarkers hold promise for diagnostic and prognostic applications.
Abstract
Although gastrointestinal disorders (GI) present with a diverse array of clinical symptoms, they are fundamentally linked by an underlying biological crosstalk between oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, making it exceptionally difficult to predict disease trajectory or tailor effective treatments. The study aimed to identify and validate a panel of serum- or tissue-based biomarkers that specifically correlate with the severity of inflammation and oxidative stress in patients with different GI diagnoses. This case-control study, conducted from September to December 2025, investigated inflammatory and oxidative stress biomarkers in 128 participants (88 GI patients and 40 healthy controls) at the Hospital of Digestive Diseases in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf, Iraq. All participants underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, with demographic and clinical data systematically collected. The determination of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), and malondialdehyde (MDA) via ELISA, alongside comprehensive biochemical profiling and Helicobacter pylori assessment. Results indicated that GI patients showed significantly higher glucose, TG, NLR, IL-6, MDA, and 8-OHdG levels and decreased hemoglobin and HDL compared to controls (p < 0.05). Specific GI disease subgroups, notably Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, demonstrated pronounced elevations in inflammatory and oxidative stress markers. Linear regression highlighted significant associations of 8-OHdG with various clinical and biochemical parameters. Furthermore, multinomial logistic regression identified IL-6 as a significant predictor for Crohn's disease (odds ratio [OR] = 1.34, p = 0.046), while IL-6 (OR = 1.37, p = 0.023), 8-OHdG (OR = 1.01, p = 0.024), and Nes-1 (OR = 0.61, p = 0.007) were predictive for ulcerative colitis. ROC analysis revealed excellent diagnostic performance for IL-6 (AUC = 0.96) and MDA (AUC = 0.89) in distinguishing GI patients from healthy controls. These findings emphasise the vital function of inflammatory and oxidative stress pathways in GI pathologies and suggest these biomarkers hold promise for diagnostic and prognostic applications.
CRC was associated with increased circulating oxidative stress biomarkers, with MDA showing the most consistent relationships with systemic inflammatory parameters and survival outcomes, and MDA is identified as a promising candidate oxidative–inflammatory marker warranting external validation rather than an independently established prognostic biomarker.
R. Marinescu, Daniela Marinescu, A. Ciurea et al.· Medicina· 0 citations
Ulcerative colitis is a colonic inflammatory disease that is long-term. Inflammatory, oxidative stress, and molecular activation biomarkers could enhance the evaluation of the disease. The circulation of the miR-21 is also relevant in mucosal inflammation and its clinical significance in ulcerative colitis is yet to be determined. This study tries to measure circulating miR-21, oxidative stress biomarkers and inflammatory indices in patients with ulcerative colitis and to test associations between them and disease activity, fecal calprotectin and composite inflammatory oxidative stress indices. This case–control study included 121 adults recruited at the Teaching Hospital for Digestive and Liver Diseases, Medical City, Baghdad, from 9 February 2025 to 23 October 2025. A total of 88 patients who had confirmed ulcerative colitis and 33 healthy controls were included in the sample. There were active disease and remission. Standard immunochemical and colorimetric measures were taken of serum CRP, IL-6, MDA, TAC and SOD. qRT-PCR was used to determine the levels of circulating miR-21. Fecal calprotectin and Mayo endoscopic subscore also were noted. Correlations, group comparisons, effect sizes, ROC analysis and exploratory regression models were carried out. Compared with controls, patients with ulcerative colitis had higher CRP, IL-6, MDA, miR-21, fecal calprotectin, IOSI, and Advanced IOSI, and lower TAC and SOD (all p < 0.001). CRP, IL-6, MDA, fecal calprotectin, IOSI, Advanced IOSI, TAC and SOD were significantly higher in active disease than remission (all p < 0.001). The level of circulating miR-21 was higher in comparison to controls but lower in active disease than in remission (p = 0.026). There was a strong correlation between IOSI and Advanced IOSI and fecal calprotectin. There was very high discrimination of a number of markers in these results set using ROC including CRP, IL-6, fecal calprotectin, IOSI and Advanced IOSI. The results indicate that there is a strong association between ulcerative colitis, systemic inflammation and oxidative imbalance. It seems that circulating miR-21 can be relevant, yet its activity can vary in response to activity states, and be altered by treatment. Composite inflammatory-oxidative stress indexes were well-performing and potentially provide a convenient summary of multi-marker perturbation. Clinical adoption still needs to be externally validated.
Ahmed Abd Temur, N. F. Razooqi, Ibrahim Abdulkareem Sabri· Stallion Journal for Multidi...· 0 citations
Oxidative stress matters a lot in the onset and advancement of many chronic illnesses, as it comes from an imbalance between the generation of reactive oxygen species and antioxidant defenses. The growing focus on biomarkers of oxidative stress has made researchers consider them as potential tools for evaluating and monitoring diseases. This review looks into the most important oxidative stress biomarker types and how they are significant in the field of clinical biochemistry and in tracking chronic diseases. An extensive literature review was done, focusing on markers of lipid, protein, and DNA oxidation, together with antioxidant enzymatic and non-enzymatic parameters, and their corresponding analytical methods, Malondialdehyde, F2-isoprostanes, oxidized low-density lipoprotein, protein carbonyls, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and total antioxidant capacity have been pointed out as giving supplementary information on oxidative damage and defense. Biomarkers of oxidative stress may help in diagnosing chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Yet, variations in biological variability, sampling handling procedures, analytic techniques, specificity, and range references present constraints to the widespread clinical use of biomarkers of oxidative stress. Research data supports the notion that combining complimentary biomarkers, taking into account the traditional clinical and biochemical parameters, might cause a more accurate determination of oxidative imbalance than an isolated marker. The development of standardized analytical procedures, as well as more longitudinal validation, is necessary to determine their clinical utility. In total, oxidative stress biomarkers offer exciting opportunities as auxiliary tools for gaining insights into the stages of the disease and facilitating individual-based monitoring of patients with chronic illnesses.
P. Samal, B. Kar, S. Nayak· IFR Journal of Medical Scien...· 0 citations
Serum levels of kynurenine, NLRP3, and 8-OHdG are all markedly increased in depression and together offer helpful diagnostic data, implying potential utility as complementary biological markers for diagnosing depression and describing its underlying pathophysiology, notwithstanding their modest relationships with symptom severity.
H. Alrasheed, A. A. El-Hanafy, Mostafa M. Bahaa et al.· Scientific Reports· 0 citations
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common gastrointestinal disorder that affects a large proportion of the population and is associated with impaired quality of life and increased healthcare utilization. Although GERD has traditionally been attributed to excessive reflux and dysfunction of the anti-reflux barrier, growing evidence indicates that inflammatory and immune-related processes also contribute to symptom development, mucosal injury, and disease progression. Accordingly, peripheral blood-derived inflammatory biomarkers, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), have been investigated as simple and readily available indicators of systemic inflammation. Clinical studies have suggested that these hematological indices may be associated with the presence of GERD, endoscopic phenotypes, and disease severity, although reported values and cutoff thresholds remain inconsistent. In addition, chronic low-grade inflammation, impaired epithelial barrier function, obesity-associated metabolic inflammation, and alterations in the microbiome are increasingly recognized as interacting mechanisms that may influence both local esophageal injury and systemic inflammatory responses. However, published findings remain inconsistent, and the clinical utility of these biomarkers has yet to be clearly established. This review provides an overview of the inflammatory mechanisms involved in GERD and evaluates current evidence regarding the potential role of hematological inflammatory biomarkers in clinical practice. Their strengths, current limitations, and priorities for future research are also discussed.
Yu Liu, Lin Wang, Zhe Han et al.· Frontiers in Medicine· 0 citations
Chronic inflammation is a universally acknowledged characteristic of cancer, playing the role of a vital catalyst in cancer initiation and progression, and a chief predictor of the success or failure of cancer therapies. About 20% of all cancer cases are associated with states of chronic inflammation, and an even greater percentage of cancer cases exploit states of smoldering inflammatory microenvironments for cancer progression, immune escape, angiogenesis, and metastasis. In accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), a systematic scoping review of literature indexed in Scopus was conducted to assess the potential value of inflammatory biomarkers in cancer diagnostics, prognosis, and therapy. The vital molecular players, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and combined hematological markers including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), together with the long-established erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), accurately represent the complex balance between cancer-promoting inflammation and tumor-inhibitory immunity. Critically, these mediators do not render tumors immunologically quiescent. They intensify inflammation while simultaneously engaging negative-feedback circuits - regulatory T-cell expansion via TNF receptor 2, myeloid-derived suppressor cell recruitment, and adenosine-mediated suppression - that produce an inflamed but T-cell-non-responsive phenotype refractory to checkpoint blockade. High levels of systemic inflammation at baseline significantly impair the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors and conventional chemotherapies, via complex pathways including nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling, metabolic rewiring, and T-cell exhaustion. A direct comparison of assay cost, turnaround, and reported effect sizes indicates that routinely available indices capture much of the prognostic signal attributed to costlier multiplex cytokine panels, although published thresholds vary widely between cohorts and require prospective validation before clinical implementation. Integration of systemic inflammatory biomarkers into clinical practice guidelines is likely to offer a non-invasive and cost-effective strategy for patient stratification and disease monitoring. The use of precision medicine approaches that combine anti-inflammatory therapies such as anti-IL-6 or NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inhibition with immunotherapies is poised to revolutionize the management of therapeutic resistance. Future clinical practice guidelines must focus on the integration of multi-omics and artificial intelligence to address the complex biological and inter-patient and sex differences in the inflammatory tumor microenvironment.
Pritam Kayal, Ramit Rahaman, Apala Ghosh et al.· International Immunopharmaco...· 0 citations
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