Association between IL-1beta and cardiovascular disease risk in patients with newly diagnosed, drug-naïve type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: To determine whether the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1beta, as a marker of the nucleotide binding and oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation, can be used to predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in patients with newly diagnosed, drug-naïve type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: A total of 110 subjects with no history of diabetes were enrolled and divided into control subjects (non-DM group, n=52) and patients with newly diagnosed, drug-naïve T2DM (DM group, n=58). RESULTS: Serum IL-1beta levels were not different between the two groups. The Framingham CVD risk score (F-score) was positively correlated with the serum IL-1beta level in the DM group. Multivariate regression analyses showed that the F-score was independently associated with the serum IL-1beta level in the DM group. Patients with an intermediate to high CVD risk (F-score ≥10%) also had significantly higher serum IL-1beta levels than did those with a low CVD risk (F-score <5%). Smokers in the DM group had higher IL-1beta levels than did those in the non-DM group, regardless of the F-score. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that serum IL-1beta levels might be useful as an independent risk factor predicting CVD risk in patients with newly diagnosed, drug naïve T2DM, particularly those who smoke.