| Objective To investigate the gene expression and clinical significance of absent in melanoma?2 (AIM2) and NOD-like receptor hot protein domain-related protein 3 (NLRP3) in patients with lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods 69 patients with lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis (combined group), 65 patients with simple lung cancer (lung cancer group) and 65 patients with simple pulmonary tuberculosis (pulmonary tuberculosis group) admitted to our hospital from March 2020 to December 2023 were selected. The levels of serum AIM2 mRNA, NLRP3 mRNA expression, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and cytokeratin fragment 19 (CYFRA21-1) were compared in three groups. The correlation between serum AIM2 mRNA, NLRP3 mRNA expression and serum CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 levels in combined group was analyzed by Pearson method. The value of serum AIM2 and NLRP3 alone and in combination in predicting lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results The expression of serum AIM2 mRNA and NLRP3 mRNA in combined group was higher than that in lung cancer group and pulmonary tuberculosis group (P<0.05), and the expression of serum AIM2 mRNA and NLRP3 mRNA in lung cancer group was higher than that in pulmonary tuberculosis group (P<0.05). The levels of serum CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 in combined group were higher than those in lung cancer group and pulmonary tuberculosis group (P<0.05), and the levels of serum CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 in lung cancer group were higher than those in pulmonary tuberculosis group (P<0.05). The expression of serum AIM2 mRNA and NLRP3 mRNA in combined group was positively correlated with the levels of CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 (P<0.05). The results of ROC curve analysis showed that, the area under the curve (AUC) of AIM2 mRNA, NLRP3 mRNA alone and combined prediction of lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis were 0.838, 0.814 and 0.957 respectively, the predictive efficacy of combined detection was higher than that of each index alone. Conclusion The expression of serum AIM2 mRNA and NLRP3 mRNA in patients with lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis was significantly increase, and positively correlate with serum CEA, NSE and CYFRA21-1 levels, the combine detection of the two has a high predictive value for lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis. |
