ArticleFrontiers in immunology2026
Elevated serum IL-18 and IL-37 levels and their association with seizure burden in paediatric epilepsy.
Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Neuroinflammation is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to epileptogenesis and epilepsy progression. Interleukin-18 (IL-18), a pro-inflammatory cytokine of the interleukin-1 family, has been implicated in seizure susceptibility, whereas interleukin-37 (IL-37) acts as a natural anti-inflammatory regulator of IL-18 driven response. However, the role of the IL-18/IL-37 axis in paediatric epilepsy remains unclear. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess serum IL-18 and IL-37 levels and to examine their associations with seizure burden in paediatric epilepsy. Methods: A total of 117 children with epilepsy and 53 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included. Serum concentrations of IL-18 and IL-37 were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. IL-18 and IL-37 gene polymorphisms were analyzed by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. Results: Both IL-18 and IL-37 levels were significantly elevated in patients with epilepsy compared with controls with the highest concentrations observed in children with high seizure frequency (P vs controls: IL-18 p = 0.0022; IL-37 p ≤ 0.0050). A strong positive correlation was observed between IL-18 and IL-37 concentrations (R = 0.75, p < 0.0001). No significant associations were found between cytokine levels and epilepsy duration, time since the last seizure or other clinical parameters. Genetic polymorphisms did not differ significantly between patients and controls. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that IL-18 and IL-37 are associated with seizure burden and may represent promising candidate biomarkers in paediatric patients with epilepsy. However, these findings should be considered preliminary and warrant confirmation in larger independent longitudinal studies. To our knowledge, this is the first clinical study to assess serum IL-37 concentrations in patients with epilepsy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.