Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum

Ionescu, Vlad-Alexandru; Gheorghe, Gina; Turculet, Claudiu Stefan; Georgescu, Teodor Florin; Bratu, Razvan Matei; Mambet, Cristina; Enache, Valentin; Gheorghiu, Mihaela; Pasarica, Daniela; Diaconu, Camelia Cristina; Diaconu, Carmen Cristina; Bleotu, Coralia

doi:10.3390/biom16030426

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum

by

Vlad-Alexandru Ionescu

^1,2,

Gina Gheorghe

^1,2,†,

Claudiu Stefan Turculet

^1,3,

Teodor Florin Georgescu

^1,3,

Razvan Matei Bratu

^1,3,

Cristina Mambet

^1,4,5,†

,

Valentin Enache

⁶,

Mihaela Gheorghiu

⁷,

Daniela Pasarica

⁷,

Camelia Cristina Diaconu

^1,2,8,*

,

Carmen Cristina Diaconu

^4,*

and

Coralia Bleotu

^4,8,9

¹

Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila Bucharest, 050474 Bucharest, Romania

²

Internal Medicine Department, Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest, 105402 Bucharest, Romania

³

General Surgery Department, Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest, 105402 Bucharest, Romania

⁴

Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology, Romanian Academy, 030304 Bucharest, Romania

⁵

Hematology Department, Emergency University Clinical Hospital of Bucharest, 050098 Bucharest, Romania

⁶

Department of Anatomical Pathology, Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest, 105402 Bucharest, Romania

⁷

Pathophysiology and Immunology Department, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila Bucharest, 050474 Bucharest, Romania

⁸

Academy of Romanian Scientists, 050085 Bucharest, Romania

⁹

Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), University of Bucharest, 060023 Bucharest, Romania

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Biomolecules 2026, 16(3), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom16030426

Submission received: 9 February 2026 / Revised: 6 March 2026 / Accepted: 11 March 2026 / Published: 13 March 2026

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Signal Transduction and Pathway Regulation in Cancer)

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Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most important causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, underscoring the need to better understand systemic inflammatory pathways across the colorectal neoplasia spectrum. In this exploratory case–control study, we characterized plasma levels of key inflammatory mediators in healthy individuals and patients with colorectal polyps or CRC. Healthy controls (n = 10), patients with colorectal polyps (CP, n = 16), early-onset CRC (EO-CRC, n = 11), and late-onset CRC (LO-CRC, n = 51) were prospectively enrolled. Plasma levels of sTNF-R, total TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β were measured by ELISA. Group comparisons used Kruskal–Wallis tests with epsilon-squared effect sizes. PDGF-AA showed the strongest differences between controls and all neoplastic groups (ε² ≥ 0.15), and these comparisons remained significant after Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate correction. IL-17A levels were slightly higher in EO-CRC than in LO-CRC; however, this difference did not remain significant after adjustment for multiple testing. TNF-α and IL-1β showed no significant differences across groups. Overall, this study primarily provides descriptive and hypothesis-generating evidence of differential inflammatory patterns across colorectal neoplasia, with PDGF-AA emerging as the most robust signal in this exploratory dataset. These findings do not support immediate diagnostic application and require validation in larger, prospectively recruited cohorts.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; PDGF-AA; sTNF-R; IL-17A; TNF-α; IL-1β

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MDPI and ACS Style

Ionescu, V.-A.; Gheorghe, G.; Turculet, C.S.; Georgescu, T.F.; Bratu, R.M.; Mambet, C.; Enache, V.; Gheorghiu, M.; Pasarica, D.; Diaconu, C.C.; et al. Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum. Biomolecules 2026, 16, 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom16030426

AMA Style

Ionescu V-A, Gheorghe G, Turculet CS, Georgescu TF, Bratu RM, Mambet C, Enache V, Gheorghiu M, Pasarica D, Diaconu CC, et al. Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum. Biomolecules. 2026; 16(3):426. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom16030426

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ionescu, Vlad-Alexandru, Gina Gheorghe, Claudiu Stefan Turculet, Teodor Florin Georgescu, Razvan Matei Bratu, Cristina Mambet, Valentin Enache, Mihaela Gheorghiu, Daniela Pasarica, Camelia Cristina Diaconu, and et al. 2026. "Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum" Biomolecules 16, no. 3: 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom16030426

APA Style

Ionescu, V.-A., Gheorghe, G., Turculet, C. S., Georgescu, T. F., Bratu, R. M., Mambet, C., Enache, V., Gheorghiu, M., Pasarica, D., Diaconu, C. C., Diaconu, C. C., & Bleotu, C. (2026). Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum. Biomolecules, 16(3), 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom16030426

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Differential Plasma Expression of sTNF-R, TNF-α, PDGF-AA, IL-17A, and IL-1β Across the Colorectal Neoplasia Spectrum

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