Regulation of imiquimod on interleukin 18 in the peripheral blood of patient with condyloma acuminatum

Objective To study the regulation of imiquimod on interleukin 18(IL-18) in the peripheral blood of patient with condyloma acuminatum.Methods 22 adult patients with condyloma acuminatum and 20 healthy controls were sequentially enrolled in this study.Serum levels of IL-18mRNA were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction in the 22 cases with condyloma acuminatum before and after treatment with imiquimod for 8 weeks and in the 20 healthy controls respectively.Results The serum level of IL-18mRNA before treatment was significantly higher than that of the healthy controls(t=10.82,P0.0001).Expression of serum IL-18mRNA in condyloma acuminatum was significantly decreased after 8 weeks' imiquimod treatment(t=10.74,P0.0001).The serum level of IL-18mRNA was not significantly different between the post-treatment group and the control group(t=1.05,P0.05).Conclusion Our data show that imiquimod could curb the over expression of IL-18mRNA in patients with condyloma acuminatum.