Correlation analysis of serum galectin-3 combined with Th1/Th2-related cytokines and severe anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Zhaodi Qiu, Bifang Huang, Hua Zhou, Y Q Huang, Huiyu Liu

Objective To evaluate the synergistic effect of serum Galectin-3 (Gal-3) and Th1/Th2 level-related cytokines, and its association with severe anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), aiming to provide potential indicators for clinical stratified assessment. Methods This study was a cross-sectional study. A total of 115 patients with COPD who were admitted to our hospital from August 2022 to October 2025 were selected as the research subjects. Based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the patients were divided into the asymptomatic group (HADS anxiety score ≤ 7 points), the mild group (8–10 points), and the moderate-to-severe group (> 10 points). Serum levels of Gal-3, Th1 cytokines (IL-2 and IFN-γ), and Th2 cytokines (IL-4 and IL-33) were quantified. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship. Logistic regression model was employed to analyze the influencing factors. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum Gal-3 and Th1/Th2. Results Serum levels of Gal-3, IL-2, IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-33 were increased significantly in correlation with symptom severity, with the highest levels observed in the moderate-to-severe group ( P < 0.05). All these markers were positively correlated with the HADS anxiety dimension scores and the HADS depression dimension scores ( P < 0.05). Serum Gal-3, IL-2, IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-33 were all associated factors for anxiety and depression symptoms in COPD patients ( P < 0.05). The ROC curve revealed that the AUCs of serum indicators Gal-3, IL-2, IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-33 for diagnosing moderate-to-severe anxiety and depression symptoms in COPD patients were 0.814, 0.767, 0.778, 0.847, and 0.823, respectively. The combined detection model achieved a superior AUC of 0.905 (95% CI: 0.845–0.965) for identifying moderate-to-severe anxiety and depression symptoms. This combined model demonstrated a sensitivity of 85.51% and a specificity of 86.96%, significantly outperforming the single-marker. Conclusion Gal-3 was synergistic with Th1/Th2-related cytokines and was associated with the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with COPD. The combined detection of these markers may provide a reference for early clinical stratification assessment.