Impact of Clinical Features, Cytogenetics, Genetic Mutations and Methylation of CDKN2B and DLC-1 Promoters on Treatment Response to Azacitidine

Introduction : Azacitidine (AZA) is a DNA hypomethylating agent used in myeloid neoplasms, however approximately half of patients show treatment failure or relapse. Last years, several studies have showed that genetic mutations may influence on response and survival of the treated patients. Other biomarkers that have traditionally been associated with the response to AZA are the recovery of the platelet count and the presence of abnormalities in the chromosome 7. Finally, the methylation dynamics of genes promoters could be a useful tool to predict the clinical response. Aim: To assess the predictive value on response to AZA of clinical features, cytogenetics, genetic mutations and the meth…

Antioxidant Activities and Oxidative Stress Byproducts in Human Hypertension

The objective was to study oxidative status, antioxidant activities, and reactive oxygen species byproducts in whole blood and mononuclear peripherals cells and their relationship with blood pressure. Sixty-six hypertensive patients and 16 normotensive volunteers as a control group were studied. In both, whole blood and peripheral mononuclear cells oxidized/reduced glutathione ratio and malondialdehyde was significantly higher, and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase was significantly lower in hypertensive patients when compared with normal subjects. The content of damaged base 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine in nuclear and mitochondrial deoxyribonucleoprotein…

Polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin genes and the outcome of BP and microalbuminuria in essential hypertension: a prospective three years follow-up study

The Mediterranean diet improves the systemic lipid and DNA oxidative damage in metabolic syndrome individuals. A randomized, controlled, trial.

Summary Background & aims Metabolic syndrome (MetS), in which a non-classic feature is an increase in systemic oxidative biomarkers, presents a high risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) is associated with a reduced risk of MetS. However, the effect of the MedDiet on biomarkers for oxidative damage has not been assessed in MetS individuals. We have investigated the effect of the MedDiet on systemic oxidative biomarkers in MetS individuals. Methods Randomized, controlled, parallel clinical trial in which 110 female with MetS, aged 55–80, were recruited into a large trial (PREDIMED Study) to test the efficacy of the traditional MedDie…

Diversity and dynamic changes of anelloviruses in plasma following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Monitoring of alphatorquevirus (torque teno virus [TTV]) DNA in plasma may prove to be useful to assess the net state of immune competence following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). There are scarce data published on the prevalence of beta (torque teno mini virus [TTMV]) and gammatorqueviruses (torque teno midi virus [TTMDV]) and, in particular, on the dynamics of anelloviruses in allo-HSCT patients. Twenty-five allo-HSCT recipients with available plasma specimens obtained before conditioning and after engraftment were included. Degenerated primers targeting a highly conserved genomic sequence across all anelloviruses were designed for genomic amplification an…

Ighv Mutational Status By Deep Next Generation Sequencing Refines Ighv Sanger Sequencing Classification in Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia

Introduction: Determination of the mutational status of rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain variable (IgHV) genes in patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL), is considered one of the most important prognostic factors: patients with unmutated IgHV (UM; ≥98% of identity to the germline) genes have a more aggressive disease course and develop more frequently unfavourable genetic deletions or mutations than patients with mutated IgHV (M; ≤98%). Mutational status, is currently determined by Sanger sequencing (Sseq) that allows the analysis of the major clone, however, international guidelines recommend caution in assigning mutational status in cases with "Borderline" IgHV identity (9…

Analysis ofBRCA1andBRCA2genes in Spanish breast/ovarian cancer patients: A high proportion of mutations unique to Spain and evidence of founder effects

We screened index cases from 410 Spanish breast/ovarian cancer families and 214 patients (19 of them males) with breast cancer for germ-line mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, using SSCP, PTT, CSGE, DGGE, and direct sequencing. We identified 60 mutations in BRCA1 and 53 in BRCA2. Of the 53 distinct mutations observed, 11 are novel and 12 have been reported only in Spanish families (41.5%). The prevalence of mutations in this set of families was 26.3%, but the percentage was higher in the families with breast and ovarian cancer (52.1%). The lowest proportion of mutations was found in the site-specific female breast cancer families (15.4%). Of the families with male breast cancer cases, …

Detection of Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Gene Clonality By High-Throughput Sequencing for Minimal Residual Disease Monitoring in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia

Introduction: The negative minimal residual disease (MRD) after treatment has been recently accepted as endpoint for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) clinical trials. Conventionally, MRD can be detected by using multi-color Flow Cytometry (FC) with high sensitivity. Determination of the clonal immunoglobulin gene rearrangement can be a useful monitoring marker in a broad range of B-cell lymphoproliferative neoplasms. Moreover, the mutational status of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable (IgHV) rearrangement is considered one of the most important prognostic factors in CLL. Therefore, the identification of the IgHV rearrangement can be a useful marker both at diagnostic and as monitoring …

Epidemiological Characterization and Determination of TP53 and IGHV Mutational Status of a Large Series of Previously-Untreated Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) Patients in Spain: The Epicll Study

Abstract Introduction: Among the genetic lesions described in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), TP53 and IGHV mutational status are well-established prognostic biomarkers. While mutations resulting in dysregulation of TP53 are associated with chemo-resistance, mutated IGHV (IGHV-M) identifies a good prognosis and unmutated (IGHV-UM) is associated with an aggressive clinical outcome. Thus, molecular assessment of TP53 and IGHV mutational status is recommended to make treatment decisions. Moreover, 30% of CLL patients have a highly homologous complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3), allowing their classification in subsets based on the stereotypical B-cell receptor immunoglobulins (BcR …

Factors related to the impact of antihypertensive treatment in antioxidant activities and oxidative stress by-products in human hypertension

The objective was to study factors related to the changes induced by antihypertensive treatment on oxidative status, antioxidant activities, and reactive oxygen species by-products in whole blood and mononuclear peripheral cells. Eighty-nine hypertensive patients (mean age 46 years, 46 men, average 24-h blood pressure 139/88 mm Hg, body mass index 29) were included. After 3 months of nonrandomized allocation to antihypertensive treatment (20 nonpharmacologic, 36 beta-blockers, 33 angiotensin receptor blocker), oxidized/reduced glutathione ratio and malondialdehyde were significantly reduced, and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase was significantly inc…

Liquid Biopsy and Lymphoma Monitoring in Clinical Practice

Abstract INTRODUCTION Lymphomas represent the fourth most frequent type of cancer, 90% of them arising from B cell lymphocytes. Despite their high prevalence, around 40% remain incurable because of refractoriness to current chemoimmunotherapy or disease relapse after obtaining response (Li et al., 2018; Meng et al., 2020). The cell of origin is a B lymphocyte with a unique B cell receptor (BCR). The BCR is an immunoglobulin composed of two heavy chains (IgH) and two light chains (IgL) whose genes have multiple coding segments that through rearrangement first and further somatic hypermutation in the germinal center, generate a unique sequence that could be used to monitor the treatment respo…

Correlation of Zinc with Oxidative Stress Biomarkers

Hypertension and smoking are related with oxidative stress (OS), which in turn reports on cellular aging. Zinc is an essential element involved in an individual’s physiology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation of zinc levels in serum and urine with OS and cellular aging and its effect on the development of hypertension. In a Spanish sample with 1500 individuals, subjects aged 20–59 years were selected, whose zinc intake levels fell within the recommended limits. These individuals were classified according to their smoking habits and hypertensive condition. A positive correlation was found (Pearson’s C = 0.639