Search results for "auto"

Biomarkers and clinical characteristics of autoimmune chronic spontaneous urticaria: Results of the PURIST Study.

2019

Background: Autoimmune chronic spontaneous urticaria (aiCSU) is an important subtype of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) in which functional IgG autoantibodies to IgE or its high-affinity receptor (FcεRI) induces mast cell degranulation and subsequent symptom development. However, it has not been tightly characterized. This study aimed to better define the clinical and immunological features and to explore potential biomarkers of aiCSU. Methods: This was a multinational, multicenter study of 182 CSU patients. The clinical features studied included: urticaria activity and impact (UAS7 and quality of life); autologous serum skin test (ASST); IgG anti-FcεRI and IgG anti-IgE; IgG-anti-thyrop…

Differential Expression Profiles and Functional Prediction of Circular RNAs in Pediatric Dilated Cardiomyopathy

2020

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have emerged as essential regulators and biomarkers in various diseases. To assess the different expression levels of circRNAs in pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy (PDCM) and explore their biological and mechanistic significance, we used RNA microarrays to identify differentially expressed circRNAs between three children diagnosed with PDCM and three healthy age-matched volunteers. The biological function of circRNAs was assessed with a circRNA–microRNA (miRNA)–mRNA interaction network constructed from Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. Differentially expressed circRNAs were validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qR…

Mortality in COVID-19 disease patients: Correlating Association of Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) with severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (S…

2020

Highlights • In addition to ethnicity, socio-economic factors, prior vaccinations and exposure to other coronaviruses, other factors need to be considered to explain geographical and regional variations in susceptibility, severity of clinical expression of COVID-19 disease and outcomes. • Differences in peptide binding of SARS-CoV-2 variants to MHC class II, but not to MHC class I alleles frequent in individuals with African, Asian or Caucasian descent could be identified. • Single mutations in the wildtype of SARS-CoV-2, the so called B strain or L strain impact on MHC presentation • Most likely there is selective pressure from MHC class II alleles in regard to binding of the ORF8 (L84S) v…

2017

Neuronal degeneration following traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to intracellular accumulation of dysfunctional proteins and organelles. Autophagy may serve to facilitate degradation to overcome protein debris load and therefore be an important pro-survival factor. On the contrary, clearing may serve as pro-death factor by removal of essential or required proteins involved in pro-survival cascades. Sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1/p62) is a main regulator of the autophagic pathway that directs ubiquinated cargoes to autophagosomes for degradation. We show that SQSTM1 protein levels are suppressed 24 h and by trend 5 days after trauma. In line with these data the expression of Sqstm1 mRNA is reduced…

Celiac disease and endocrine autoimmunity - the genetic link.

2018

Celiac disease is a small intestinal inflammatory disease with autoimmune features that is triggered and maintained by the ingestion of the storage proteins (gluten) of wheat, barley and rye. The prevalence of celiac disease is increased in patients with monoglandular and/or polyglandular autoimmunity and their relatives. Between 10 and 30% of patients with celiac disease are thyroid and/or type 1 diabetes antibody positive, while around 5 to 7% of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease and/or type 1 diabetes are IgA anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody positive. The close relationship between celiac disease and endocrine autoimmunity is largely explained by sharing a common genetic back…

Type 1 diabetes associated autoimmunity.

2016

Diabetes mellitus is increasing in prevalence worldwide. The economic costs are considerable given the cardiovascular complications and co-morbidities that it may entail. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of insulin-producing pancreatic β-cells. The pathogenesis of T1D is complex and multifactorial and involves a genetic susceptibility that predisposes to abnormal immune responses in the presence of ill-defined environmental insults to the pancreatic islets. Genetic background may affect the risk for autoimmune disease and patients with T1D exhibit an increased risk of other autoimmune disorders such as autoimmune thyroid disease, Addison's dise…

Evidence That Graves' Ophthalmopathy Immunoglobulins Do Not Directly Activate IGF-1 Receptors

2018

Background: Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) pathogenesis involves thyrotropin (TSH) receptor (TSHR)-stimulating autoantibodies. Whether there are autoantibodies that directly stimulate insulin-like growth factor 1 receptors (IGF-1Rs), stimulating insulin-like growth factor receptor antibodies (IGFRAbs), remains controversial. This study attempted to determine whether there are stimulating IGFRAbs in patients with GO. Methods: Immunoglobulins (Igs) were purified from normal volunteers (NV-Igs) and patients with GO (GO-Igs). The effects of TSH, IGF-1, NV-Igs, and GO-Igs on pAKT and pERK1/2, members of pathways used by IGF-1R and TSHR, were compared in orbital fibroblasts from GO patients (GOFs) a…

Biomarkers for the Noninvasive Diagnosis of Endometriosis: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

2020

Background: Early and accurate diagnosis of endometriosis is crucial for the management of this benign, yet debilitating pathology. Despite the advances of modern medicine, there is no common ground regarding the pathophysiology of this disease as it continues to affect the quality of life of millions of women of reproductive age. The lack of specific symptoms often determines a belated diagnosis. The gold standard remains invasive, surgery followed by a histopathological exam. A biomarker or a panel of biomarkers is easy to measure, usually noninvasive, and could benefit the clinician in both diagnosing and monitoring the treatment response. Several studies have advanced the idea of biomar…

Proton Pump Inhibitors Display Antitumor Effects in Barrett's Adenocarcinoma Cells

2016

Recent evidence has reported that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can exert antineoplastic effects through the disruption of pH homeostasis by inhibiting vacuolar ATPase (H+-VATPase), a proton pump overexpressed in several tumor cells, but this aspect has not been deeply investigated in EAC yet. In the present study, the expression of H+-VATPase was assessed through the metaplasia-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence in Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and the antineoplastic effects of PPIs and cellular mechanisms involved were evaluated in vitro. H+-VATPase expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in paraffined-embedded samples or by immunofluorescence in cultured BE and EAC cell lines. Cells we…

Genome-wide association meta-analysis for early age-related macular degeneration highlights novel loci and insights for advanced disease

2020

Abstract Background Advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness. While around half of the genetic contribution to advanced AMD has been uncovered, little is known about the genetic architecture of early AMD. Methods To identify genetic factors for early AMD, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis (14,034 cases, 91,214 controls, 11 sources of data including the International AMD Genomics Consortium, IAMDGC, and UK Biobank, UKBB). We ascertained early AMD via color fundus photographs by manual grading for 10 sources and via an automated machine learning approach for > 170,000 photographs from UKBB. We searched for early AMD loc…