Project description:BackgroundWhether injury-related molecules in urines of individuals with ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) are independent predictors of graft outcomes and provide additional information compared with usual risk factors remains to be established.MethodsWe explored a cohort of 244 kidney transplant recipients who systematically had a urine collection 10 days after transplantation. The injury-related markers kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and angiogenin (ANG) levels in urines were measured. We determined the prognostic values of these markers on graft outcomes.ResultsUrinary KIM-1 and ANG concentrations were strongly correlated to each other and were significantly and independently associated with cold ischemia time, delayed graft function, and plasma creatinine 10 days after transplantation, indicating that these markers reflect the severity of IRI. However, urinary ANG and KIM-1 were not predictive of histological changes on protocol biopsies performed 3 and 12 months after transplantation. Finally, urinary ANG and urinary KIM-1 were not associated with graft survival.ConclusionsTogether, our results indicate that, in a cohort of 244 kidney transplant recipients, urinary ANG and KIM-1 levels in a single measurement 10 days after transplantation reflect the severity of IRI after kidney transplantation, but are neither independent predictors of renal function, histological changes and graft survival.
Project description:The neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and red cell distribution width (RDW) are markers of systemic inflammation with prognostic significance for cancers. The aim of the study was to investigate the predictive significance of pretreatment values of NLR, PLR, and RDW in cervical cancer. We retrospectively analyzed 515 patients with cancer. Median values of NLR and PLR were higher in patients with cancer compared with controls and were consistently elevated during tumor progression, while the RDW was uninformative. Increased NLR was associated with lymph node (LN) metastasis and depth of stromal infiltration, and increased PLR correlated only with LN metastasis. The pretreatment NLR or PLR value was a significant predictor of LN metastasis, which enhanced when NLR and PLR values were combined. Further, NLR and PLR were as effective as squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) for predicting distant tumor metastasis. However, no prognostic significance of NLR or PLR was found in the patients with early cancer stages. Our study suggested that pretreatment values of NLR and PLR might be helpful to predict the presence of distant and LN metastasis in patients with cervical carcinoma, but not adequate prognostic factors for early stage patients.
Project description:To understand the molecular mechanism of rectal cancer and develop markers for disease prognostication, we generated and explored a dataset from 243 rectal cancer patients by gene expression microarray analysis of cancer samples and matched controls, and SNP-arrays of germline DNA. We found that two of the loci most strongly linked with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, 8q24 (upstream of MYC) and 18q21 (in the intron of SMAD7), as well as 20q13 (in the intron of LAMA5), are tightly associated with the prognosis of rectal cancer patients. For SNPs on 18q21 (rs12953717 and rs4464148) and 20q13 (rs4925386), alleles that correlate with higher risk for the development of CRC are associated with shorter disease free survival (DFS). However, for rs6983267 on 8q24, the low risk allele is associated with a higher risk for recurrence and metastasis after surgery, and importantly, is strongly correlated with the resistance of CRC cell lines to chemoradiotherapy (CRT). We also found that although MYC expression is dramatically increased in cancer, patients with higher levels of MYC have a better prognosis. The expression of SMAD7 is weakly correlated with DFS. Notably, the presence of the 8q24 and 18q21 SNP alleles is not correlated with expression levels of MYC and SMAD7. rs4464148, and probably rs6983267 and rs4925386, are linked with overall survival time of patients. In conclusion, we show that several CRC risk SNPs detect subpopulations of rectal cancer patients with poor prognosis, and that rs6983267 probably affects prognosis through interfering with the resistance of cancer cells to CRT.
Project description:Although the tubule is the epicenter of damage, kidney fibroblast is increasingly appreciated in governing the prognosis of acute kidney injury (AKI). Smoothened (Smo), a heptahelical transmembrane protein, carries a hedgehog signal to mediate the communications between kidney fibroblasts and tubular epithelium through an undetermined mechanism in AKI. Integrating in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro approaches with systems biology, we report that Smo-specific ablation in fibroblast preserved kidney function and mitigated tubular cell apoptosis or inflammation after AKI. Loss of Smo in fibroblasts enhanced the activity of perivascular mesenchymal cells. Global proteomics revealed extracellular matrix is a key cellular compartment where significant proteins are distributed, and Nidogen-1 is a prominent basement membrane glycoprotein highly expressed in fibroblast-Smo specific ablation kidneys. Co-immunoprecipitation showed that Smo binds Nidogen-1. Phosphoproteomics identified wnt signaling pathway, the AKI protector, was activated in fibroblast Smo deletion kidneys. In vitro and ex vivo, Nidogen-1 induced wnts and repressed tubular cell apoptosis. Our results suggest that fibroblast-derived Smo dictates AKI fate through cell-matrix-cell interactions and provides open-access data resources to understand AKI pathogenesis better.
Project description:BackgroundThere are proposed roles for inflammation in the development of congenital obstructive uropathy in the setting of posterior urethral valves (PUV). However, the value of inflammatory proteins as predictive markers of postnatal kidney function, key in the management of fetuses with PUV, has not been explored. We screened fetal urine of fetuses with PUV with a panel of inflammatory proteins to determine their predictive value of postnatal kidney function.MethodsTwenty-five different chemokines and cytokines were measured using a multiplex immunoassay in fetal urine of 79 PUV patients from retrospective cohorts, separated in discovery (n = 52) and validation (n = 27). The candidate markers were also quantified in amniotic fluid samples obtained from 16 PUV and 25 other congenital anomalies of the kidney and the urinary tract pregnancies. The performance of validated candidate inflammatory proteins was compared to the previously published 12PUV fetal urine peptide signature.ResultsFetal urine chemokines CCL2 (MCP-1), CXCL9 (MIG), and CCL4 (MIP-1β) were identified as predictive of postnatal kidney failure in fetuses with PUV from the discovery cohort. Their predictive potential was confirmed in the validation cohort (AUCs of 0.87, 0.81, and 0.86, respectively). The performance of these individual chemokines was lower than the previously published 12PUV fetal urine peptide signature. However, the combination of the three chemokines performed similarly to 12PUV. In contrast, these three chemokines were not predictive of outcome in amniotic fluid.ConclusionsWe identified chemokines in fetal urine of PUV pregnancies that, after external validation, could serve as predictive biomarkers of postnatal outcome and contribute to improve prenatal PUV management.
Project description:ObjectiveChronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is an adult leukemia presented with clonal accumulation of lymphocytes. Immunophenotypic changes can be effective in predicting clinical course, the survival of patients, and determining first-line treatment. This is a study of the association between immunophenotypic markers with complete blood cell count (CBC) values and clinical parameters.ResultsPeripheral blood samples were collected from 35 newly diagnosed CLL patients. The expression of immunophenotypic markers and CBC were evaluated. Platelet counts and hemoglobin concentration had a significant, inverse association with Rai staging, modified Rai staging, Binet staging systems (all p < 0.001 in both parameters), and splenomegaly (p = 0.001 and 0.007, respectively). The platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) had a significant, inverse association with Rai staging (p = 0.014), modified Rai staging (p = 0.024), Binet staging systems (p = 0.027), and splenomegaly (p = 0.033). However, CD38, CD25, and double-positive CD56/CD117 expression, group 3 of innate lymphocyte cells (ILC3s), had no significant association with clinical parameters. In regression analysis, that ILC3s has an inverse correlation with neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (r = -0.340, p = 0.046). Given that there is an inverse association between PLR and advanced clinical stages, it seems that PLR may have prognostic value in CLL.
Project description:ObjectivesTo summarise the evidence from studies of acute kidney injury (AKI) with regard to the effect of pre-AKI renal function and post-AKI renal function recovery on long-term mortality and renal outcomes, and to assess whether these factors should be taken into account in future prognostic studies.Design/settingA systematic review of observational studies listed in Medline and EMBASE from 1990 to October 2012.ParticipantsAll AKI studies in adults with data on baseline kidney function to identify AKI; with outcomes either stratified by pre-AKI and/or post-AKI kidney function, or described by the timing of the outcomes.OutcomesLong-term mortality and worsening chronic kidney disease (CKD).ResultsOf 7385 citations, few studies met inclusion criteria, reported baseline kidney function and stratified by pre-AKI or post-AKI function. For mortality outcomes, three studies compared patients by pre-AKI renal function and six by post-AKI function. For CKD outcomes, two studies compared patients by pre-AKI function and two by post-AKI function. The presence of CKD pre-AKI (compared with AKI alone) was associated with doubling of mortality and a fourfold to fivefold increase in CKD outcomes. Non-recovery of kidney function was associated with greater mortality and CKD outcomes in some studies, but findings were inconsistent varying with study design. Two studies also reported that risk of poor outcome reduced over time post-AKI. Meta-analysis was precluded by variations in definitions for AKI, CKD and recovery.ConclusionsThe long-term prognosis after AKI varies depending on cause and clinical setting, but it may also, in part, be explained by underlying pre-AKI and post-AKI renal function rather than the AKI episode itself. While carefully considered in clinical practice, few studies address these factors and with inconsistent study design. Future AKI studies should report pre-AKI and post-AKI function consistently as additional factors that may modify AKI prognosis.
Project description:Anti-inflammatory treatment is the primary and vital therapeutic approach for active, moderate-to-severe thyroid eye disease (TED). Accurate pretreatment prediction of treatment response is of paramount importance for the prognosis of patients. However, relying solely on the clinical activity score asa determinant of activity has led to unsatisfactory treatment outcomes. In recent years, significant advancements have been made in identifying predictive markers for anti-inflammatory treatment response in TED, clinical markers, body fluid biomarkers and imaging biomarkers. Several clinical studies have developed prediction models based on these markers. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive elucidation or comparison between the different markers. Therefore, this review aims to provide a detailed analysis of the definition, characteristics, and application of predictive markers for anti-inflammatory treatment response in TED. Through detailed literature search, 26 articles applying anti-inflammatory treatment effect prediction with a total of 1948 TED patients were used for analysis and discussion. By gaining a better understanding of the current research on predictive markers, we can accelerate and guide the exploration of treatment prediction strategies, leading us towards an era of precise therapy for TED.
Project description:Dementia is a huge public health concern today owing to the exponentially increasing number of older adults it affects each year, and there has been a large number of investigators looking at potential biomarkers of dementia. Peripheral inflammatory markers have emerged as one potential class of markers that may be useful in predicting those individuals at a greater risk of developing dementia, or in expounding the underlying mechanisms or pathways of this complex disease. Although some evidence has been promising, indicating that peripheral inflammatory markers are indeed crucial in brain changes that occur in both normal aging and in dementia, results have been mixed on their usefulness for predicting dementia or cognitive decline in older adults. Here, the authors present a review of existing studies investigating inflammatory markers as potential biomarkers of dementia, highlighting some strengths and limitations of the current research and discuss the future directions for this field.
Project description:BackgroundNeuroblastoma, a prevalent extracranial solid tumor in pediatric patients, demonstrates significant clinical heterogeneity, ranging from spontaneous regression to aggressive metastatic disease. Despite advances in treatment, high-risk neuroblastoma remains associated with poor survival. SLC1A5, a key glutamine transporter, plays a dual role in promoting tumor growth and immune modulation. However, its contributions to neuroblastoma biology remain largely unexplored.MethodsThis study utilized clinical neuroblastoma samples from 20 patients and 1310 cases from four public datasets to investigate SLC1A5 expression, biological function, and prognostic significance. Differential expression, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, and weighted correlation network analysis were conducted. Functional validation included qPCR, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and cell proliferation assays using the SLC1A5 inhibitor V-9302. A prognostic signature, SRPS, was constructed and validated using machine-learning approaches. Immune infiltration analysis was performed to evaluate the tumor immune microenvironment.ResultsSLC1A5 expression was significantly elevated in high-risk neuroblastoma and correlated with advanced stages and poor prognosis. GSEA revealed mTORC1 signaling enrichment in high SLC1A5 expression groups, validated by increased p-p70S6K levels in tumor samples and neuroblastoma cells. V-9302 treatment suppressed mTORC1 signaling and inhibited cell proliferation. Hub-genes were identified to form the SRPS model, which demonstrated superior prognostic performance compared to existing models. Immune infiltration analysis revealed a more immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment associated with high SLC1A5 expression. Additionally, SLC1A5 negatively regulated ST8SIA1, a gene crucial for GD2 biosynthesis, suggesting that SLC1A5 inhibition may enhance GD2-directed immunotherapies.ConclusionSLC1A5 plays a pivotal role in neuroblastoma by promoting tumor progression and shaping an immunosuppressive microenvironment. The SRPS model, incorporating SLC1A5-associated genes, offers robust prognostic utility. Targeting SLC1A5 through advanced drug delivery systems and combined metabolic-immunotherapeutic strategies may enhance treatment specificity and efficacy. These findings provide a foundation for novel therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes in high-risk neuroblastoma patients.