Prevalence of hepatitis C virus isolate genotypes from chronically infected Lebanese patients: a hospital-based study

To assess percentages of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in infected Lebanese patients referred to St. George Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon, 77 infected cases were studied. Of those, 27 were hemodialysis patients. Genotyping was performed by nested PCR of the HCV core-region with specific primers, followed by DNA enzyme-immunoassay using HCV type and subtype-specific probes. Single genotype infections were detected in 52 patients (67.5%). In these cases, types 1, 2, 3 and 4 were detected in 19.5%, 32.5%, 5.1% and 10.4% of the cases respectively. Twenty-five (32.5%) samples showed mixed genotype infections. Single genotype distribution was significantly different among dialysis and non-dialysis patients. In the dialysis group, genotype 2 was predominant (80%, p < 0.001). In single HCV genotype-infected patients, subtype 1b was frequently detected in nondialysis cases (34.4%) whereas this genotype was found in only 5% of dialysis cases. Genotypes 5 and 6 were not detected in any of the cases studied. This pilot hospital-based study provides evidence for the diversity of HCV genotypes in the Lebanese population and establishes differences in distribution depending on the risk group.     

Association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Antigen 4 and Susceptibility to Autoimmune Type 1 Diabetes in Tunisians

In addition to HLA and insulin genes, the costimulatory molecule CTLA-4 gene is a confirmed type 1 diabetes (T1D) susceptibility gene. Previous studies investigated the association of CTLA-4 genetic variants with the risk of T1D, but with inconclusive findings. Here, we tested the contributions of common CTLA-4 gene variants to T1D susceptibility in Tunisian patients and control subjects. The study subjects comprised 228 T1D patients (47.8% females) and 193 unrelated healthy controls (45.6% females). Genotyping for CTLA-4 CT60A/G (rs3087243), +49A/G (rs231775), and −318C/T (rs5742909) was performed by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. The minor-allele frequencies (MAF) for the three CTLA-4 variants were significantly higher in T1D patients, and significantly higher frequencies of homozygous +49G/G and homozygous CT60G/G genotypes were seen in patients, which was confirmed by univariate regression analysis (taking the homozygous wild type as a reference). Of the eight possible three-locus CTLA-4 haplotypes (+49A/G, −318C/T, and CT60A/G) identified, multivariate regression analysis confirmed the positive association of ACG (odds ratio [OR], 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26 to 2.94), GCG (OR, 2.40; 95% CI, 1.11 to 5.21), and GTA (OR, 4.67; 95% CI, 1.52 to 14.39) haplotypes with T1D, after confounding variables were adjusted for. Our results indicate that CTLA-4 gene variants are associated with increased T1D susceptibility in Tunisian patients, further supporting a central role for altered T-cell costimulation in T1D pathogenesis.Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes (T1D) is the most prevalent form of diabetes in children and young adults and results from autoimmune CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cell-directed destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic β islet cells in genetically susceptible individuals (3, 12), leading to irreversible hyperglycemia and related complications (13). There is a strong genetic component to T1D pathogenesis, evidenced by its clustering in families and by the contributions of a number of susceptibility gene variants to its pathogenesis (10, 12, 29). They include the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus, in particular the class II region (DR and DQ), which accounts for 40 to 50% of T1D familial clustering (1, 12, 18), and non-HLA susceptibility loci, several of which were mapped by genome-scanning (11, 29) and/or candidate gene (7, 18, 31) approaches. They include insulin promoter gene variants, which reportedly may modulate immunological tolerance by controlling the expansion of the autoreactive cell pool (26), and the T-cell costimulator cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) transmembrane glycoprotein, which plays a key role in the fine tuning of T-cell immunity (9, 32, 33).CTLA-4 is a 40-kDa transmembrane glycoprotein expressed on resting and activated T cells and nonlymphoid cells (33), and along with the related CD28 costimulatory molecule, it regulates T-cell activation (and is itself primarily mediated by engagement of the T-cell receptor [TCR]) but does recognize major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-bound antigenic peptides (9, 33). CTLA-4 negatively regulates T-cell activation and effector function, in part by inhibiting Th1 (interleukin 2 [IL-2] and gamma interferon [IFN-γ]) cytokine production and IL-2 receptor α-chain (p55; Tac) expression by engaging antigen-presenting cell (APC)-bound B7.1 (CD80) and B7.2 (CD86) ligands (9, 33). Functionally, CTLA-4 attenuates T-cell signaling by interference with intracellular signal transduction events, including TCR signaling, and reduced CTLA-4 expression and/or activity results in uncontrolled T-cell-associated autoimmunity and lymphoproliferative disease (9, 21). In this regard, it was shown that CTLA-4 polymorphisms significantly influence the risk of autoimmune diseases, including Graves'' disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, autoimmune hypothyroidism, celiac disease, and type 1 diabetes (15, 21, 32).First observed in Italian subjects (25), and confirmed subsequently by case control and family studies, CTLA-4 polymorphic variants were linked with T1D pathogenesis (14, 20, 31, 32). While this association was detected in different ethnic groups (14, 23, 30), it appears more likely to be Caucasian selective (10, 29, 33) and absent from non-Caucasians (5, 6, 8, 19, 22). A recent report from the Type I Diabetes Genetics Consortium bearing on 2,300 affected sib pair families demonstrated that among the 24 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped in the CTLA-4 region, only the +49A/G and CT60 SNPs were replicated in the nine combined collections (27). In the present study, we investigated the association of three common CTLA-4 SNPs (−318C/T; +49A/G, and CT60A/G) and the corresponding haplotypes with T1D in Tunisian Arab patients.     

Esophageal pH exposure and epithelial cell differentiation

It is proposed that epithelial changes induced by gastroesophageal reflux disease are related to the pH environment of the esophageal lumen. We hypothesized that the various types of esophageal epithelium are associated with specific pH environments that induce their formation. The aim of this study was to compare the luminal pH environment to the histology of the distal esophageal epithelium in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease. A total of 197 symptomatic patients with increased esophageal acid exposure on 24-hour pH monitoring were grouped according to the histology based on biopsies from the distal esophagus: 17 with squamous epithelium, 126 with cardiac epithelium (CE), and 54 with Barrett's epithelium (BE). All were free of Helicobacter pylori infection and monitored off acid suppression therapy. Acid exposure was expressed as the percent of time the luminal pH was at intervals of 0–1, 1–2, 2–3, 3–4, 4–5, 5–6, and 6–7 over a 24-hour period. Patients with BE spent significantly more time at pH intervals 2–3, 3–4, and 4–5 than those with CE. This pattern switched at pH interval 5–6, where patients with cardiac mucosa spent more time than those with BE. Patients with squamous and CE had similar pH exposure at all intervals. Patients with BE have significantly longer exposure time at the pH interval of 2 to 5 compared to those with cardiac and squamous epithelium. This suggests that the exposure of stem cells to a luminal pH between 2 and 5 may trigger the differentiation of CE into intestinalized CE.     

Evidence for HLA class II susceptible and protective haplotypes for osteomyelitis in pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia

We investigated the association of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles and haplotypes with the pathogenesis of sickle cell anemia (SCA) osteomyelitis. SCA patients comprised 42 patients with osteomyelitis and 150 patients without osteomyelitis; HLA-DRB1* and HLA-DQB1* genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific priming (SSP). DRB1*100101 (P value corrected for the number of different alleles tested, Pc=0.003) was positively associated with osteomyelitis. At the haplotype level, DRB1*100101-DQB1*050101 (Pc=0.001) was more prevalent among patients, while DRB1*030101-DQB1*0201 (Pc=0.020) and DRB1*040101-DQB1*0302 (Pc=0.039) were more prevalent among SCA controls, thereby conferring disease susceptibility or protection to these haplotypes, respectively. These results show that specific HLA haplotypes influence SCA osteomyelitis risk and that specific HLA types may serve as markers for identifying SCA patients at high risk for osteomyelitis.     

Autoimmune Type 1 Diabetes Genetic Susceptibility Encoded by Human Leukocyte Antigen DRB1 and DQB1 Genes in Tunisia

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II genes contribute to the genetic susceptibility to type 1 diabetes (T1D), and susceptible alleles and haplotypes were implicated in the pathogenesis of T1D. This study investigated the heterogeneity in HLA class II haplotype distribution among Tunisian patients with T1D. This was a retrospective case control study done in Monastir in central Tunisia. The subjects comprised 88 T1D patients and 112 healthy controls. HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 genotyping was done by PCR-sequence-specific priming. Significant DRB1 and DQB1 allelic differences were seen between T1D patients and controls; these differences comprised DRB1*030101 and DQB1*0302, which were higher in T1D patients than in control subjects, and DRB1*070101, DRB1*110101, DQB1*030101, and DQB1*060101, which were lower in T1D patients than in control subjects. In addition, the frequencies of DRB1*030101-DQB1*0201 and DRB1*040101-DQB1*0302 were higher in T1D patients than in control subjects, and the frequencies of DRB1*070101-DQB1*0201 and DRB1*110101-DQB1*030101 haplotypes were lower in T1D patients than in control subjects. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed the positive association of DRB1*030101-DQB1*0201 and DRB1*040101-DQB1*0302 and the negative association of only DRB1*070101-DQB1*0201 haplotypes with T1D. Furthermore, a significantly increased prevalence of DRB1*030101-DQB1*0201 homozygotes was seen for T1D subjects than for control subjects. Our results confirm the association of specific HLA-DR and -DQ alleles and haplotypes with T1D in Tunisians. The identification of similar and unique haplotypes in Tunisians compared to other Caucasians highlights the need for evaluating the contribution of HLA class II to the genetic susceptibility to T1D with regard to haplotype usage and also to ethnic origin and racial background.Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes (T1D) is the most prevalent form of diabetes in children and young adults (12, 17) and results from autoimmune CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cell-directed destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic ß islet cells, leading to irreversible hyperglycemia and related complications (4, 22). In addition to environmental factors, there is a strong genetic component to T1D pathogenesis, of which the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) locus, in particular the class II region (DR and DQ), account for 40 to 50% of T1D familial clustering (13, 30). This was evidenced by the enrichment of DR3, DR4, DQ2, and DQ8, and the lower prevalence of DR15 or DQ6.2 alleles among T1D patients, thereby assigning a susceptible or protective role for these alleles in T1D pathogenesis, respectively (3, 16, 21).The fact that not all carriers of a specific high-risk DR or DQ variant develop the disease and the strong linkage disequilibrium between select DRB1 and DQB1 alleles (28) indicate that the pathogenesis of T1D results from the complex interaction between several genes within the class II region, in which specific DRB1-DQB1 haplotypes contribute to disease susceptibility. Accordingly, the enrichment or decreased prevalence of select DRB1-DQB1 haplotypes in T1D patients imparts disease susceptibility or protection, respectively (3, 18, 24). This susceptibility or protection effect disappears when a different DRB1 or DQB1 allele replaces the specific allele in the haplotype (29). The contribution of specific HLA haplotypes toward T1D susceptibility depends on the ethnic/racial background (26), which was highlighted by the positive association of DRB1*030101-DQB1*0201 and DRB1*040101-DQB1*0302 haplotypes with T1D among Caucasians (3, 16) compared to DRB1*0405-DQB1*0401 and DRB1*0901-DQB1*0303 haplotypes and T1D in Japanese (18), while DRB1*1501-DQB1*0602 appeared to be protective of T1D in all populations (3, 16, 18). This indicates that association of a specific class II allele and DRB1-DQB1 haplotype with T1D must be evaluated in the context of the specific ethnic/racial background (26).We previously reported an association between HLA DRB1 and DQB1 alleles and haplotypes in Tunisian T1D patients (n = 50) and control subjects (n = 50) and identified two susceptible haplotypes (DRB1*030101-DQB1*0201 and DRB1*040101-DQB1*0302), but no protective haplotypes (27). Using haplotype estimation and regression analysis, here, we extend our investigation of HLA class II and T1D risk on a large sample size by confirming the association of these haplotypes and identified an additional T1D-protective haplotype.     

Validity of vaginal testing in detecting human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes.

The aim of this study was to assess the validity and usefulness of vaginal scrapes in detecting cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The study group comprised 23 women tested positive and 28 women tested negative for cervical HPV DNA by PCR, and confirmed by histopathology. At the time of specimen collection, both vaginal and endocervical scrapes were taken from these women, and tested for HPV DNA by PCR, using MY09/MY11 primer system. HPV genotypes were analyzed by hybridizing PCR products with HPV type-specific biotinylated probes. HPV DNA was detected in both vaginal and cervical scrapes from the HPV-positive, but not from HPV-negative group. In the HPV-positive group, the same HPV type was found in vaginal and endocervical scrapes, giving a positive predictive value of 1.0. The results indicate that HPV types can be detected in vaginal scrapes, and recommend utilization of the less invasive vaginal testing for the routine detection of HPV DNA.     

抗角蛋白抗体、抗核周因子和抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体联合检测幼年类风湿关节炎：早期诊断及治疗评估意义

目的:评价抗角蛋白抗体、抗核周因子和抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体联合检测在幼年类风湿关节炎诊断及病情评估中的意义。方法:①观察对象及分组:选择2003-01/2005-12首都医科大学附属北京儿童医院风湿免疫病房住院治疗的76例幼年类风湿关节炎患儿及54例非幼年类风湿关节炎患儿,正常对照30例(家属均知情同意)。②检测上述人员血清抗角蛋白抗体、抗核周因子抗体和抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体水平;观察两组患儿出现临床症状、体征例数及实验室检测数据。③对幼年类风湿关节炎诊断的敏感性、特异性,阳性似然比、阴性似然比进行评价,并对幼年类风湿关节炎患儿中3种抗体联合检测阳性组阴性组的临床症状、体征及实验室检查方面的指标进行比较,资料作统计学分析。结果:两组患儿130例,正常儿童30例,全部进入结果分析。①两组患儿临床症状、体征例数及实验室检测值差异没有显著性意义。②抗角蛋白抗体、抗核周因子抗体和抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体联合检测对幼年类风湿关节炎组早期诊断缺乏有效性。③抗角蛋白抗体( )/抗核周因子抗体( )/抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体( )病例与抗角蛋白抗体(-)/抗核周因子抗体(-)/抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体(-)病例相比,关节强直病例明显增多,差异有显著性(较正χ2=3.902,P=0.048),抗链球菌溶血素“O”和C-反应蛋白均显著增高,差异有显著性(χ2=2.616,3.557,P=0.025,0.001)。结论:抗角蛋白抗体、抗核周因子抗体、抗环瓜氨酸肽抗体联合检测对幼年类风湿关节炎缺乏早期诊断意义及特异性,联合检测对判断疾病的活动性、病理损害程度和预后有临床意义。     

核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸抑制肿瘤坏死因子α诱导大鼠关节滑膜细胞中一氧化氮合酶2和环氧合酶2的表达

目的:利用核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸抑制肿瘤坏死因子α诱导的关节滑膜细胞中一氧化氮合酶2和环氧合酶2的表达,探讨基因治疗类风湿性关节炎的新方法。方法:实验于2005-03/2006-03在北京大学医学部中心实验室(国家级)完成。①实验材料:清洁级健康近交系SD大鼠10只;一氧化氮合酶2,环氧合酶2,3-磷酸甘油醛脱氢酶引物(由北京奥科生物公司合成);肿瘤坏死因子α(Sigma公司);核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸和转染条件由北京大学运动医学研究所陈连旭博士提供。②实验干预:切取大鼠髋关节和膝关节的滑膜体外培养滑膜细胞。利用脂质体siPORTTMLipid将核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸转染滑膜细胞,再加入肿瘤坏死因子α刺激。阴性对照为任意编码的小干涉核糖核酸,阳性对照为针对3-磷酸甘油醛脱氢酶的小干涉核糖核酸。③实验评估:提取滑膜细胞中的核蛋白,利用电泳迁移率试验检测核因子κB的活性;提取滑膜细胞的核糖核酸和总蛋白,利用反转录聚合酶链反应和蛋白质免疫印记法从信使核糖核酸和蛋白质两水平检测一氧化氮合酶2和环氧合酶2的表达。结果:①肿瘤坏死因子α和核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸对核因子κB转录活性的影响:与正常滑膜细胞相比,肿瘤坏死因子α可以显著提高核因子κB的结合能力,而事先转染小干涉核糖核酸48h,再用肿瘤坏死因子α刺激,核因子κB的结合能力又显著降低。②核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸对核因子κB下游因子的影响:在培养的滑膜细胞中,肿瘤坏死因子α可以显著增加一氧化氮合酶2和环氧合酶2的表达;在转染小干涉核糖核酸抑制核因子κBp65的表达后再用肿瘤坏死因子α刺激,一氧化氮合酶2和环氧合酶2的表达被抑制。结论:①核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸可降低肿瘤坏死因子α诱导的滑膜细胞中核因子κB的转录活性,抑制其下游因子一氧化氮合酶2和环氧合酶2的表达。②核因子κBp65特异性小干涉核糖核酸可用于基因治疗类风湿性关节炎的试验研究。