TP53 Mutation and Complex Karyotype Portends a Dismal Prognosis in Patients With Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Background

TP53 mutation (TP53mut) and a complex karyotype (CK) were shown to be predictors of poor outcome in mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL). In this study we examined the combined effect of both of these risk factors.

Modulatory Effect of the Euro-Lupus Low-Dose Intravenous Cyclophosphamide Regimen on Circulating Immune Cells in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis - A Euro-Lupus regimen of low-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide (CFA) is commonly used to treat severe organ manifestations of systemic lupus...     

Protein profiles of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disease with various clinical phenotypes. So far, there has been little information on protein patterns (PPs) of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from patients with sarcoidosis and no data are available on PPs in clinical disease subtypes. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the PP of BALF from patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, to evaluate whether PPs reflect disease course as assessed by chest X-ray (CXR), and to compare PPs between patients with/without L?fgren's syndrome. METHODS: Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectroscopy was applied to investigate PPs in unconcentrated BALF from 65 patients (CXR stage I, n = 32; CXR stage II, n = 22, CXR stage III, n = 11) and 23 healthy control subjects. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to detect differentially expressed protein peaks. After reversed-phase fractionation, peptide fingerprint mapping and immunodepletion were used to identify deregulated (up-regulated or down-regulated) proteins. RESULTS: Forty differentially expressed protein entities (2.75-185.62 kD) were detected in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis versus control subjects (p < 0.05). Whereas 13 peaks (33%) were present across all CXR stages, 27 (67%) were specific for particular CXR stages. Comparison of PPs between CXR stage I patients with or without L?fgren's syndrome revealed 25 differentially expressed peaks. The total number of deregulated peaks and also of those associated with sarcoidosis as a whole were markedly lower in patients with L?fgren's syndrome in comparison with other sarcoid phenotypes. Human serum albumin, alpha1-antitrypsin, and protocadherin-2 precursor were identified from sarcoidosis-associated PP. CONCLUSION: Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectroscopy enables determination of protein patterns in sarcoid BALF and allows detection of protein patterns linked to a particular disease course.     

The MCP-1-2518 (A to G) single nucleotide polymorphism in Czech patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis: association with Löfgren's syndrome

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The chemokine Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein (MCP)-1/CCL2, a chemoattractant for mononuclear cells, has already been implicated in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) located at the position -2518 (A to G) of the MCP-1 gene has been reported to alter production of the MCP-1 protein in vitro and ex vivo. The present study, therefore, explored a possible association between MCP-1-2518 SNP and pulmonary sarcoidosis including its clinical subtypes, especially L?fgren's syndrome (LS). Relationship between MCP-1-2518 SNP and serum MCP-1 levels was also investigated. METHODS: MCP-1-2518 genotypes were determined using PCR with sequence specific primers in 105 sarcoidosis patients and 359 healthy control subjects. The differences in genotype and allelic frequencies between the patient and control groups were assessed by chi2 test. MCP-1 protein concentrations in serum samples from 77 sarcoidosis patients were determined by ELISA; Mann-Whitney U-test was used to test for differences in protein levels. RESULTS: While there was no significant difference in distribution of MCP-1-2518 alleles between sarcoidosis patients and healthy control subjects, a significantly higher proportion of the MCP-1-2518*G allele (p = 0.01, odds ratio (OR) = 2.3) and of the GG genotype (p = 0.03, OR = 3.9) was observed in the patients with LS compared to control subjects. There was also a significantly higher frequency of the MCP-1-2518*G allele in patients presenting with LS compared to the patients without LS (p = 0.04, OR = 2.1). MCP-1 protein in serum was not related to MCP-1-2518 gene variants. CONCLUSION: A possible interpretation of our results is, that the MCP-1-2518 SNP or a gene located nearby may modify clinical manifestation of sarcoidosis towards L?fgren's syndrome. Future investigations in other population(s) should, therefore, follow this case-control study.     

A single amino acid exchange shifts the serological reactivity of the novel HLA-B*4442 allele product from HLA-B44 to HLA-B21

A novel HLA-B (human leukocyte antigen-B) allele, HLA-B*4442, was identified both in a Czech patient with leukaemia and in his mother. The presence of a novel allele was initially suspected because conflicting results were obtained by serological and DNA typing techniques. The HLA typing using the polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) at the two-digit level indicated an allele belonging to the HLA-B*44 group, whereas serological typing indicated HLA-B21. Typing with PCR-sequence-specific oligonucleotides (PCR-SSO) resulted in a unique reaction pattern that could not be assigned to a known allele, PCR-SSP typing at the four-digit level did not match any known B*44 allele, either. The sequencing-based typing of the HLA-B locus then revealed the novel B*4442 allele that is identical with B*4405 except a single C-->G nucleotide exchange at position 572. This exchange results in an amino acid substitution from serine to tryptophan at position 167 of the expressed HLA-B protein. The B21 serological reactivity of the novel B*4442 allele product was confirmed by employing an additional serological panel of typing sera. Our findings support previous reports claiming that serine at the position 167 in the alpha-2 domain of the HLA-B protein is a major determinant of the HLA-B44(12) serological epitope.     

The CR1 C5507G polymorphism is not involved in susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in two European populations

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a severe lung disease with unknown aetiology, is thought to have an important genetic component. Single nucleotide polymorphism, C5507G, of the complement receptor 1 (CR1) gene, which affects the number of CR1 molecules on erythrocytes, has been associated with susceptibility to IPF in a single European population. To replicate this finding, 53 Czech IPF patients with 203 Czech healthy control subjects and 70 English IPF patients with 149 English controls were investigated. In both populations, there were no significant differences in distribution of CR1 C5507G variants between IPF patients and their appropriate control groups. In conclusion, the association of the CR1 C5507G polymorphism with susceptibility to IPF was not reproducible in Czech and English populations.