Current Concepts and Future Directions for the Assessment of Autoantibodies to Cellular Antigens Referred to as Anti-Nuclear Antibodies

The detection of autoantibodies that target intracellular antigens, commonly termed anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), is a serological hallmark in the diagnosis of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD). Different methods are available for detection of ANA and all bearing their own advantages and limitations. Most laboratories use the indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) assay based on HEp-2 cell substrates. Due to the subjectivity of this diagnostic platform, automated digital reading systems have been developed during the last decade. In addition, solid phase immunoassays using well characterized antigens have gained widespread adoption in high throughput laboratories due to their ease of use and open automation. Despite all the advances in the field of ANA detection and its contribution to the diagnosis of SARD, significant challenges persist. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current status on ANA testing including automated IIF reading systems and solid phase assays and suggests an approach to interpretation of results and discusses meeting the problems of assay standardization and other persistent challenges.

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Adipose-Derived Stem Cells: Current Applications and Future Directions in the Regeneration of Multiple Tissues

Stem Cells International ◽

10.1155/2020/8810813 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-26

Author(s):

Jiaxin Zhang ◽

Yuzhe Liu ◽

Yutong Chen ◽

Lei Yuan ◽

He Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stem Cells ◽

Skin Wound ◽

Current Status ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Adipose Derived Stem Cells ◽

Isolation And Identification ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Skin Wound Healing ◽

Paracrine Factors ◽

Future Directions

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) can maintain self-renewal and enhanced multidifferentiation potential through the release of a variety of paracrine factors and extracellular vesicles, allowing them to repair damaged organs and tissues. Consequently, considerable attention has increasingly been paid to their application in tissue engineering and organ regeneration. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of ADSC preparation, including harvesting, isolation, and identification. The advances in preclinical and clinical evidence-based ADSC therapy for bone, cartilage, myocardium, liver, and nervous system regeneration as well as skin wound healing are also summarized. Notably, the perspectives, potential challenges, and future directions for ADSC-related researches are discussed. We hope that this review can provide comprehensive and standardized guidelines for the safe and effective application of ADSCs to achieve predictable and desired therapeutic effects.

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Current status of use of high throughput nucleotide sequencing in rheumatology

RMD Open ◽

10.1136/rmdopen-2020-001324 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. e001324

Author(s):

Sebastian Boegel ◽

John C Castle ◽

Andreas Schwarting

Keyword(s):

Rheumatic Diseases ◽

High Throughput ◽

High Throughput Sequencing ◽

Treatment Strategies ◽

Current Status ◽

Nucleotide Sequencing ◽

Rna Seq ◽

Manual Search ◽

Molecular Features ◽

Manual Curation

ObjectiveHere, we assess the usage of high throughput sequencing (HTS) in rheumatic research and the availability of public HTS data of rheumatic samples.MethodsWe performed a semiautomated literature review on PubMed, consisting of an R-script and manual curation as well as a manual search on the Sequence Read Archive for public available HTS data.ResultsOf the 699 identified articles, rheumatoid arthritis (n=182 publications, 26%), systemic lupus erythematous (n=161, 23%) and osteoarthritis (n=152, 22%) are among the rheumatic diseases with the most reported use of HTS assays. The most represented assay is RNA-Seq (n=457, 65%) for the identification of biomarkers in blood or synovial tissue. We also find, that the quality of accompanying clinical characterisation of the sequenced patients differs dramatically and we propose a minimal set of clinical data necessary to accompany rheumatological-relevant HTS data.ConclusionHTS allows the analysis of a broad spectrum of molecular features in many samples at the same time. It offers enormous potential in novel personalised diagnosis and treatment strategies for patients with rheumatic diseases. Being established in cancer research and in the field of Mendelian diseases, rheumatic diseases are about to become the third disease domain for HTS, especially the RNA-Seq assay. However, we need to start a discussion about reporting of clinical characterisation accompany rheumatological-relevant HTS data to make clinical meaningful use of this data.

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Diagnostic laboratory tests for systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases: unmet needs towards harmonization

Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) ◽

10.1515/cclm-2018-0066 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 56 (10) ◽

pp. 1743-1748 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Pier Luigi Meroni ◽

Maria Orietta Borghi

Keyword(s):

Rheumatic Diseases ◽

Laboratory Tests ◽

Solid Phase ◽

Organ Damage ◽

Diagnostic Tools ◽

Lower Sensitivity ◽

Diagnostic Laboratory ◽

Disease Evolution ◽

Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases ◽

Diagnostic Laboratory Tests

Abstract Autoantibodies are helpful tools not only for the diagnosis and the classification of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD) but also for sub-grouping patients and/or for monitoring disease activity or specific tissue/organ damage. Consequently, the role of the diagnostic laboratory in the management of SARD is becoming more and more important. The advent of new techniques raised the need of updating and harmonizing our use/interpretation of the assays. We discuss in this opinion paper some of these issues. Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) was originally suggested as the reference technique for anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) detection as previous solid phase assays (SPA) displayed lower sensitivity. The new available SPA are now offering better results and can represent alternative or even complementary diagnostic tools for ANA detection. The improved sensitivity of SPA technology is also changing our interpretation of the results for other types of autoantibody assays, but we need updating their calibration and new reference materials are going to be obtained in order to harmonize the assays. There is growing evidence that the identification of autoantibody combinations or profiles is helpful in improving diagnosis, patients’ subgrouping and predictivity for disease evolution in the field of SARD. We report some explanatory examples to support the idea to make the use of these autoantibody profiles more and more popular. The technological evolution of the autoimmune assays is going to change our routine diagnostic laboratory tests for SARD and validation of new algorithms is needed in order to harmonize our approach to the issue.

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Microencapsulation for the Therapeutic Delivery of Drugs, Live Mammalian and Bacterial Cells, and Other Biopharmaceutics: Current Status and Future Directions

Journal of Pharmaceutics ◽

10.1155/2013/103527 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-19 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Catherine Tomaro-Duchesneau ◽

Shyamali Saha ◽

Meenakshi Malhotra ◽

Imen Kahouli ◽

Satya Prakash

Keyword(s):

Mammalian Cells ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Current Status ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Bacterial Cells ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Future Directions ◽

Comprehensive Review ◽

Therapeutic Delivery ◽

Physical Chemical

Microencapsulation is a technology that has shown significant promise in biotherapeutics, and other applications. It has been proven useful in the immobilization of drugs, live mammalian and bacterial cells and other cells, and other biopharmaceutics molecules, as it can provide material structuration, protection of the enclosed product, and controlled release of the encapsulated contents, all of which can ensure efficient and safe therapeutic effects. This paper is a comprehensive review of microencapsulation and its latest developments in the field. It provides a comprehensive overview of the technology and primary goals of microencapsulation and discusses various processes and techniques involved in microencapsulation including physical, chemical, physicochemical, and other methods involved. It also summarizes the state-of-the-art successes of microencapsulation, specifically with regard to the encapsulation of microorganisms, mammalian cells, drugs, and other biopharmaceutics in various diseases. The limitations and future directions of microencapsulation technologies are also discussed.

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