Immune Alterations in Neurotransmission

Background:Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) overlap syndromes (SSc with polymyositis / dermatomyositis (PM/DM), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), etc.) still remain a group of very heterogenous and not very well studied clinical variants of SSc that are characterized by certain clinical and immunological features.Objectives:Identify clinical and immunological features of the SSc-overlap syndromesMethods:80 pts with SSc-PM/DM and 35 pts with SSc-RA undergoing standard clinical examination and laboratory immunological evaluation.Results:ANA Hep2 was positive in 98% of SSc-PM/DM pts; a-Scl-70 was in 34%, a - PM-Scl and RF were in 20%. ACA (6%), a-RNP (9%), and a - Jo-1 (5%) were significantly less common. Correlation analysis showed significant prevalence of conduction abnormalities in pts with a-Scl-70- (p<0.03); PM-Scl was rarely associated with cardiac arrhythmia (p<0.02) and pericarditis (p<0.03), but there was an association between ACA and presence of digital ischemia (p<0.04). Three pts with limited skin had Scl-70 and PM-Scl antibodies, two of them manifested clinical features of DM. A-Jo-1 was found in 3 pts with a longstanding disease (14,10 and 7 years), and one of these pts was also positive for a-Scl-70. All pts had limited skin and two had interstitial lung disease with FVC values of 79% and 74.8%.ANA Hep2 was positive in 96% of SSc-RA pts; a-Scl-70 – in 28%, and a-RNP - in 30%. RF-positivity was in 72% of pts, and Anti-CCP - in 27%. Simultaneous Anti-CCP and a-Scl-70 was found in one case, and Anti-CCP - anti-RNP – in another, both were associated with low RF titers. All pts had early joint involvement which became prevailing in subsequent years, and onset of the disease between 30 and 36 years. There was a correlation between laboratory signs of inflammatory activity and immunological disorders: ESR and a-Scl-70 (p<0.03). Anti-CCP and a-Scl-70 co-positivity was a significantly less frequent phenomenon (p<0.04). There was a remarkable 28% proportion of a-Scl-70 cases in SSc-RA with limited cutaneous which is usually characterized by ACA-positivity.Conclusion:SSc-PM/DM and SSc-RA appear to be an active disease from the immunological point of view, confirming therefore an important role of immune alterations in disease progression. Laboratory findings display specific pathogenetic features of SSc-overlap syndromes; laboratory abnormalities can be used to measure the activity and specify characteristics of the pathological process.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

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Impact of obesity and SARS-CoV-2 infection: implications for host defence - a living review

Oxford Open Immunology ◽

10.1093/oxfimm/iqab001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Felix Clemens Richter ◽

Aljawharah Alrubayyi ◽

Alicia Teijeira Crespo ◽

Sarah Hulin-Curtis ◽

Keyword(s):

Lipid Metabolism ◽

Influenza A ◽

Immune Cell ◽

Cell Metabolism ◽

Low Grade ◽

Obese Patients ◽

Healthy Weight ◽

Virus Infections ◽

Immune Alterations ◽

And Function

Abstract The role of obesity in the pathophysiology of respiratory virus infections has become particularly apparent during the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, where obese patients are twice as likely to suffer from severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) than healthy weight individuals. Obesity results in disruption of systemic lipid metabolism promoting a state of chronic low-grade inflammation. However, it remains unclear how these underlying metabolic and cellular processes promote severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. Emerging data in SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A virus (IAV) infections show that viruses can further subvert the host’s altered lipid metabolism and exploit obesity-induced alterations in immune cell metabolism and function to promote chronic inflammation and viral propagation. In this review, we outline the systemic metabolic and immune alterations underlying obesity and discuss how these baseline alterations impact the immune response and disease pathophysiology. A better understanding of the immunometabolic landscape of obese patients may aid better therapies and future vaccine design.

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Comprehensive integrative profiling of upper tract urothelial carcinomas

Genome Biology ◽

10.1186/s13059-020-02230-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xiaoping Su ◽

Xiaofan Lu ◽

Sehrish Khan Bazai ◽

Eva Compérat ◽

Roger Mouawad ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Patient Outcome ◽

Somatic Mutations ◽

Suppressor Gene ◽

Epigenetic Alterations ◽

Upper Tract ◽

Urothelial Carcinomas ◽

Immune Alterations ◽

Invasive Status ◽

Muscle Invasive ◽

First Time

Abstract Background Crosstalk between genetic, epigenetic, and immune alterations in upper tract urothelial carcinomas and their role in shaping muscle invasiveness and patient outcome are poorly understood. Results We perform an integrative genome- and methylome-wide profiling of diverse non-muscle-invasive and muscle-invasive upper tract urothelial carcinomas. In addition to mutations of FGFR3 and KDM6A, we identify ZFP36L1 as a novel, significantly mutated tumor suppressor gene. Overall, mutations of ZFP36 family genes (ZFP36, ZFP36L1, and ZFP36L2) are identified in 26.7% of cases, which display a high mutational load. Unsupervised DNA methylation subtype classification identifies two epi-clusters associated with distinct muscle-invasive status and patient outcome, namely, EpiC-low and EpiC-high. While the former is hypomethylated, immune-depleted, and enriched for FGFR3-mutated, the latter is hypermethylated, immune-infiltrated, and tightly associated with somatic mutations of SWI/SNF genes. Conclusions Our study delineates for the first time the key role for convergence between genetic and epigenetic alterations in shaping clinicopathological and immune upper tract urothelial carcinoma features.

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