FREQUENCY OF INCREASED PLASMA C-PEPTIDE LEVELS IN COLORECTAL CANCER PATIENTS

Objective: To assess the increased frequency of serum C-peptide levels in patients of colorectal carcinoma. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jul 2018 to Jan 2019. Methodology: A total of 100 cases of colorectal carcinoma were enrolled. Blood samples were obtained to assess C-peptide level. The C-peptide serum concentrations were deliberate through the Cobas 6000 by using the electro-chemi-luminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) method. If level of C-peptide was >2 pmol/mL, then it was noted. Results: The mean age of all patients was 58.3 ± 5.4 years. There was a total of 136 (68%) females and 64 (32%) were males. The mean BMI of patients was 28.96 ± 12.31 kg/m2. The family history of colorectal carcinoma was positive in 6 (6%) cases. The mean C-peptide level was 4.55 ± 2.37 pmol/L. There were 33 (33%) patients with raised C-peptide level while 67 (67%) had normal c-peptide level. Conclusion: It is concluded that increased C-peptide level is high in patients with colorectal cancer.

NT pro- B-type Natriuretic Peptide in the Small Ventricular Septal Defect in Children

Background: Brain natriuretic peptide is a cardiac hormone secreted from the left ventricular myocardium due to ventricular expansion and volume overload. A recent study shows that small VSD will have risk of ventricular dysfunction in adulthood. Another complications such as endocarditis, congestive heart failure, aortic regurgitation, arrhythmia also we should be aware. Evaluations of the plasma B-type natriuretic peptide level (NT pro BNP) are currently being considered as methods to identify the possible presence of ventricular dilation in small VSD. Objective: To evaluate the change in plasma B-type natriuretic peptide after transcatheter closure of VSD. Methods: A pretest-posttest design was conducted on VSD patients before and after transcatheter closure. Plasma B-type natriuretic peptide level were measured before and 30 days after the transcatheter closure of VSD. Result: A total of 32 peri membranous VSD patients were included in this study with 62.5 % female patients (n=20) and 37.5 % male patients (n=12). A significant decrease was observed in the median NT pro BNP level when the level before closure of 1.08 (0.74 – 3.47) ng/ml was compared to the level after closure of 0.91 (0.68 – 2.07) ng/ml (p<0.05). Conclusion: Significant decreases in NT pro BNP level are seen in small VSD patients 30 days after transcatheter closure. Patients with small peri membranous VSD are generally considered to need occlusion for their childhood defect.

Critical Assessment of MetaProteome Investigation (CAMPI): a multi-laboratory comparison of established workflows

Metaproteomics has matured into a powerful tool to assess functional interactions in microbial communities. While many metaproteomic workflows are available, the impact of method choice on results remains unclear. Here, we carry out a community-driven, multi-laboratory comparison in metaproteomics: the critical assessment of metaproteome investigation study (CAMPI). Based on well-established workflows, we evaluate the effect of sample preparation, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatic analysis using two samples: a simplified, laboratory-assembled human intestinal model and a human fecal sample. We observe that variability at the peptide level is predominantly due to sample processing workflows, with a smaller contribution of bioinformatic pipelines. These peptide-level differences largely disappear at the protein group level. While differences are observed for predicted community composition, similar functional profiles are obtained across workflows. CAMPI demonstrates the robustness of present-day metaproteomics research, serves as a template for multi-laboratory studies in metaproteomics, and provides publicly available data sets for benchmarking future developments.

ME-ACP: Multi-view Neural Networks with Ensemble Model for Identification of Anticancer Peptides

Cancer remains one of the most threatening diseases, which kills millions of lives every year. As a promising perspective for cancer treatments, anticancer peptides (ACPs) overcome a lot of disadvantages of traditional treatments. However, it is time-consuming and expensive to identify ACPs through conventional experiments. Hence, it is urgent and necessary to develop highly effective approaches to accurately identify ACPs in large amounts of protein sequences. In this work, we proposed a novel and effective method named ME-ACP which employed multi-view neural networks with ensemble model to identify ACPs. Firstly, we employed residue level and peptide level features preliminarily with ensemble models based on lightGBMs. Then, the outputs of lightGBM classifiers were fed into a hybrid deep neural network (HDNN) to identify ACPs. The experiments on independent test datasets demonstrated that ME-ACP achieved competitive performance on common evaluation metrics.

Comparative efficacy of enalapril and valsartan in heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction

Aim. To compare the effectiveness of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril and the angiotensin II receptor antagonist valsartan in patients with heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF) from the standpoint of the effect on the clinical picture, echocardiographic parameters and the level of the N-terminal fragment of the prohormone brain-type sodium (NT-proBNP). Methods. 110 patients with heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction were included in the study based on the City Clinical Hospital named after N.I. Pirogov of Orenburg between 2018 and 2020. All patients were divided into two randomized groups. Patients of the first group (n=55) were prescribed enalapril, the second group (n=55) valsartan. Each patient was followed up for 1 year. The six-minute walk test, NT-pro-brain natriuretic peptide level, echocardiography parameters were assessed in dynamics. Statistical analysis was performed by using Statistica 10.0 software, ShapiroWilk, MannWhitney, Wilcoxon tests. Results. During the year of observation in both groups, there was a significant decrease in the functional class of chronic heart failure (p 0.005) without a statistical difference between the groups (p=0.251). The distance during the six-minute walk test increased from 350 (310400) m to 490 (420530) m (p 0.001) in the first group, from 360 (330400) m to 510 (450520) m (p 0.001) in the second group, also without significant differences (p=0.361). The NT-pro-brain natriuretic peptide level decreased from 491 (410610) pg/ml to 286 (187350) pg/ml (p 0.001) in the first group, and from 446 (376534) pg/ml to 210 (143343) pg/ml (p 0.001) in the second, with a more significant change in the second group (p=0.020). The dynamics of echocardiography parameters were comparable in the groups (p 0.05), while ejection fraction normalized in 89.1% of patients received enalapril and 92.7% of patients received valsartan. Conclusion. The efficacy of enalapril and valsartan in heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction is comparable in its effect on the clinical picture and echocardiography parameters with a more pronounced decrease in NT-pro-brain natriuretic peptide when taking valsartan during a year of follow up.

Assessment of the Effect of C-Peptide Level on Na-K ATPase Activity In Individuals with Type II Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

Background: Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes can cause neuropathy, which is a frequent and severe consequence. C-peptide depletion may be partly related to in the occurrence of certain diabetic complications. It has been demonstrated that even a little amount of residual C-peptide has a considerable metabolic advantage. Objective: The study’s objective was to predict the relation of plasma C-peptide levels in patients with diabetic neuropathy, and its effect on Na-K ATPase activity. Design and Methods: In this case-control study, 150 individuals have been included: 80 patients with diabetic neuropathy, 40 diabetics without neuropathy and 30 non-diabetic subjects as a control. Patients in the first group were carefully chosen based on their clinical symptoms and nerve conduction studies results. The assessment of plasma C-peptide was done by ELISA, Na-K ATPase enzyme activity by spectrophotometer, and HbA1C by HPLC. Results: Mean plasma C-peptide level and Erythrocyte Na-K ATPase activity were substantially lower in neuropathy type 2 DM patients compared to diabetes without neuropathy and control (p= 0.002, 0.000 respectively). The negative correlation between C-peptide with HbA1c, and diabetes period were all negligible (p= 0.447,0.098), Even though there was a notable negative correlation with age (p= 0.03). On the other hand, the relationship linking C-peptide and Na-K ATPase enzyme activity was shown to be insignificant (p=0.69). Conclusions: Diabetic neuropathy is related to a low C-peptide level. The association between C-peptide and Na-K ATPase enzyme activity, on the other hand, was shown to be insignificant. C-peptide HbA1c, and duration of diabetes all had minor negative associations.

Association Between C-Peptide Level and Subclinical Myocardial Injury

BackgroundPrevious studies have confirmed an association between C-peptide levels with the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. However, whether circulating C-peptide was related to subclinical myocardial injury (SC-MI) remains unknown.MethodsA total of 3,752 participants without a history of cardiovascular diseases were included in our study from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III). Multivariable linear regression was performed to explore the correlation between C-peptide and cardiac injury score (CIIS). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between C-peptide quartile and SC-MI.ResultsCirculating C-peptide was significantly associated with CIIS (β:0.09, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.00–0.17; p = 0.041). Compared with the lowest quartile, the highest quartile of circulating C-peptide increased a 1.48-fold risk of SC-MI (Odds ratio = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.18–1.87; p = 0.001).ConclusionsThe level of C-peptide was independently associated with CIIS and SC-MI, which could serve as a new risk factor of SC-MI.

The epidemiology and genetic analysis of children with idiopathic type 1 diabetes in the state of Qatar

Background To study the epidemiology, describe the clinical characteristics and report results of genetic studies in pediatric patients with idiopathic type 1 diabetes. Methods Prospective study of type 1 diabetes patients attending Sidra Medicine from 2018-2020. Autoantibodies (GAD65, IAA, IA-2A and ZnT8) measured and genetic testing undertaken in patients negative for autoantibodies to rule out monogenic diabetes. Demographic and clinical data of patients with idiopathic type 1 diabetes compared to patients with autoimmune type 1 diabetes. Results 1157 patients had type 1 diabetes of which 63 were antibody negative. Upon genome sequencing, four had MODY, two had Wolfram syndrome, one had H syndrome and three had variants of uncertain significance in MODY genes. 53 patients had idiopathic type 1 diabetes. The most common age of diagnosis was 10-14 years and C-peptide level was low but detectable in 30 patients (56.6%) and normal in 23 patients (43.4%) The average BMI was in the normal range and 33% of the patients had history of DKA. Conclusions 4% of children have Idiopathic type 1 diabetes. There were statistically significant differences in the C-peptide level and insulin requirement between the two groups. DKA was less common in the idiopathic group. Mutations in MODY genes suggest the importance of autoantibody testing and genetic screening for known causes of monogenic diabetes in idiopathic type 1 diabetes. The mechanism of idiopathic type 1 diabetes is not known but could be due to defects in antibody production or due to autoantibodies that are not yet detectable or discovered.

Predictors of Post-Operative Acute Kidney Injury in relation with N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Level among Patients Undergoing Mitral Valve Replacement

Background: The N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level can be utilized as post-operative prediction models suring cardiac surgery. Objective: The objective was to find out the predictors of post-operative acute kidney injury in relation with N-Terminal Pro-B-Type natriuretic peptide level among mitral valve replacement patients. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2018 to December 2019. Patients with the age of more than or equal to 18 years with both sexes who were underwent mitral valve replacement were selected as study population. Patients were divided into two groups based on pre-operative NT-proBNP level. Post-operatively patients were observed on the basis of post-operative serum creatinine. Results: A total number of 100 patients were recruited for this study of which 50 cases were in group A and the rest of 50 cases were in the group B. Elevated NT-proBNP was the most powerful and independent pre-operative variable in predicting post-operative AKI development (OR 0.999, 95% CI 0.998-1.00) Conclusion: In conclusion elevated NT-proBNP is the most powerful and independent pre-operative variable in predicting post-operative acute kidney injury. Journal of Current and Advance Medical Research, July 2021;8(2):85-89