The Construction of ITP Diagnostic Modeling Based on the Expressions of Hub Genes Associated with M1 Polarization of Macrophages.

Purpose: Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an immune disease with a diagnosis of exclusion, since no validated biomarkers have been identified. In this study, we explored biomarkers associated with the development of ITP from an immune perspective to inform the clinical diagnosis. Patients and Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between normal and ITP samples were analyzed using limma package. Random forest algorithm and LASSO regression were further used to screen for DEGs associated with ITP. The expression of these hub genes was validated by PCR. The relationship between DEGs and immunity was explored by enrichment analysis. Immune cell infiltration in ITP was analyzed by CIBERSORT and ssGSEA, and the relationship between DEGs and infiltrating immune cells was analyzed by Spearman's rank correlation analysis. Finally, a diagnostic model related to DEGs was constructed by the neural network, and its efficiency was detected by the ROC curve. Results: After screening the GEO database and validation by PCR analysis, The expression of CTH and TAF8 were higher and while OSBP2 expression was lower in ITP patients compared to normal subjects (P<0.05). GO enrichment analysis showed that these DEGs were associated with inflammatory immune-related diseases, and KEGG analysis showed that they mainly regulated signaling pathways such as JAK-STAT. CIBERSORT and ssGSEA analyses showed that these DEGs were mainly associated with macrophage M1 polarization. The expression of CTH and TAF8 were positively correlated with M1 expression, while OSBP2 was negatively correlated with M1 expression. The ROC curve showed high accuracy of the neural network model [AUC= 0.939, 95% CI (0.8-1)]. Conclusion: Our results suggest that CTH, TAF8, and OSBP2 can be used as effective diagnostic biomarkers of ITP.

[Expression of MicroRNAs in Peripheral Blood of Patients with Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia and Its Correlation with the Imbalance of Th1/Th2 Cell].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expressions of microRNAs in peripheral blood of patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia(ITP) and its correlation with the imbalance of Th1/Th2 cells. METHODS: Thirty patients with ITP (ITP group) and 15 healthy people (control group) were enrolled．Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expressions of six miRNAs (miR-107,miR-205-5p,miR-138-5p,miR-326,miR-1827,miR-185-5p) and Th1-specific transcription factor T-bet mRNA and Th2-specific transcription factor GATA-3 mRNA in the peripheral blood of the two groups. Th1 and Th2 cells were detected by flow cytometry. The expressions of Th1-cytokines TNF-α and IFN-γ and Th2-cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 were detected by AimPlex multiple immunoassays for Flow. The expression difference of miRNAs, mRNA, Th1, Th2 cells and cytokines of the two groups were compared, and the correlations of miRNAs to mRNA, Th1, Th2 cells and cytokines were analyzed in ITP group. RESULTS: The expressions of miRNAs（miR-107, miR-205-5p, miR-138-5p, miR-326, miR-1827, miR-185-5p）and Th2-specific transcription factor GATA-3 mRNA of the patients in ITP group were significantly decreased (P<0.05) as compared with those in control, while the expressions of Th1 cells and Th1-specific transcription factor T-bet mRNA and Th1-cytokines TNF-α were significantly increased (P<0.05), also for the ratios of T-bet mRNA/GATA-3 mRNA and Th1/Th2 cells were significantly increased (P<0.05). The relative expressions of miR-107, miR-205-5p, miR-138-5p in ITP patients were negatively correlated with Th2 cells (r=-0.411, r=-0.593, r=-0.403,P<0.05) and the relative expression of miR-1827 was negatively correlated with TNF-α (r=-0.390). CONCLUSION: The relative expressions of the six miRNAs in peripheral blood of patients with ITP are significantly decreased, which result in the increasing ratio of T-bet mRNA/GATA-3 mRNA, then lead to the imbalance of Th1/Th2.

Efficacy of coenzyme Q10 in mitigating spinal cord injury-induced osteoporosis.

Spinal cord injury (SCI)­induced osteoporosis may cause mild trauma to bone and increase the risk of bone fracture. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of coenzyme Q (CoQ10) on SCI­induced osteoporosis in rats. SCI was induced by surgical transection of the cord at the T10­12 level. Animals were treated with CoQ10 (10 mg/kg; intragastrically) daily from 12 h after the surgery and over 10 subsequent days. At the end of the experimental period, blood was collected from the animals and femurs and tibiae were removed for evaluation using biochemical assays. Treatment with CoQ10 prevented SCI­induced bone loss by rescuing the decreased levels of bone mineral density and bone mineral content observed in the SCI rats. Furthermore, CoQ10 administration reduced bone malondialdehyde levels with a concomitant increase in superoxide dismutase levels, thus alleviating SCI­induced oxidative injury. In addition, serum inflammatory cytokine levels were markedly increased in rats post­SCI, which was attenuated by treatment with CoQ10. Finally, the osteoclast­specific genes receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa­B ligand and cathepsin K were significantly upregulated and the osteoblast­specific gene core­binding factor alpha 1 in the femur was downregulated following SCI, which was effectively restored following treatment with CoQ10. The results suggested that CoQ10 treatment may be effective in attenuating SCI­induced osteoporosis.