GRAPPA Trainees Symposium 2018: A Report from the GRAPPA 2018 Annual Meeting.

The Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) held a trainee symposium at its 2018 annual meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Rheumatology and dermatology trainees engaged in psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis research presented their work. This report briefly reviews 5 oral presentations and 21 posters presented at the meeting.

Expression analysis of HLA-E and NKG2A and NKG2C receptors points at a role for natural killer function in ankylosing spondylitis.

BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a complex chronic inflammatory disease strongly associated with the majority of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 alleles. HLA-E molecules are non-classical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules that specifically interact with the natural killer receptors NKG2A (inhibitory) and NKG2C (activating), and have been recently proposed to be involved in AS pathogenesis.''. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the expression of HLA-E and the CD94/NKG2 pair of receptors in HLA-B27-positive patients with AS and healthy controls (HC) bearing the AS-associated B*2705 and the non-AS-associated B*2709 alleles. METHODS: The level of surface expression of HLA-E molecules on CD14+ peripheral blood mononuclear cell was evaluated in 21 HLA-B*2705 patients with AS, 12 HLA-B*2705 HC, 12 HLA-B*2709 HC and 6 HLA-B27-negative HC using the monoclonal antibody MEM-E/08 by quantitative cytofluorimetric analysis. The percentage and density of expression of HLA-E ligands NKG2A and NKG2C were also measured on CD3-CD56+ NK cells. RESULTS: HLA-E expression in CD14+ cells was significantly higher in patients with AS (587.0, IQR 424-830) compared with B*2705 HC (389, IQR 251.3-440.5; p=0.0007), B*2709 HC (294.5, IQR 209.5-422; p=0.0004) and HLA-B27-negative HC (380, IQR 197.3-515.0; p=0.01). A higher number of NK cells expressing NKG2A compared with NKG2C were found in all cohorts analysed, as well as a higher cell surface density. CONCLUSION: The higher surface level of HLA-E molecules in patients with AS compared with HC, concurrently with a prevalent expression of NKG2A, suggests that the crosstalk between these two molecules might play a role in AS pathogenesis, accounting for the previously reported association between HLA-E and AS.

[Relief of gastric cancer with an electromagnetic interaction system (TRIMprob) in outpatients]. / Rilievo di carcinoma gastrico mediante sistema di interazioni elettromagnetiche (TRIMprob) in pazienti ambulatoriali.

Gastric cancer is currently an important clinical and social problem. TRIMprob is a portable system for the non-invasive diagnosis of gastric cancer, designed to differentiate between normal and pathological tissues on the basis of their electromagnetic characteristics. The aim of our study was to evaluate the accuracy and feasibility of use of the TRIMprob system in diagnosing gastric neoplasms. From January to September 2006 we screened 28 symptomatic patients with TRIMprob; afterwards they underwent an endoscopic and bioptic examination. On the basis of the histological diagnosis these patients were divided into 2 groups: group A (patients with a diagnosis of gastric malignancies) and group B (patients with inflammatory disease). There also was a group C, which was a control group of 15 asymptomatic volunteers. The TRIMprob system located all cases of gastric cancer (group A) with 100% sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The TRIMprob examination seems to be extremely accurate in diagnosing gastric malignancies. If these results are confirmed, TRIMprob could be used for the early diagnosis of gastric cancer and for selecting symptomatic subjects for gastroscopy.

Frequency of X-linked ichthyosis in coastal southern Italy: a study on a representative sample of a young male population.

BACKGROUND: No reports on the frequency of X-linked ichthyosis (XLI) in the Italian general population and few surveys on the frequency of XLI in large communities in the world are available. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was the assessment of the frequency of XLI in a large representative sample of the Italian male population. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study involved young men who enlisted as conscripts in the Italian Navy from January 1998 through February 2002, examined, prior to enlistment, at the Draft Council's Medical Unit of the Italian Navy in Taranto, Italy, to evaluate their psychophysical fitness. All the patients with an ichthyosiform condition were referred to the Department of Dermatology of the Navy Hospital, underwent a thorough dermatological examination and completed a questionnaire regarding their personal and familial history. Pertinent results of the other clinical investigations were recorded and the final diagnosis was formulated on the basis of all these data. RESULTS: From January 1998 through February 2002, of 75,653 young men examined, 15 cases of XLI were diagnosed, with a frequency of 1:5,043 or 1.98 per 10,000 (95% confidence interval based on the Poisson distribution 1.01-2.90). Four out of 15 cases (26.6%) showed corneal opacities. No other significant associated pathological change was observed. CONCLUSIONS: As this study is a survey involving a large male sample, homogeneous with reference to age, race and country of origin (southern Italy), the frequency of XLI could be estimated at about 1.98 per 10,000 males. These data are roughly in agreement with estimates from other European surveys.