Inflammation in the peripheral blood system of Crohn's Disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease that is characterized by chronic inflammation of digestive system and has a nickname "green cancer" because of its sustained alternation of periods of flares and remissions. Here, we investigated the inflammation changes in peripheral blood system of CD patients, which are less reported in China. Peripheral blood samples of 167 CD patients and 30 healthy people, as well as their clinical information, were collected at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University. Flow cytometry was performed to analyze the ratio of CD4 T cells to CD8 T cells. Cytometric Bead Array kit was used to detect the cytokines in peripheral blood in CD patients. Moreover, the expression of inflammasomes was also detected by RT-PCR. The percentage and cell number of lymphocytes in CD patients' peripheral blood system decreased significantly, while monocytes increased remarkably. Interestingly, there was an inversion of the CD4 T cells/CD8 T cells ratio in peripheral blood of CD patients. The levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) increased significantly in CD patients' peripheral blood, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation aggravate inflammatory response. In addition, the expression of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family, pyrin domain-containing 1 (NLRP1) and NLRP3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of CD patients increased significantly after LPS stimulation. The inflammation in peripheral blood of CD patients had significant changes, including PBMC, cytokines and inflammasomes. These results are helpful to get a deeper understanding of CD and improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment in China.

miRNA-142-3p functions as a potential tumor suppressor directly targeting FAM83D in the development of ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: FAM83D (family with sequence similarity 83, member D) is of particular interest in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women all over the world. This study aims to research the association between FAM83D and ovarian cancer (OC). METHODS: The gene expression data of OC and normal samples (GSE81873 and GSE27651) was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset. The bioinformatics analysis was performed to distinguish two differentially expressed genes (DEGs), prognostic candidate genes and functional enrichment pathways. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Quantitative Real-time PCR (qPCR), and luciferase reporter assays were utilized for further study. RESULTS: There were 56 DEMs and 63 DEGs in cancer tissues compared to normal tissues. According to the km-plot software, hsa-miR-142-3p and FAM83D were associated with the overall survival of patients with OC. Besides, Multivariate analysis included that hsa-miR-142-3p and FAM83D were independent risk factors for OC patients. Furthermore, qPCR demonstrated that miRNA-142-3p and FAM83D were differentially expressed in normal ovarian tissues (NOTs) and ovarian cancer tissues (OCTs). IHC results indicated that FAM83D was overexpressed in OCTs compared with NOTs. Last but not least, luciferase reporter assays verified that FAM83D was a direct target of hsa-miRNA-142-3p in OC cells. CONCLUSIONS: The prognostic model based on the miRNA-mRNA network could provide predictive significance for the prognosis of OC patients, which would be worthy of clinical application. Our results concluded that miR-142-3p and its targets gene FAM83D may be potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for patients with OC.

Evaluation of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical characteristics and psychological status in internet consultation respondents.

COVID-19 is a sudden, infectious disease that can be life-threatening and may cause people to feel panic and anxiety. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and psychological status of a specific population using an internet consultation platform during the outbreak of COVID-19. The questionnaire survey included questions regarding basic information (e.g. area, sex, age, occupation, and education level), clinical characteristics, and cognitive and psychological status concerning COVID-19 from January 31, 2020 to March 31, 2020. There were 277 patients (43.49%) with three or more symptoms, 121 (12.11%) with a clinical questionnaire score ≥8, and 6.81% who lived in Hubei in the previous 14 days. Of the respondents, 4.9% had contact fever or were confirmed to have COVID-19 in the previous 14 days. The respondents were mostly aware that COVID-19 can be transmitted from person to person and via the respiratory tract, but awareness of general susceptibility and specific symptoms of COVID-19 was low. Multivariate analysis showed that urban residents, clerk/students and higher education groups were well aware of COVID-19. Regarding mental health, the anxiety score of the respondents was 7.12 ± 2.32, and the proportion of anxiety was 54.15%. Younger women were more likely to have anxiety when they experienced positive symptoms. Individuals with a Hubei residence history and those who had contact with an individual with a fever or were confirmed patients in the previous 14 days were more likely to have moderate or severe anxiety. The COVID-19-related knowledge of the respondents was generally good but still could have been improved. Their psychological status was also affected by the pandemic. The internet consultation platform played a positive role in spreading pandemic-related information, providing medical help and psychological counseling, and strengthening early warning to the potential high-risk population.

Genome-wide association study reveals novel loci for adult type 1 diabetes in a 5-year nested case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a severe and prevalent metabolic disease. Due to its high heredity, an increasing number of genome-wide association studies have been performed, most of which were from hospital-based case-control studies with a relatively small sample size. The association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and T1D has been less studied and is less understood in natural cohorts. AIM: To investigate the significant variants of T1D, which could be potential biomarkers for T1D prediction or even therapy. METHODS: A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of adult T1D was performed in a nested case-control study (785 cases vs 804 controls) from a larger 5-year cohort study in Suzhou, China. Potential harmful or protective SNPs were evaluated for T1D. Subsequent expression and splicing quantitative trait loci (eQTL and sQTL) analyses were carried out to identify target genes modulated by these SNPs. RESULTS: A harmful SNP for T1D, rs3117017 [odds ratio (OR) = 3.202, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.296-4.466, P = 9.33 × 10-4] and three protective SNPs rs55846421 (0.113, 0.081-0.156, 1.76 × 10-9), rs75836320 (0.283, 0.205-0.392, 1.07 × 10-4), rs362071 (0.568, 0.495-0.651, 1.66 × 10-4) were identified. Twenty-two genes were further identified as potential candidates for T1D onset. CONCLUSION: We identified a potential genetic basis of T1D, both protective and harmful, using a GWAS in a larger nested case-control study of a Chinese population.