Angiogenic output in viral hepatitis, C and B, and HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma

Angiogenesis is known to play a pivotal role in most of malignancy, including HCC, and in chronic inflammation. To investigate the angiogenic output in HCV and HBV infection and its implication in the development of HCV associated HCC. Blood samples were collected and grouped as; HS healthy subjects control group; HCC-HCV; chronic HCV infected patient group [HCV+ve] who are positive for serum anti-HCV antibodies and HCV-RNA; anti-HCV antibody positive and HCV-RNA negative patient group [HCV-ve]; patients with positive HBsAg and HBV-DNA group [HBV+ve]; and HBsAg positive and HBV-DNA negative patient group [HBV-ve]. Serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor, angiopoietin-2, endostatin and angiostatin were assessed in different studied groups

Antioxidants and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Tuberculosis [TB], is one of the major common air born infectious bacteria! diseases whichremains a major worldwide health problem with global mortality. To evaluate the efficiency of serurr samples compared to sputum for the early diagnosis of TB, and to evaluate the levels of superoxide dismutase [SOD], catalase [CAT], total antioxidant status [TAS] and tumor necrosis factor-a [TNF-alpha] in patients witt pulmonary tuberculosis [PTB]. One hundred patients with clinically suspected PTB and 25 healthy individuals were enrolled in the study. According to the bacteriological results, 78 patients were diagnosed as having PTB infection. These cases were categorized into 69 culture positive cases [sputum anc serum PCR positive patients [n=42], sputum PCR positive and serum PCR negative patients [n=16] and sputurr and serurr. PCR negative patients [n=11]] and 9 culture negative and sputum PCR positive cases witi radiological lung abnormalities suggestive for PTB. For these 78 cases, erythrocyte SOD, CAT, serum TAS an? TNF-alpha were determined. Twenty two patients were culture negative and negative for both sputum and serun PCR. They had no PTB and were not involved in biochemical studies. In all 78 PTB patients erythrocyte SOD, CAT and serum TAS levels were statistically lower than controls [p<0.05], while TNF-alpha was highly significantly .increased [p=0.001]. There was a significant direct linear correlation between SOD and CA" and TAS [p<0.0001, r= 0.78; p<0.0001, r= 0.88; p<0.0001, r=0.80 respectively] and a significant reverse linea correlation between TNF-alpha and SOD, CAT and TAS level [p<0.0001 r=-0.55; p<0.0001, r=-0.51; p<0.0001, r= 0.65 respectively]. Although the sputum culture is still the gold standard for the diagnosis of patientt with PTB, sputum PCR is an efficient method that could be used as an alternative to the culture for the rapk identification of PTB cases. The lower levels of SOD, CAT and TAS may be improved by the antioxidant therap which may help in better prognosis. Also anti TNF-alpha therapy may help in decreasing the elevated level of TNF-alpha shown in all PTB patients

Prevalence of TT virus infection among chronic hepatitis C patients

Much is still unknown about the clinical significance of TT virus [TTV] that has been reported as a candidate for non A-G hepatitis virus. The aim of this study was to clarify the clinical significance of TTV in healthy subjects and patients co-infected with TTV and hepatitis C virus [HCV]. Twenty four healthy subjects in addition to 40 chronic hepatitis C patients were involved in this study. TTVDNA was detected using polymerase chain reaction [PCR], HCVRNA was measured using real time PCR, and liver enzymes were also determined by RANDOX; EC 2.6.2 IFCC Kit. TTVDNA was detected in 32.5% and 37.5% of control and chronic hepatitis C patients respectively, which was not statistically significant [p>0.05]. No significant increase in serum SGPT, SGOT values was observed among TTV DNA positive and TTV DNA negative in both groups. No significant differences were found between TTV DNA positive and negative groups regarding gender and HCV RNA load. Among the healthy control group, only 2 [8.3%] out of 24 had elevated liver enzymes and they were TTV DNA positive, while out of the 40 chronic hepatitis C patients, [40%] had elevated SGPT and SGOT values respectively. Of these 5 [35.7%] were both TTV DNA and HCVRNA positive. HCVRNA viremia did not correlate with the presence of TTVDNA. In summary, this study does not indicate TTV as a causative agent of non-B, non-C chronic hepatitis cases studied

Telomerase activity, cytokeratin 20 and cytokeratin 19 in urine cells of bladder cancer patients

This work aims to search for markers suitable for the screening of bladder cancer, which should be specific, sensitive, reproducible, non-invasive and at acceptable cost. The study included 50 patients diagnosed as bladder cancer [35 TCC, 15 SCC] of different stages and grades, 30 patients with various urothelial diseases, besides 20 apparently healthy subjects of matched age and sex to the malignant group. A random midstream urine sample was collected in a sterile container for the determination of telomerase by RT-PCR, keratin 19 by ELSA CYFRA 21-i IRMA kit, keratin 20 by RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining, and urine cytology. For all parameters [telomerase, Ki9, K20 and cytology] the malignant group was significantly different from both the benign and the control groups. None of the four studied parameters was correlated to the stage of the disease, and when it comes to grade, only Ki9 showed a significant positive correlation with grade both in TCC and SCC. When ROC curves for all parameters were compared, Ki9 had the largest area under the curve, and then comes K20. K 19 may be used as a biological marker for the diagnosis of bladder cancer Ki9 could not be used for differential diagnosis of different types of bladder cancer, meanwhile it could be a marker for differentiation that decreases in less differentiated tumors. As a tumor marker, K20 reflects inability to differentiate tumor type or grade in TCC, while in SCC of the bladder it is correlated with the grade. As a method, RT-PCR is superior to immunostaining for the detection of bladder cancer, meanwhile K20 immunohistochemistry [IHC] results were much better than urine cytology as a bladder cancer screening test. Haematuria and inflammation reduced the specificity of telomerase assay, which reduced its validity as a tumor marker of bladder cancer. Ki9 and K20 are the best candidates as screening tests for the diagnosis of bladder cancer, representing the highest sensitivity and specificity, beside the radiological and histopathology. Meanwhile, telomerase, although it was a sensitive enough marker, it reflected a high false positive rate