Serum miRNA-1 as a novel biomarker for acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina

Background: Coronary artery diseases are the predominant cause of morbidity and mortality in developed and developing countries. Thus, extraordinary efforts have been directed to determine the molecular and pathological characteristics of the diseased heart in order to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies miRNAs are class of abundant, non-coding RNAs that attracted scientists' attention for their promising role as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in cardiovascular diseases

Aim of the work: To identify whether miRNA-1 is a dependable biomarker for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction or not

Subjects and Methods: 69 patients with coronary artery disease were included in this study; 36 patients with AMI and 33 patients with unstable angina. Those patients were admitted to coronary care unit, Assuit University Hospital during the period of March to October 2014. In addition 22 apparently healthy subjects were included as a control group. Cardiac troponin I and miRNA-1 was done for all subjects

Results: In patients with AMI the results of miRNA-1 ranged from 28.3 - 6763.9 fold changes above the control level. In those with UA, miRNA-1 result ranged from 1.74 - 144.37 fold changes above the control level [when the control group is one fold]. Comparison between different cups regarding results of miRNA-1 revealed that there was a highly significant difference [P<0.001] between different groups. There was a highly significant increase in patients with AMI when compared with the control group, also a statistically significant increase [P<0.001] in patients with UA when compared with the control group and a statistically significant increase [P<0.001] in patients with AMI when compared with those of UA

Conclusion: miRNA-1 is a novel dependable biomarker in patients with acute coronary syndrome. It shows significant upregulation in patients with AMI, but this upregulation is far from that of UA

Diagnostic values of gene expression of cytokeratin - 19 mrna and mammaglobin mrna in breast cancer patients using real-time polymerase chain reaction

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women. It constitutes almost 20% of all malignancies in women. Currently it affects approximately 6% of the female population. Even before clinical detection of a primary tumour, cancer cells can invade the adjacent structures from where they travel through lymphatic and blood vessels as circulating tumour cells [CTCs]. CTCs colonize distant organ sites as disseminated tumour cells [DTCs] and eventually form microscopic deposits [micrometastasis < 2 mm in diameter], which may remain dormant, but then ultimately lead to an overt metastatic disease. Cytokeratins [CKs] have become the most widely accepted protein markers for the detection of epithelial tumour cells in mesenchymal tissues, BM, blood and lymph nodes. Based on its breast cancer-association and somewhat unique breast-specific pattern of expression, mammaglobin was believed to be an excellent candidate for a novel and clinically useful breast tumor marker, especially in detecting micrometastasis. This study was performed on one hundred female Individuals. They classified into: Group I: 20 apparently healthy females as control group. Group II: 20 females with stage I breast cancer . Group HI: 20 females with stage II breast cancer. Group IV: 20 females with stage III breast cancer. Group V: 20 females with stage IV breast cancer. The following specific investigations were done for all the studied persons:-Cancer Antigen 15-3 [CA15-3] and Carcinoembryonic Antigen [CEA] using chemilmnmescent immunometric assay [IMMULITE 1000 Analyzer]. Cytokeratin-19 mRNA [CK-19] mRNA and mammaglobin mRNA by Real-time polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]. In group I [control group]: All the 20 healthy control females had low expression values for CK-19 and Mammaglobin. In group 2 [stage I breast cancer]: 35% of patients had over expression values for CK-19 and 20% had over expression values for Mammaglobin. In group 3[stage II breast cancer]: 47.4% of patients had over expression values for CK-19 and 47.4% had over expression values for Mammaglobin. In group 4 [stage III breast cancer] 68.4% of patients had over expression values for CK-19 and 73.7% had over expression values for Mammaglobin. In group 5 [stage IV breast cancer]: 95% of patients had over expression values for CK-19 and 95% had over expression values for Mammaglobin. Our findings support that all patients with breast cancer should be evaluated by CK-19 and Mammaglobin as a regular laboratory assessment beside the routine tumour markers specially in early stages of breast cancer to detect CTCs at the time of diagnosis

Hypermethylation of the PAX 5 gene promoter and its implication in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma

This study aimed to clarify the mechanism of silencing of the PAX5 gene. The genetic analysis of the coding region and promoter by southern blot analysis did not show growth structural abnormalities in human multiple myeloma [MM] cell lines when compared with PAX5 expressing B cells. Several transcription factors like Ikaros-1 [IK-1] and SRY-related high mobility group [HMG] box [SOX4 and SOX5] showed a similar expression pattern in B cells and MM cells. Therefore, it was suggested that epigenetic factors could be involved in PAX5 silencing. The examination of the methylation pattern in PAX5 promoter revealed some areas of hypermethylation in methylation sensitive Southern blot analysis. Moreover, the treatment of MM cell lines by methylation blocking cytidine analogue 5-aza-2 deoxycytidine [5-aza-2dC] could restore the expression of PAX5 gene. It was postulated that hypermethylation of the PAX5 gene promoter may be responsible for its silencing in human MM. It was proposed that PAX5 gene silencing could be related to the oncogenesis of human MM

Glycoproteins in chronic liver disease

The levels of serum haptoglobin, haemopexin, alpha 1-antitrypsin [alpha 1-AT] and orosomucoid [alpha 1-acid glycoprotein] were examined in the sera of 95 patients with microscopically confirmed chronic liver disease of different types. Haptoglobin concentration was significantly reduced in bilharzial hepatic fibrosis [BHF], in chronic active hepatitis [CAH], in post necrotic cirrhosis and in cardiac cirrhosis, while it increased significantly in biliary cirrhosis. Haemopexin concentration was reduced significantly increase in biliary cirrhosis. Haemopexin concentration was reduced significant increase in biliary cirrhosis. Whereas, the mean value in other groups showed no differences. The serum level of alpha 1-AT showed a highly significant reduction in cardiac cirrhosis patients. Serum orosomucoid level showed significant reduction in both the BHF and post necrotic cirrhosis groups, whereas, biliary cirrhosis patients showed increasing tendency without significant difference. It is concluded that determination of different forms of glycoproteins in chronic liver disease may be a useful adjuvet in assessment of hepatic cell function and severity of the chronic liver disease

High density lipoprotein subfractions and apolipoprotein-A1[Apo-A1] In chronic hemodialysis patients

Cholesterol content in high density lipoprotein [HDL] subfractions and the serum concentration of opoprotein A-1 [Apo-A1] have been studied in 32 patients at the end stage of chronic renal failure [CRF] undergoing haemodialysis. High density lipoprotein-cholesterol [HDL-C] subfractions were significantly decreased in the patient's group compared to the control group. However, serum concentrations of Apo-A1 were not significantly different. The raised Apo-A1/HDL2 cholesterol ratio in the patients group suggests the existence of qualitative changes in HDL subfractions in patients with CRF receiving haemodialysis. The abnormalities in the relative composition of HDL subfractions could play an important role as a cardiovascular risk factor in patients with CRF undergoing haemodialysis