Ficolins: novel proteins of the innate immune response

The third pathway of complement activation, which is called Mannose-binding lectin [MBL], is a key mechanism for the acute phase response to infection, but the most recent discovery in this domain is group of proteins called Ficolins, which activate the complement in the same pathway, in addition to another biological functions and that give these proteins an important role in the innate immunity .We tried in this essay to present some information about structure, interaction, role and functions of these proteins in human

Interferon gamma [IFN-gamma] polymorphism in patients with chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis [CL] is one of the most prevalent clinical forms of leishmaniasis, also it is endemic disease in Syria. And in spite of the great efforts to control the disease the annual incidence is still increased. Furthermore, tourism, migration, and prevalence of acquired immunodeficiency [AIDS] all these factors increase the spread of this disease to new areas around the world. Recently, studies suggest that cytokines gene polymorphisms can contribute to resistance or susceptibility to many diseases and one of these diseases is CL. The main purpose of this research was to study the relationship between the polymorphism in Interferon y [IFN-gamma] gene, which is one of the most important cytokine in the first immune response T helper [Thl] and chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis. In our study we analyzed the polymorphism in Interferon y [IFN- gamma] gene, which is an important cytokine in the first immune response T helper [Thl] .A total of 54 patients with chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis, and 70 healthy controls from different areas in Syria were included in this study. Functional polymorphism in the position +874 of y [IFN-gamma] gene was investigated by polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing in cooperation with Tubingen University-Germany. We found that IFN-gamma +874 A ->T polymorphism was less common in patients with chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis CCL compared to the healthy controls [f = 8.81, p = 0.003]. our results suggest that the polymorphism in the first intron of the IFN-gamma gene might influence the progression of disease towards CCL