Serum levels of TNF-alpha, TNF-alpha RI, TNF-alpha RII and IL-12 in treated Rheumatoid Arthritis patients

Rheumatoid arthritis [RA] is a chronic multisystem autoimmune disease common in all races and ethnics. Cytokines and cytokines receptors play an important role in RA pathogenesis and clinical presentation. To investigate the serum levels of TNF-alpha, TNF-alpha RI, TNF-alpha RII and IL-12 in RA patients and healthy control group. In this study 43 patients fulfilling the revised criteria of American College of Rheumatology [ACR] for RA and 13 healthy cases as a control group were selected for TNF-alpha, TNF-alpha RI, TNF-alpha RII and IL-12 serum level analysis. The patients' age was 42.2 +/- 22 and the age of healthy group was 40.1 +/- 19.2 years [p=0.1]. The patients had an active disease with at least six swollen and ten tender joints. Minimum ESR was 28 mm at first hours of the morning. Early morning stiffness in patients lasted longer than 45 minutes. Our study showed that IL-12 serum level of the patients [91.69 +/- 43.07 [rho]g/ml] and control [61.79 +/- 40.08 [rho]g/ml] group was significantly different [p<0.001]. The serum level of TNF-alpha RI was 2.36 +/- 0.77 ng/ml in the patient and 1.73 +/- 0.37 ng/ml in the control group [p<0.01]. TNF-alpha RII serum concentration in patients was 8.89 +/- 2.3 ng/ml, while that of control group was 7.06 +/- 1.30 ng/ml [p=0.03]. The serum level of TNF-alpha in patients was 32.90 +/- 19.27 [rho]g/ml and that of the control group was 24.27 +/- 8.28 [rho]g/ml [p=0.08] with no significant difference between the two. It is concluded that IL-12, TNF-alpha RI and TNF-alpha RII serum concentrations are more important and better predictive factors than TNF-alpha in RA course and in the active forms of the disease

[Development of ELISA test for determining the antibody titer against herpes simplex virus-1 and comparison of the results by VNT]

Herpes simplex virus [HSVs] is a widespread human infectious agent, responsible for persistent and latent infections. Herpes simplex virus infections are usually continually recurrent in the normal population and represent a significant cause of complications in immunocompromised patients. In this study HSVs were propagated in BK cells and more than 502 samples were taken and analyzed for HSV IgG antibodies using Virus Neutralization Test [VNT] as golden standard test for evaluating in house Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay [ELISA]. Based on the results 80.48% and 81.67% were positive [1.8] in VNT and ELISA respectively. There was a significant correlation between the VNT and ELISA tests in the tested samples [Pearson's r = 0.96]. Our data showed that the in house ELISA can be used for screening and determination of the prevalence of HSV IgG antibodies, which can facilitates patient management using suitable and cost effective laboratory diagnostic tests