ABSTRACT
AIM: In the present study, a protein-protein interaction network construction is conducted for IBD. BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel diseases as serious chronic gastrointestinal disorders attracted many molecular investigations. Diverse molecular information is present for IBD. However, these molecular findings are not highlighted based on interactome analysis. On the other hand, PPI network analysis is a powerful method for study of molecular interactions in the protein level that provide useful information for highlighting the desired key proteins. METHODS: Cytoscape is the used software with its plug-ins for detailed analysis. Two centrality parameters including degree and betweenness are determined and the crucial proteins based on these parameters are introduced. RESULTS: The 75 proteins among 100 initial proteins are included in the network of IBD. Seventy-five nodes and 260 edges constructed the network as a scale free network. The findings indicate that there are seven hub-bottleneck proteins in the IBD network. CONCLUSION: More examination revealed the essential roles of these key proteins in the integrity of the network. Finally, the indicator panel including NFKB1, CD40, TNFA, TYK2, NOD2, IL23R, and STAT3 is presented as a possible molecular index for IBD.
ABSTRACT
AIM: The corresponding proteins are important for network mapping since the interaction analysis can provide a new interpretation about disease underlying mechanisms as the aim of this study. BACKGROUD: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is one of the main causes of liver disease in the world. It has been known with many susceptible proteins that play essential role in its pathogenesis. METHODS: In this paper, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis of fatty liver disease retrieved from STRING db by the application of Cytoscape Software. ClueGO analyzed the associated pathways for the selected top proteins. RESULTS: INS, PPARA, LEP, SREBF1, and ALB are the introduced biomarker panel for fatty liver disease. CONCLUSION: It seems that pathways related to insulin have a prominent role in fatty liver disease. Therefore, investigation in this case is required to confirm the possible linkage of introduced panel and involvement of insulin pathway in the disease.
ABSTRACT
Background. Immunoglobulin IgG4-associated cholangitis (IAC) disease is a systemic disease histologically characterized by extensive T lymphocytes and IgG4 positive plasma cell infiltration in various organs. Prevalence of IAC in PSC patients was reported to be between 7% and 11.6% in a few previous studies. This study was carried out to evaluate frequency of serum IgG4 level in PSC patient referred to the gastroenterology ward of Taleghani educational hospital in Tehran, Iran. Material and Methods. This study was a prospective analytical cross-sectional study. Clinical presentation, laboratory values, imaging changes, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), esophageal varices, ascites, and child score in newly PSC patients with elevated IgG4 were determined and compared with PSC patients with normal levels of IgG4. Data was analyzed by using SPSS software. The frequency and standard deviations were calculated. Differences among groups were evaluated by using the chi-square, fisher exact, and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results. 34 patients with PSC were examined in the study period, of which 9 cases (26.5%) had high IgG4 levels. Most of the patients were male, 23 cases (67.6%) and nonsmoker, 26 cases (76.5%). Patient average age was 47 years old (range 21-67 years). There was not any significant relationship among patients with IAC and PSC patients in terms of variables such as age, smoking, presence of IBD, ascites, esophageal varices, child score, and imaging findings (P > 0.05). Conclusion. IAC should be suspected in cases of unexplained biliary strictures with increased serum IgG4. Testing PSC patients for IgG4 and treating those who have high levels with corticosteroids in clinical trials should be considered in future studies.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: E-cadherin/catenin complexes exert a role in cell adhesion. ß-catenin is a key player in Wnt signaling pathway in gastric cancer. P53 is a tumor suppressor gene which also regulates apoptosis. We assessed the expression of E-cadherin, ß-catenin and p53 in gastric adenocarcinoma, and their correlations with clinicopathological features. METHODS: Fifty six formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival specimens of gastric adenocarcinoma were randomly included as cases. Adjacent tumor-free gastric mucosa of different premalignant stages was obtained from the cases. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to assess E-cadherin, ß-catenin and p53 expression. RESULTS: All chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia revealed normal membranous staining. Only one patient with dysplasia had abnormal expression of E-cadherin and ß-Catenin. Abnormal E-cadherin, ß-catenin and p53 expression was found in 50%, 48.2% and 76.8% of cancer specimens respectively. Abnormal expression of E-cadherin was significantly correlated with aberrant ß-catenin expression. Abnormal E-cadherin and ß-catenin expression were significantly correlated with depth of tumor invasion and advanced gastric cancer (p < 0.05), lower degree of differentiation and diffused tumor type (p < 0.001). Node metastasis was not influenced by abnormal expression of E-cadherin and ß-catenin. P53 was not associated with clinicopathological variables. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal expression of the E-cadherin and ß-catenin were associated with each other and influenced by histogenesis of gastric cancer and malignant behavior of tumor but not significant in premalignant lesions. They are more frequent in diffuse type and associated with advanced gastric cancer. P53 alterations are more frequent in the Iranian population compared with others.
