[Correlation of Epstein-Barr Virus Infection with Prognosis of Children with Acute B Lymphoblastic Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlation of EB virus infection with the prognosis of B-ALL children. METHODS: The peripheral blood of children with newly diagnosed B-ALL admitted in Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from January 2012 to December 2017 were collected, and the EBV DNA in plasma was detected by real-time quantitative PCR. The clinical data of B-ALL children were collected and the correlation of EBV infection with the prognosis of B-ALL children was analyzed. RESULTS: Among 162 B-ALL children, the EBV infection rate was 41.36%. Univariate analysis showed that the B-ALL children with EBV infection had the poor prognosis and higher risk of shorter survival time, as compared with B-ALL children without EBV infection (HR=2.373, 95% CI: 1.129-4.987) (P＜0.05), the multivariate analysis showed that the result was consistent with result of univariate analysis indicating that EBV infection was an independent predictor for poor prognosis of B-ALL children. CONCLUSION: The EBV infection may play an important role in the occurrence and progression of B-ALL and is an independent predictor for poor prognosis, therefore the detection of EBV DNA in plasma of B-ALL children possesses an important significance for evaluation of B-ALL children's prognosis.

Investigation of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in pediatric population from 12,025 cases with respiratory infection.

Although Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) is a major pathogen of primary atypical pneumonia in children, the clinical and laboratory characteristics of MP infection in large pediatric population are less reported. Here, we retrospectively analyzed 12,025 hospitalized children with respiratory infection by using serology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods simultaneously. The results showed that 2433 (20.23%) children had MP infection, which mainly occurred in November to April. The presence of sore throat and pharyngitis was peculiar to MP infection. The positive percentage of MP-DNA was higher than that of MP-IgM in children aged <1 (P < 0.0001) and 1-3 years (P < 0.0001). Moreover, the positive rate of P1 gene, the key adhesion gene for MP infection, was higher in children with MP infection than in those with other pathogens (P < 0.0001). Our work provides the clinical information of children MP infection and highlights the superiority of PCR and potential usage of P1 as a diagnosis target for MP infection.

[Expression and abscission of activated receptors and their ligands on/from NK cells in peripheral blood of patients with acute leukemia].

This study was aimed to explore the immune escaping mechanisms based on expression and abscission of human natural killer (NK) cell activating receptors NKG2D and their ligands MICA/B, ULBP-1, 2, 3 in patients with acute leukemia (AL). 30 de novo AL patients and 10 healthy persons (control) were enrolled in study. Flow cytometry was used to detect the expression levels of MICA/B, ULBP-1, 2, 3 on leukemic cells. ELISA was used to detect the levels of soluble MICA (sMICA), solube MICB (sMICB) and soluble ULBP-1, -2, -3 in the serum. The results showed that sMICA, sMICB and ULBP-1, -2, -3 were not expressed or expressed at very low levels on leukemia cells of the patients; the levels of free sMICA and sMICB in serum of AL patients were higher than that in serum of healthy persons, there was significant difference (p<0.01). But the levels of ULBP 1-3 in serum of AL patients did not show obvious statistical difference as compared with healthy persons (p>0.05). It is concluded that the negative or low expression of NKG2D ligands (MICA, MICB and ULBPs) on surface of acute leukemia cells may lead to the immune escape of leukemia cells, the abscission of MICA and MICB, and the deficiency of ULBP expression on leukemia cells may be one of immune escape mechanisms of leukemia cells.