Role of Serum Amyloid A as a Biomarker for Predicting the Severity and Prognosis of COVID-19.

Objective: To detect biomarkers that can be used to predict COVID-19 severity to identify patients with high probability of disease progression and poor prognosis. Methods: Of the 102 patients with confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to King Fahd General Hospital, Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia, from July 1, 2021 to August 5, 2021, 50 were included in this cross-sectional study to investigate the influence of serum amyloid A (SAA) on disease severity and survival outcomes of COVID-19 patients. Dynamic shifts in SAA, C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cell (WBC), lymphocytes, neutrophils, biochemical markers, and disease progression were examined. At admission, and at three, five, and seven days after treatment, at least four data samples were collected from all patients, and they underwent clinical status assessments. Results: Critically ill patients showed higher SAA and CRP levels and WBC and neutrophil counts and significantly lower lymphocyte and eosinophil counts compared to the moderately/severely ill patients, especially with regard to disease progression. Similarly, nonsurvivors had higher SAA levels than survivors. The moderately/severely ill patients and the survivors had significantly higher dynamic changes in SAA compared to the critically ill patients and nonsurvivors, respectively, with differences clearly noticed on the fifth and seventh day of treatment. ROC curve analysis revealed that the combination of SAA and CRP was valuable in evaluating the disease progression and prognosis of COVID-19 patients at different time points; however, a combination of SAA and lymphocyte counts was more sensitive for disease severity prediction on admission. The most sensitive parameters for predicting survival on admission were the combination of SAA/WBC and SAA/neutrophil count. Conclusions: The study findings indicate that SAA can be used as a sensitive indicator to assess the degree of disease severity and survival outcomes of COVID-19 patients.

Increased expression of brother of the regulator of imprinted sites in peripheral blood neutrophils is associated with both benign and malignant breast lesions.

BACKGROUND: BORIS, a paralog of the multifunctional CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) gene is restricted to testis and normally not present in females. It is aberrantly activated in various human cancers including cancer breast. Using immunohistochemistry, western blot and/or RT-PCR, significantly higher levels of BORIS expression were reported in the neutrophils of cancer breast patients. We hypothesized that Flow Cytometry might be a better technique for objective quantitative evaluation of BORIS in neutrophils and we wanted to investigate if BORIS would discriminate between benign and malignant breast lesions. METHODS: The study included 85 females; 52 breast cancer, 13 benign breast lesions and 20 age-matched healthy controls. BORIS expression in the neutrophils was detected by Flow Cytometry. RESULTS: High level of BORIS was detected in all malignant (64.4 ± 16.6%) and benign cases (67 ± 12.3), mean florescent intensity ratio (MFIR) of 7.2 ± 4.1 and 7 ± 3.5, median 5.8 and 6.6%; and staining index (SI) 8.3 ± 3.9 and 8.2 ± 3.4, median 7.6 and 7.9 respectively vs.13.4 ± 11.5% MFI 1.8 ± 0.7, median1.6 and SI 2.6 ± 0.69, median 2.5 for the control. BORIS level was comparable in the malignant and benign group (P = 0.934) and significantly higher than control (P = 0.0001). There was no correlation between neutrophil BORIS expression and ER/PR status, HER-2/neu expression or tumor stage or size. CONCLUSIONS: Increased BORIS expression in peripheral blood neutrophils is associated with both benign and malignant breast lesions; apparently, increased proliferation of breast tissue is the determining factor. This excludes BORIS as a tumor marker but it does not jeopardize its value as a potential therapeutic target. © 2016 International Clinical Cytometry Society.

DNA repair genes XPD and XRCC1 polymorphisms and risk of end-stage renal disease in Egyptian population.

DNA repair gene polymorphisms may affect DNA repair capacity and modulate susceptibility to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). We aimed to determine the association of polymorphisms in xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group D (XPD) and X-ray cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) with ESRD development. Polymorphisms in XPD codons 312 and 751 and XRCC1 codon 399 were genotyped in 98 patients undergoing hemodialysis and 102 healthy controls using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. Patients having XRCC1-399 Arg/Gln genotype or XRCC1-399 Gln/Gln genotype had a significantly higher risk of ESRD than those with XRCC1-399 Arg/Arg [odds ratio (OR): 2.48; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.36-4.52; p = 0.004 and OR: 4.05; 95% CI: 1.19-13.73; p = 0.03, respectively]. We also found a significantly higher frequency of the XRCC1 399Gln allele in patients with ESRD than in controls (OR: 2.22; 95% CI: 1.16-4.25; p = 0.02). Combination of the Arg/Gln or Gln/Gln genotypes of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism with Asp/Asn or Asn/Asn genotypes of XPDAsp312Asn or with the Lys/Gln or Gln/Gln genotypes of XPD Lys751Gln was significantly associated with the development of ESRD. Haplotypes association showed that association of Gln allele of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism with the Asn allele of XPDAsp312Asn polymorphism (p = 0.004) or Gln allele of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism with the Gln allele of XPD Lys751Gln polymorphism (p = 0.003) was highly significantly associated with the development of ESRD. This study revealed that XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism may confer increased risk for the development of ESRD. Furthermore, larger studies should be conducted to confirm these results.

Peripheral blood mammaglobin gene expression for diagnosis and prediction of metastasis in breast cancer patients.

AIM: To evaluate the value of peripheral blood mammaglobin (MG) gene expression for diagnosis and prediction of metastasis in breast cancer patients. METHODS: MG expression was detected by nested reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction in the peripheral blood of 46 females (32 breast cancer, 12 benign breast lesions, 2 no breast abnormalities). In total 28 breast cancer patients were followed up through a period of 34 months for the development of metastasis. RESULTS: MG expression was detected in 16/32 (50%) breast cancer patients but not in patients with benign lesions or healthy participants. Five patients had metastasis at diagnosis. During the 34 months of follow up, five more MG-positive patients showed metastatic lesions and none of the MG negative patients who were followed up developed metastasis. CONCLUSION: The study suggests blood MG expression is a specific molecular marker for detection of occult mammary carcinoma cells of patients with operable breast cancer. It might be of value as a predictor of subsequent metastasis. Large-scale studies and longer follow-up periods are needed.