DNA integrity in diagnosis of premalignant lesions.

BACKGROUND: Carcinogenesis is a dynamic process which traditional biopsying can not keep up with. Saliva as fluid in the vicinity of the tumor can offer better insights to this process. This study aimed to identify the accuracy of salivary DNA integrity index in differentiating between oral premalignant lesions and oral cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This phase II diagnostic test accuracy study included 93 patients divided into three groups: 30 oral cancer patients, 33 patients with oral premalignant lesions divided into 21 oral lichen planus patients and 12 patients with leukoplakia and 30 normal individuals who acted as controls. Oral rinse was collected from all participants and they all underwent conventional visual and tactile examination, and patients with oral lesions had the diagnosis confirmed by histopathological examination of tissue biopsy. DNA integrity index was determined as the ratio between ALU247 and ALU115 measured by qPCR. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference regarding ALU115, ALU247 and DNA integrity index between the three study groups. The index was significantly higher in the oral cancer group than the oral lichen planus patients, while no significant difference was found between the oral cancer and the leukoplakia cases. The DNA integrity index sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 73%, 45%, 55% and 65% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Salivary DNA integrity index showed poor diagnostic abilities in differentiating between the oral cancer and premalignant lesions.

CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (TREG) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients: the possible influence of treatment with corticosteroids.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease characterized by loss of tolerance to self-antigens. Regulatory T cells (T(REG)) are those CD4+ T cells that constitutively express high levels of CD25 and exhibit powerful suppressive properties. The aim of this work was to quantify CD4+CD25+ (T(REG)) cells and the Mean Fluorescence Index (MFI) of T(REG) in the peripheral blood of patients with SLE and to correlate these findings with their disease activity scores and drug therapy. This study included 24 SLE patients with various disease activity scores (SLEDAI) and 24 healthy age and sex matched controls. Flow cytometry was used to examine the frequency of CD4+CD25+ T cells and the MFI of CD4+CD25+(high) T cells (T(REG)). CD4+CD25+ T cells % and MFI of CD4+CD25+(high) T cells were higher in SLE patients than controls (p value=0.62 and=0.037 respectively) and both CD4+CD25+ T cell % and the MFI of CD4+CD25+(high) T cells showed highly significant correlation with SLEDAI scores (both with a p value<0.001) and were higher in patients taking glucocorticoids than those not on glucocorticoids (p= 0.023, 0.048 respectively). We conclude that the increase in T(REG) cells in our patients may be due to corticosteroid treatment.