Role of lymphocyte-related immune-inflammatory biomarkers in detecting early progression of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the role of peripheral neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in the progression and severity of the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). METHODS: 47 GBS patients and 50 age and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) were retrospectively included. Demographic and clinical assessment data were reviewed and abstracted. NLR, MLR, and PLR were calculated based on the peripheral blood tests by reviewing clinical data. The relationship between the Hughes' score and NLR, MLR, PLR levels was investigated. RESULTS: The GBS patients had higher NLR levels (P < 0.001), MLR levels (P = 0.001) and PLR levels (P < 0.001) than those in HC. And patients with severe disability score (Hughes' score ≥ 3) had significantly higher NLR (P = 0.007), MLR (P = 0.04), PLR (P = 0.013). Spearman correlation analysis indicated that NLR was positively associated with the Hughes' score (r = 0.331, P = 0.023). In the patients with acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP), Spearman correlation analysis indicated that NLR, MLR and PLR were positively associated to the Hughes' score (r = 0.825, P = 0.001 for NLR, r = 0.727, P = 0.005 for MLR, and r = 0.723, P = 0.005 for PLR). CONCLUSIONS: NLR, MLR, and PLR may be indicators of disease activity in patients with GBS or AIDP. These parameters may benefit the active treatment of GBS patients with a high degree of disability.

Serum irisin levels in patients with myasthenia gravis.

OBJECTIVE: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder whose main symptoms are muscle weakness and fatigue. Irisin is a novel skeletal muscle-derived myokine participating in several physiological and pathological processes. The initial objective of the project was to explore serum levels of irisin in patients with MG, as well as its correlation with disease severity. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated serum levels of irisin in 77 MG patients and 57 healthy controls (HCs) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Further, clinical parameters were measured properly. RESULTS: Serum irisin levels were significantly elevated in MG patients compared with HCs (p < 0.001). Furthermore, serum irisin levels were associated with the myasthenia gravis activities of daily living score in ocular myasthenia gravis (OMG) patients (r = 0.476, p = 0.004), but there was no relationship to be considered of any relevant value in generalized myasthenia gravis (GMG) patients. Acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive MG patients had higher serum irisin levels compared with HCs. Thymoma, endotracheal intubation, or intensive care unit treatments subsequently were not found to have effect on serum levels of irisin, but tendencies of increase were observed in negative ones. CONCLUSIONS: Serum irisin levels were elevated in patients with MG, suggesting its possible involvement in MG. And irisin is expected to be a signal to evaluate the activities of daily living of OMG patients, while its effect needs further study.

Metronomic combination chemotherapy using everolimus and etoposide for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Patients with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) treated by conventional chemotherapeutic drugs usually require a long recovery period. However, metronomic combination chemotherapy (MCC) enhances therapeutic efficacy and decreases side effects in the treatment of NHL. In this study, we tested and compared the effects of metronomic chemotherapy (MC) using podophyllotoxin derivative etoposide (VP-16) alone and that of MCC using both VP-16 and everolimus (RAD001) in the treatment of NHL. Two types of NHL cells, OCI-LY-10 and SU-DHL-6, were employed for the experiments. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell senescence were measured to test the effects of drugs in each experiment. In addition, the influences of MC and MCC on the cell cycle and autophagy pathway were evaluated to study the functional mechanisms behind their effects. Finally, we conducted analyses of the growth inhibitory effect and synergistic activity for different MCC. The results showed that MC using low-dose VP-16 alone demonstrated strong treatment effects in terms of inducing apoptosis, cell senescence, and reducing tumor cell proliferation, and this treatment also led to changes of the cell cycle. Compared with MC, MCC using VP-16 and RAD001 together demonstrated even stronger treatment effects, with both the cell cycle and autophagy-related proteins being affected. Considering the synergistic activity, our results showed the MCC of VP-16 48 hours + RAD001 24 hours is the optimal method for treating NHL.