The in?uence of?1-acid glycoprotein on collagenase-3 activity in early rheumatoid arthritis

Sex-Biased Expression of Genes Allocated in the Autosomal Chromosomes: Blood LC-MS/MS Protein Profiling in Healthy Subjects

Background

Sex and gender have a large impact in human health and disease prediction. According to genomic/genetics, men differ from women by a limited number of genes in Y chromosome, while the phenotypes of the 2 sexes differ markedly.

Methods

In this study, serum samples from six healthy Bahraini men and women were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Bioinformatics databases and tools were used for protein/peptide (PPs) identification and gene localization. The PPs that differed significantly (p < 0.05, ANOVA) in abundance with a fold change (FC) of ≥1.5 were identified.

Results

Revealed 20 PPs, 11 were upregulated in women with very high FC (up to 8 folds), and 9 were upregulated in men but with much lower FC. The PPs are encoded by genes located in autosomal chromosomes, indicative of sex-biased gene expression. The only PP related to sex, the sex hormone-binding globulin, was upregulated in women. The remaining PPs were involved in immunity, lipid metabolism, gene expression, connective tissue, and others, with some overlap in function.

Conclusions

The upregulated PPs in men or women are mostly reflecting the functon or risk/protection provided by the PPs to the specific sex, e.g., Apo-B100 of LDLC. Finally, the basis of sex-biased gene expression and sex phenotypic differences needs further investigation.

Serologic Evidence of Gut-driven Systemic Inflammation in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

OBJECTIVE

Accumulating evidence links juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) to nonhost factors such as gut microbes. We hypothesize that children with new-onset JIA have increased intestinal bacterial translocation and circulating lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

METHODS

We studied systemic treatment-naive patients with JIA [polyarticular JIA, n = 22, oligoarticular JIA, n = 31, and spondyloarthropathies (SpA), n = 16], patients with established inflammatory bowel disease-related arthritis (IBD-RA, n = 11), and 34 healthy controls. We determined circulating IgG reactivity against LPS, LPS-binding protein (LBP), α-1-acid glycoprotein (α-1AGP), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in plasma or serum from these patients and controls. Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (JADAS-27) was calculated for patients with JIA.

RESULTS

Circulating anticore LPS antibody concentrations in patients with polyarticular JIA (p = 0.001), oligoarticular JIA (p = 0.024), and SpA (p = 0.001) were significantly greater than in controls, but there were no significant intergroup differences. Circulating LBP concentrations were also significantly greater in patients with polyarticular JIA (p = 0.001), oligoarticular JIA (p = 0.002), and SpA (p = 0.006) than controls, as were α-1AGP concentrations (p = 0.001, 0.001, and 0.003, respectively). No differences were observed between controls and patients with IBD-RA in any of the assays. Circulating concentrations of LBP and α-1AGP correlated strongly with CRP concentrations (r = 0.78 and r = 0.66, respectively). Anticore LPS antibody levels and CRP (r = 0.26), LBP (r = 0.24), and α-AGP (r = 0.22) concentrations had weaker correlations. JADAS-27 scores correlated with LBP (r = 0.66) and α-1AGP concentrations (r = 0.58).

CONCLUSION

Children with polyarticular JIA, oligoarticular JIA, and SpA have evidence of increased exposure to gut bacterial products. These data reinforce the concept that the intestine is a source of immune stimulation in JIA.

Fucosylated Glycans in α1-Acid Glycoprotein for Monitoring Treatment Outcomes and Prognosis of Cancer Patients

One standard treatment option for advanced-stage cancer is surgical resection of malignant tumors following by adjuvant chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy. Additionally, neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be applied if required. During the time course of treatments, patients are generally followed by computed tomography (CT) surveillance, and by tumor marker diagnosis. However, currently, early evidence of recurrence and/or metastasis of tumors with a clinically relevant biomarker remains a major therapeutic challenge. In particular, there has been no validated biomarker for predicting treatment outcomes in therapeutic settings. Recently, we have looked at glycoforms of serum α₁-acid glycoprotein (AGP) by using a crossed affinoimmunoelectrophoresis with two lectins and an anti-AGP antibody. The primary glycan structures of AGP were also analyzed by a mass spectrometer and a novel software in a large number of patients with various cancers. Accordingly, the relative abundance of α1,3fucosylated glycans in AGP (FUCAGP) was found to be significantly high in cancer patients as compared with the healthy controls. Further, strikingly elevated levels of FUCAGP were found in patients with poor prognosis but not in patients with good prognosis. In the current study, levels of FUCAGP in serum samples from various cancer patients were analyzed and 17 patients including 13 who had undergone chemotherapy were followed for several years post operation. FUCAGP level determined diligently by using a mass spectrometer was found to change along with disease prognosis as well as with responses to treatments, in particular, to various chemotherapies. Therefore, FUCAGP levels measured during following-up of the patients after operation appeared to be clinically relevant biomarker of treatment intervention.

Transcriptome analysis describing new immunity and defense genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of rheumatoid arthritis patients

Background

Large-scale gene expression profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients could provide a molecular description that reflects the contribution of diverse cellular responses associated with this disease. The aim of our study was to identify peripheral blood gene expression profiles for RA patients, using Illumina technology, to gain insights into RA molecular mechanisms.

Methodology/Principal Findings

The Illumina Human-6v2 Expression BeadChips were used for a complete genome-wide transcript profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 18 RA patients and 15 controls. Differential analysis per gene was performed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and P values were adjusted to control the False Discovery Rate (FDR<5%). Genes differentially expressed at significant level between patients and controls were analyzed using Gene Ontology (GO) in the PANTHER database to identify biological processes. A differentially expression of 339 Reference Sequence genes (238 down-regulated and 101 up-regulated) between the two groups was observed. We identified a remarkably elevated expression of a spectrum of genes involved in Immunity and Defense in PBMCs of RA patients compared to controls. This result is confirmed by GO analysis, suggesting that these genes could be activated systemically in RA. No significant down-regulated ontology groups were found. Microarray data were validated by real time PCR in a set of nine genes showing a high degree of correlation.

Conclusions/Significance

Our study highlighted several new genes that could contribute in the identification of innovative clinical biomarkers for diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions.

Fucosylation of serum α1-acid glycoprotein in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with infliximab

To analyze fucosylation of alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) and to identify relations between AGP fucosylation and clinical and biochemical indices of disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with monoclonal antitumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibody infliximab, we examined 22 patients with RA who underwent a 54-week treatment with infliximab according to ATTRACT protocol. Blood samples were collected at baseline and before every infusion of infliximab. AGP fucosylation was measured using lectin-binding enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay utilizing fucose-specific lectin Aleuria aurantia (AAL). Moreover, the clinical status/activity, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, serum C-reactive protein (CRP), antitrypsin, alpha(1)-antichymotrypsin, AGP reactivity with concanavalin A, serum C3 and C4 complement components, and serum concentrations of TNF and soluble TNF type 1 and type 2 receptors were determined. In most patients, the fucosylation of AGP decreased rapidly after first infusion of infliximab and remained low during the 54-week therapy (p < 0.001). The decrease in AGP affinity to AAL closely followed changes in clinical and laboratory activity of RA and correlated with pretreatment concentrations of CRP (r = 0.4986, p < 0.05) and TNF (r = 0.5181, p < 0.05). The fucosylation of AGP can be a part of a negative feedback loop regulating migration of inflammatory cells and collagenase-3 activity in RA. The decrease in AGP fucosylation accompanied by improvement in clinical and biochemical parameters of RA could possibly reflect reduced migration of inflammatory cells to inflamed joints and AGP-mediated inhibition of collagenase-3 as a response to infliximab treatment.

Fucosylation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes

Fucosylated carbohydrate structures are involved in a variety of biological and pathological processes in eukaryotic organisms including tissue development, angiogenesis, fertilization, cell adhesion, inflammation, and tumor metastasis. In contrast, fucosylation appears less common in prokaryotic organisms and has been suggested to be involved in molecular mimicry, adhesion, colonization, and modulating the host immune response. Fucosyltransferases (FucTs), present in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms, are the enzymes responsible for the catalysis of fucose transfer from donor guanosine-diphosphate fucose to various acceptor molecules including oligosaccharides, glycoproteins, and glycolipids. To date, several subfamilies of mammalian FucTs have been well characterized; these enzymes are therefore delineated and used as models. Non-mammalian FucTs that possess different domain construction or display distinctive acceptor substrate specificity are highlighted. It is noteworthy that the glycoconjugates from plants and schistosomes contain some unusual fucose linkages, suggesting the presence of novel FucT subfamilies as yet to be characterized. Despite the very low sequence homology, striking functional similarity is exhibited between mammalian and Helicobacter pylori alpha1,3/4 FucTs, implying that these enzymes likely share a conserved mechanistic and structural basis for fucose transfer; such conserved functional features might also exist when comparing other FucT subfamilies from different origins. Fucosyltranferases are promising tools used in synthesis of fucosylated oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates, which show great potential in the treatment of infectious and inflammatory diseases and tumor metastasis.