Utility of basophil activation test for predicting the outcome of wheezing in children: a pilot study

Augmenting regulatory T cells: new therapeutic strategy for rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic autoimmune condition marked by inflammation of the joints, degradation of the articular cartilage, and bone resorption. Recent studies found the absolute and relative decreases in circulating regulatory T cells (Tregs) in RA patients. Tregs are a unique type of cells exhibiting immunosuppressive functions, known for expressing the Foxp3 gene. They are instrumental in maintaining immunological tolerance and preventing autoimmunity. Increasing the absolute number and/or enhancing the function of Tregs are effective strategies for treating RA. This article reviews the studies on the mechanisms and targeted therapies related to Tregs in RA, with a view to provide better ideas for the treatment of RA.

Immunoglobulin E and G autoantibodies against eosinophil proteins in children and adults with asthma and healthy subjects

Background

Autoimmune IgG response has been described in the pathogenesis of asthma in adults, but IgE autoimmunity has been little explored. Considering high levels of blood eosinophils and immunoglobulin E in asthmatic patients, the possibility of IgE autoantibody response to eosinophil proteins arises.

Objective

To explore the presence of IgE and IgG autoantibodies against Eosinophil peroxidase (EPX) and Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP).

Methods

Three steps were followed: 1) The frequency of IgE and IgG autoantibodies against EPX and ECP was investigated among asthmatic and healthy subjects. 2) The ability of IgE autoantibodies to induce an inflammatory response (basophil activation) was performed. 3) The capacity of autoantibodies to identify patients with severe asthma was evaluated.

Results

Asthmatic and healthy subjects had IgE and IgG autoantibodies against EPX and ECP. Anti-EPX IgE was significantly higher in asthmatic patients. Severe asthmatic patients had a higher frequency and higher levels of IgE and IgG autoantibodies compared to healthy subjects. There was not a correlation between autoantibodies and blood eosinophils. Children younger than 14 years of age had IgE and IgG autoantibodies against to EPX and ECP. IgE autoantibodies to EPX and ECP induced basophil activation in asthmatic patients.

Conclusion

In this study, we identify for the first time IgE autoantibodies against EPX and ECP in adults and children patients with asthma; IgE and IgG autoantibodies against EPX and ECP could serve as a predictive biomarker of the clinical severity.

FinnGen provides genetic insights from a well-phenotyped isolated population

Population isolates such as those in Finland benefit genetic research because deleterious alleles are often concentrated on a small number of low-frequency variants (0.1% ≤ minor allele frequency < 5%). These variants survived the founding bottleneck rather than being distributed over a large number of ultrarare variants. Although this effect is well established in Mendelian genetics, its value in common disease genetics is less explored^1,2. FinnGen aims to study the genome and national health register data of 500,000 Finnish individuals. Given the relatively high median age of participants (63 years) and the substantial fraction of hospital-based recruitment, FinnGen is enriched for disease end points. Here we analyse data from 224,737 participants from FinnGen and study 15 diseases that have previously been investigated in large genome-wide association studies (GWASs). We also include meta-analyses of biobank data from Estonia and the United Kingdom. We identified 30 new associations, primarily low-frequency variants, enriched in the Finnish population. A GWAS of 1,932 diseases also identified 2,733 genome-wide significant associations (893 phenome-wide significant (PWS), P < 2.6 × 10^-11) at 2,496 (771 PWS) independent loci with 807 (247 PWS) end points. Among these, fine-mapping implicated 148 (73 PWS) coding variants associated with 83 (42 PWS) end points. Moreover, 91 (47 PWS) had an allele frequency of <5% in non-Finnish European individuals, of which 62 (32 PWS) were enriched by more than twofold in Finland. These findings demonstrate the power of bottlenecked populations to find entry points into the biology of common diseases through low-frequency, high impact variants.

Analysis of the application and efficacy of "Trinity" rehabilitation nursing in management of bronchial asthma

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the application and clinical efficacy of "Trinity" nursing mode in bronchial asthma health management.

METHODS

A total of 100 patients with bronchial asthma admitted to our hospital from June 2017 to June 2020 were divided into a reference group and a research group according to the order of admission (50 cases in each group). The reference group received conventional nursing, while the research group received "Trinity" nursing. The control of asthma, health literacy, hospitalization, treatment compliance and disease recurrence rate were compared between the two groups.

RESULTS

The asthma control test (ACT) score of the research group was higher than that of the reference group; the health literacy score of the research group was higher than that of the reference group; the hospitalization time and treatment cost of the research group were less compared to the reference group. After 1 month of treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups, and the compliance of the research group was significantly higher than that of the latter after 3 months and 6 months of treatment. The disease recurrence of the research group was significantly lower compared to the reference group 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after treatment, respectively (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION

"Trinity" nursing mode has a positive clinical effect in the health management of bronchial asthma, which can promote respiratory function and health literacy of patients, help patients save hospitalization expenses, improve treatment compliance and control the recurrence of asthma diseases. Therefore, it is worthy of promotion.