Th1/Th2 Imbalance in the Pathogenesis of Chronic Aplastic Anemia

Prognostic value of TNF-a-308 and IFN-g-874 single nucleotide polymorphisms and their plasma levels in patients with aplastic anemia

Background

Aplastic anemia (AA), an unusual hematological disease, is characterized by hypoplasia of the bone marrow and failure to form blood cells of all three lineages resulting in pancytopenia. This study aimed to investigate TNF-α-308 and IFN-γ-874 gene polymorphisms and their respective plasma protein levels in patients with AA and healthy controls.

Methods

Two hundred and forty individuals were included in this study; the case group comprised 120 AA patients, while 120 healthy individuals served as controls. Genotyping was performed using the PCR-restriction length fragment polymorphism method and TNF-α-308 and IFN-γ-874 plasma levels were evaluated using an ELISA kit.

Results

There was a significantly higher prevalence of the IFN-γ-874 genotype in patients with AA than in healthy controls, while the TNF-α-308 genotype was associated with lower risk of developing AA. Furthermore, the levels of both TNF-α-308 and IFN-γ-874 were higher in the plasma of AA patients.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that the IFN-γ-874 genotype may be a greater risk factor in the causation of AA, whereas the TNF-α-308 genotype has a protective role in the North Indian population.

A MODEL OF THE OPTIMAL IMMUNOTHERAPY OF PSORIASIS BY INTRODUCING IL-10 AND IL-22 INHIBITORS

Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease in which the process of hyper-proliferation (excessive division) of skin cells starts. Externally, psoriasis appears as red papules, on the surface of which there are scales of white–gray color. There is substantial evidence that T-helper cells take vital accountability for creating the hyper-proliferation of keratinocytes (skin cells), which causes itching of skin patches. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model describing the concentrations of T-helper and keratinocyte cell populations to predict cellular behaviors for psoriasis regulation under normal or anomalous immune circumstances. Local and global asymptotic stabilities of the model equilibria are investigated. Additionally, by introducing two scalar bounded controls into the model, the effect of combined immunotherapy using IL-10 and IL-22 inhibitors is analyzed. The optimal control problem of minimizing the cost of immune therapy and simultaneous optimizing the effect of this therapy on T-helper cells and keratinocytes proliferation is formulated and solved by applying the Pontryagin maximum principle. Within the restrictions of the proposed model, the obtained analytical and numerical outcomes suggest that the optimal strategy of injecting IL-10 and IL-22 inhibitors can be effective for psoriasis treatment.

Comparison of T lymphocyte subsets in aplastic anemia and hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndromes

AIMS

This study aims to compare the proportion of peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets and related blood cell and bone marrow cytology indexes between patients with aplastic anemia (AA) and hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndrome (hypo-MDS), and investigate the clinical identification significance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 41 patients with AA and 46 patients with hypo-MDS were collected, and the proportions of peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets, CD3^-CD16/CD56⁺NK cells, CD3⁺CD57⁺T-LGL cells and CD19⁺B lymphocytes were detected by flow cytometry.

KEY FINDINGS

The CD4⁺/CD8⁺ ratio decreased in the AA and hypo-MDS groups, and the difference was statistically significant when compared with that in the control group (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference between AA and hypo-MDS groups (P>0.05). The proportions of CD3^-CD16/CD56⁺NK cells and CD3⁺CD57⁺T-LGL cells in the hypo-MDS group were distinctly higher than those in the AA group (P<0.05). However, the proportion of CD19⁺B lymphocyte was obviously lower than that in the AA group (P<0.05). Furthermore, the proportions of reticulocytes, bone marrow progenitor cells and immature red blood cells in the hypo-MDS group were significantly more than those in the AA group (P<0.05), and the proportion of mature lymphocytes in the hypo-MDS group was distinctly lower than that in the AA group (P<0.05).

SIGNIFICANCE

Changes of T lymphocyte subsets and the proportions of large granular lymphocytes and B lymphocytes can be utilized as indexes in the differential diagnosis between AA and hypo-MDS.