Matrix Metalloproteinases as Markers of Acute Inflammation Process in the Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Maternal dietary deficiency in choline reduced levels of MMP-2 levels in blood and brain tissue of male offspring mice

Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of disability and death globally, with a rising incidence in younger age groups. It's well known that maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation is vital for the early neurodevelopment of offspring. One-carbon (1C) metabolism, including folic acid and choline, plays a vital role in closure of the neural tube in utero . However, the impact of maternal dietary deficiencies in 1C on offspring neurological function following ischemic stroke later in life remains undefined. The aim of this study was to investigate inflammation in blood and brain tissue of offspring from mothers deficient in dietary folic acid or choline. Female mice were maintained on either a control or deficient diets prior to and during pregnancy and lactation. When offspring were 3-months of age, ischemic stroke was induced. One and half months later blood and brain tissue were collected. We measured levels of matrix-metalloproteases (MMP)-2 and 9 in both plasma and brain tissue, and report reduced levels of MMP-2 in both, with no changes observed in MMP-9. This observation supports our working hypothesis that maternal dietary deficiencies in folic acid or choline during early neurodevelopment impact the levels of inflammation in offspring after ischemic stroke.

Molecular Markers of Early Immune Response in Tuberculosis: Prospects of Application in Predictive Medicine

Tuberculosis (TB) remains an important public health problem and one of the leading causes of death. Individuals with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) have an increased risk of developing active TB. The problem of the diagnosis of the various stages of TB and the identification of infected patients in the early stages has not yet been solved. The existing tests (the tuberculin skin test and the interferon-gamma release assay) are useful to distinguish between active and latent infections. But these tests cannot be used to predict the development of active TB in individuals with LTBI. The purpose of this review was to analyze the extant data of the interaction of M. tuberculosis with immune cells and identify molecular predictive markers and markers of the early stages of TB. An analysis of more than 90 sources from the literature allowed us to determine various subpopulations of immune cells involved in the pathogenesis of TB, namely, macrophages, dendritic cells, B lymphocytes, T helper cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and NK cells. The key molecular markers of the immune response to M. tuberculosis are cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, IL-22b, IFNɣ, TNFa, and TGFß), matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-1, MMP-3, and MMP-9), and their inhibitors (TIMP-1, TIMP-2, TIMP-3, and TIMP-4). It is supposed that these molecules could be used as biomarkers to characterize different stages of TB infection, to evaluate the effectiveness of its treatment, and as targets of pharmacotherapy.

Investigating Mycobacterium tuberculosis sufR (rv1460) in vitro and ex vivo expression and immunogenicity

Iron is vital metal for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, survival, and persistence within its human host. The mobilization of sulphur (SUF) operon encodes the primary iron-sulphur (Fe-S) biogenesis system in M. tuberculosis and is induced during iron limitation and intracellular growth of M. tuberculosis, pointing to its importance during infection. To study sufR expression at single cell level during intracellular growth of M. tuberculosis a fluorescent reporter was generated by cloning a 123 bp sufR promoter region upstream of a promotorless mcherry gene in an integrating vector. Expression analysis and fluorescence measurements during in vitro culture revealed that the reporter was useful for measuring induction of the promoter but was unable to detect subsequent repression due to the stability of mCherry. During intracellular growth in THP-1 macrophages, increased fluorescence was observed in the strain harbouring the reporter relative to the control strain, however this induction was only observed in a small sub-set of the population. Since SufR levels are predicted to be elevated during infection we hypothesize that it is immunogenic and may induce an immune response in M. tuberculosis infected individuals. The immune response elicited by SufR for both whole blood assay (WBA, a short term 12-hr stimulation to characterise the production of cytokines/growth factors suggestive of an effector response) and lymphocyte proliferation assay (LPA, a longer term 7-day stimulation to see if SufR induces a memory type immune response) were low and did not show a strong immune response for the selected Luminex analytes (MCP-1, RANTES, IL-1b, IL-8, MIP-1b, IFN-g, IL-6 and MMP-9) measured in three clinical groups, namely active TB, QuantiFERON positive (QFN pos) and QFN negative (QFN neg) individuals.

An Improved Diagnostic of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Drug Resistance Status by Applying a Decision Tree to Probabilities Assigned by the CatBoost Multiclassifier of Matrix Metalloproteinases Biomarkers

In this work, we discuss an opportunity to use a set of the matrix metalloproteinases MMP-1, MMP-8, and MMP-9 and the tissue inhibitor TIMP, the concentrations of which can be easily obtained via a blood test from patients suffering from tuberculosis, as the biomarker for a fast diagnosis of the drug resistance status of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The diagnostic approach is based on machine learning with the CatBoost system, which has been supplied with additional postprocessing. The latter refers not only to the simple probabilities of ML-predicted outcomes but also to the decision tree-like procedure, which takes into account the presence of strict zeros in the primary set of probabilities. It is demonstrated that this procedure significantly elevates the accuracy of distinguishing between sensitive, multi-, and extremely drug-resistant strains.

Neutrophils and lymphocytes in relation to MMP-8 and MMP-9 levels in pulmonary tuberculosis and HIV co-infection

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SARS-CoV-2 Persistence: Data Summary up to Q2 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is causing confusion in the world. This confusion also affects the different guidelines adopted by each country. The persistence of Coronavirus, responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has been evaluated by different articles, but it is still not well-defined, and the method of diffusion is unclear. The aim of this manuscript is to underline new Coronavirus persistence features on different environments and surfaces. The scientific literature is still poor on this topic and research is mainly focused on therapy and diagnosis, rather than the characteristics of the virus. These data could be an aid to summarize virus features and formulate new guidelines and anti-spread strategies.

Matrix Metalloproteinases and Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinases Are Potential Biomarkers of Pulmonary and Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) are potential regulators of tuberculosis (TB) pathology. Whether they are candidates for non-sputum-based biomarkers for pulmonary TB (PTB) and extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB) is not fully understood. Hence, to examine the association of MMPs and TIMPs with PTB and EPTB, we have measured the circulating levels of MMPs (MMP-1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, and 13) and TIMPs (TIMP-1, 2, 3, and 4) in PTB, EPTB and compared them with latent tuberculosis (LTB) or healthy control (HC) individuals. We have also assessed their circulating levels before and after the completion of anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT). Our data describes that systemic levels of MMP-1, 8, 9, 12 were significantly increased in PTB compared to EPTB, LTB, and HC individuals. In contrast, MMP-7 was significantly reduced in PTB compared to EPTB individuals. Likewise, the systemic levels of MMP-1, 7, 13 were significantly increased in EPTB in comparison to LTB and HC individuals. In contrast, MMP-8 was significantly reduced in EPTB individuals compared to LTB and HC individuals. In addition, the systemic levels of TIMP-1, 2, 3 were significantly diminished and TIMP-4 levels were significantly enhanced in PTB compared to EPTB, LTB, and HC individuals. The circulating levels of TIMP-2 was significantly reduced and TIMP-3 was significantly elevated in EPTB individuals in comparison with LTB and HCs. Some of the MMPs (7, 8, 9, 12, 13 in PTB and 1, 7, 8, 9 in EPTB) and TIMPs (1, 2, 3, 4 in PTB and 4 in EPTB) were significantly modulated upon treatment completion. ROC analysis showed that MMP-1, 9 and TIMP-2, 4 could clearly discriminate PTB from EPTB, LTB and HCs and MMP-13 and TIMP-2 could clearly discriminate EPTB from LTB and HCs. Additionally, multivariate analysis also indicated that these alterations were independent of age and sex in PTB and EPTB individuals. Therefore, our data demonstrates that MMPs and TIMPs are potential candidates for non-sputum-based biomarkers for differentiating PTB and EPTB from LTB and HC individuals.