Amira Mohamed Foad Shehata

Objectives To study the expression of the immunophenotypic markers CD43 and CD180 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and to investigate their utility to discriminate between CLL and non-CLL cases. Background The established diagnostic criteria for CLL depend on morphology and immunophenotypic pattern. CLL usually co‐express CD5 and CD23 with FMC7 and CD79b are usually negative or weakly expressed. However, some CLL cases may have an atypical immunophenotype (for example, CD5‐ or CD23‐, FMC7+ or CD79b bright +), additional markers are needed for such cases to achieve a definitive diagnosis and to rule out other lymphomas. Methods Flow cytometry technique was used to analyze the expression of CD43, CD180 and other immunophenotypic markers of the Moreau Score. Peripheral blood or bone marrow samples were withdrawn from 53 newly diagnosed patients with mature B-cell neoplasms. Results CD43 was positively expressed in all CLL cases while intracellular expression (IC) of CD180 was found to be positive in 89.5% of CLL cases. Data analysis demonstrated that the percentage of CD43 expression was significantly higher in CLL in comparison with non-CLL group (P

Objectives: To explore fibrinogen-like protein 2 (FGL2) expression in adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and to investigate its potential clinical implication. Background: FGL2, a key multifunctional regulatory protein, suppresses immune cells with limitation of T-cell activation. FGL2 expression is markedly increased in many cancers and is related to tumor progression and poor overall survival. AML is one of the most prevalent types of leukemia among adults. AML patients have relatively poor survival, and prompt therapy is critical. The recognition of numerous molecular modulators and the development of novel targeted therapeutics have significantly improved the outcomes for patients with AML Patients and methods: FGL2 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells was measured in 42 newly diagnosed AML patients and 35 controls using quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. Results:Our results disclosed that FGL2 was significantly overexpressed in AML patients than in control group (P Conclusion: FGL2 may represent a novel and promising biomarker in AML prognosis.

Introduction: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by a very heterogeneous clinical outcome. Thus, a plethora of prognostic factors and systems has been identified to place patients into different risk categories and to guide therapy decisions. The classic clinical staging models by Rai and Binet have been the cornerstone of patient management for several years. The greater insight into the molecular biology of CLL facilitated the advent of prognostic genetic biomarkers that are expected to impact clinical practice soon in the future. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the expression of long non‐coding RNA (lncRNA) CRNDE in patients with CLL, and to analyze its relationship with the clinicopathological parameters of CLL.Methods: In this study, 40 untreated CLL patients and 30 age‐ and gender‐matched controls were enrolled. The analysis of lncRNA CRNDE expression was determined using reverse transcription‐quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique.Results: Our result confirmed the downregulated expression of LncRNA CRNDE in CLL patients compared to controls (p < 0.001). The low expression of CRNDE was significantly associated with poor prognostic markers including advanced stage of CLL, high levels of serum beta‐2 microglobulin and lactic dehydrogenase, and the presence of del17p (p = 0.029, p = 0.013, p = 0.003, p = 0.028; respectively).Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that LncRNA CRNDE is significantly downregulated and associated with poor prognostic markers in CLL. It provides a rationale to assess its biological and prognostic impact in CLL.

Background: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired autoimmune disease characterized by abnormalities of T cells subsets. Programmed death-1 (PD-1) is a co-signaling inhibitory molecule in T cells that is involved in many autoimmune diseases.Purpose: Here we aimed to measure changes in PD-1 expression and serum interferon-γ (IFN-γ) levels before and 1 month after treatment in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed ITP.Methods: We measured PD-1+ CD4+ T cells percentages using flow cytometry and the serum IFN-γ levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 40 pediatric patients with ITP and 20 healthy controls.Results: Compared with healthy controls, the PD-1+ CD4+ T cells percentages and serum IFN-γ levels were significantly higher in ITP patients before and 1 month after therapy. A correlation study revealed that PD-1+ CD4+ T cells percentage was negatively associated with platelet count and positively associated with IFN-γ level in patients with ITP. Furthermore, serum IFN-γ levels were significantly decreased in patients after treatment, but no significant change was detected in the percentage of PD-1+ CD4+ T cells before or 1 month after therapy.Conclusion: PD-1+ CD4+ T cells expression and IFN-γ levels were increased in patients with ITP. These preliminary data suggest a potential role of PD-1+ CD4+ T cells as mediators of ITP. We also found a correlation between PD-1+ CD4+ T cells and both platelet counts and IFN-γ levels. These findings suggest a potential role of PD-1+ CD4+ T cells and IFN-γ in the pathogenesis of ITP. Further studies investigating PD-1 expression in different T-cell subsets, serum IFN-γ concentrations, and antiplatelet antibodies levels over a longer duration after therapy initiation could delineate the precise role of PD-1 in ITP pathogenesis. Consequently, novel nontraditional therapeutic strategies for ITP patients may become available.

Increasing evidence of involvement of non-coding RNAs, especially long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), in the molecular biology of various malignancies have been recently reported. Their utilization as markers for diagnosis, prognosis and evaluation of treatment response was widely investigated. As the impact of lncRNA HOTAIR on multiple myeloma (MM) was not properly highlighted, we aimed to explore the expression levels of HOTAIR in three groups of MM patients and to analyze its relationship to different patients’ characteristics. Plasma samples were withdrawn from 24 newly diagnosed MM patients, 23 post-therapy patients in complete response (CR) or very good partial response (VGPR) and 15 patients who had either progressive disease (PD) or relapse. The expression of lncRNA HOTAIR in MM patients and 20 healthy controls was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions. HOTAIR was significantly upregulated in newly diagnosed and PD/relapse categories in comparison with controls and MM patients who had achieved CR or VGPR (P < 0.001). Furthermore; HOTAIR expression levels correlated with the percentage of malignant plasma cells in bone marrow (P = 0.006) and disease stage (ISS stage) (P = 0.031). HOTAIR may be employed as prognostic molecular marker and novel therapeutic tool for newly diagnosed MM patients.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious consequence of persistent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and represents one of the most aggressive neoplasms globally. The implication of microRNA-301 (miR-301) in the initiation and progression of different types of cancers has been proved. We aimed to assess circulating microRNA-301 as possible biomarker for the early detection of HCC in patients with chronic HCV infection. miR-301 expression levels were estimated in plasma samples of 42 patients with newly diagnosed HCV-related HCC, 48 chronically HCV infected patients with liver cirrhosis and 40 healthy individuals by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique. In comparison with chronically HCV infected patients and healthy controls, miR-301 expression levels were significantly increased in HCC patients (P < 0.001). miR-301 levels distinguished HCC patients from chronic HCV patients, with area under the receiver–operating characteristic curve of 0.89 (95% CI 0.82–0.96), the sensitivity and the specificity were 78.57% and 89.58% respectively. Moreover, miR-301 levels were significantly linked with tumor size (P = 0.014), serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) (P = 0.028) and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) score (P = 0.003). These results reveal that miR-301 can serve as a promising non-invasive biomarker for diagnosis of HCC in chronically HCV infected patients.

Background: The utilization of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as non-invasive diagnostic and predictive tools have become substantial and promising scope of cancer research. The link between the aberrant expressions of various miRNAs and the pathogenesis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has been revealed by multiple studies. This study planned to investigate the relative expression levels of serum miRNA-21 and to demonstrate its potential prognostic impact in DLBCL patients who were treated by cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone plus rituximab (R-CHOP) protocol.

Objectives: Although many studies have assessed numerous molecular and immunohistochemical prognostic markers for diffuse large Bcell lymphoma (DLBCL), there is always a need for simple widely available markers. This study was planned to illustrate the clinical significance of baseline plasma fibrinogen levels in DLBCL patients. Methods: We prospectively investigated 76 DLBCL patients treated with rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin and hostacortine between August 2015 and February 2018. Baseline plasma fibrinogen level was measured and correlated with patients’ clinical features, laboratory parameters, response to therapy, progression-free survival and overall survival. Results: Significant association between fibrinogen level and clinical features such as the presence of B symptoms (P < .001) and clinical stage (P < .001) was observed while no association with age, gender, number of involved extranodal sites, performance status and international prognostic index (IPI) was found. Baseline fibrinogen level was significantly related to laboratory parameters including red cell distribution width (RDW) (P < .001), platelet count (P = .02), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (P = .009) and B2-microglobulin (P = .008). No statistically significant correlations were detected between baseline fibrinogen levels; and response to therapy, progression-free survival and overall survival. Conclusion: Baseline plasma fibrinogen level did not show prognostic significance for DLBCL patients, although it was associated with patients’ clinical features and laboratory parameters. Being simple, cheap and widely available laboratory test, its use should be encouraged routinely in clinical practice to precisely clarify its predictive merit.