Mansour Salehi; Bahram Bagherpour; Vahid Shayghannejad; Farzaneh Mohebi; Rasool Jafari
Volume 13, Issue 2 , June 2016, , Pages 141-147
Abstract
Background: Management of multiple sclerosis (MS) is based on the usage of immunosuppressive and immune-modulating medications. Cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of MS. Objective: To evaluate the effects of rapamycin on the concentrations of Th1/Th2/Th17 serum cytokines in patients ...
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Background: Management of multiple sclerosis (MS) is based on the usage of immunosuppressive and immune-modulating medications. Cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of MS. Objective: To evaluate the effects of rapamycin on the concentrations of Th1/Th2/Th17 serum cytokines in patients with MS. Methods: Six patients with relapsing remitting MS as a case group and 6 healthy individuals as a control group were enrolled. The patients have been receiving 2 mg rapamycin daily for 6 months. The individuals in control group received nothing during 6 months of the experiment. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (Simultaneous Multi-Analyte ELISA) technique was used for determination of serum concentrations of IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17, IFN-γ, TNF-α, G-CSF and TGF-β before and after therapy with rapamycin. Results: The mean absorbance of 10 out of the 12 studied cytokines showed reduction after the therapy with rapamycin including IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17, IFN-γ and TNF-α. The only statistically significant reduction was observed in the absorbance of IFN-γ (p=0.028). Two cytokines illustrated increase in the patients sera after the therapy, including G-CSF and TGF-β, but only increase in TGF-β was statistically significant (p=0.046). None of the studied cytokines in the control group varied significantly after 6 months. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, rapamycin has some immunosuppressive effects, such as decreasing IFN-γ, which can improve the quality of life of the patients with multiple sclerosis. Also the increased level of TGF-β may also have benefits on the disease, which needs further clinical studies.
Mohammadreza Ataollahi; Mansour Salehi; Iman Doostan; Zahra Kabiri; Mohammadreza Mohajeri; Farzaneh Mahmoodi; Raheleh Shokouhi; Shadi Javan; Mohammad Hassan Meshkibaf; Behnoosh Miladpoor
Abstract
Background: Apoptosis and cell cycle regulation play an important role in pathogenesis and tumor progression in patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). Bcl-2 associated athanogene-1 (BAG-1) is an antiapoptotic protein as well as a regulator of cell growth. There is no conclusive evidence ...
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Background: Apoptosis and cell cycle regulation play an important role in pathogenesis and tumor progression in patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). Bcl-2 associated athanogene-1 (BAG-1) is an antiapoptotic protein as well as a regulator of cell growth. There is no conclusive evidence about BAG-1 protein expression in this disease. Objective: To investigate the expression level of BAG-1 protein in DLBCL. Methods: Thirty patients diagnosed from 1997-2004, as having DLBCL, were selected. Also 30 normal lymph nodes were included as normal counterparts in this study. BAG-1 expression was determined by immunohistochemical staining in both DLBCL and normal lymph node samples. Results: Of the 30 DLBCLs examined, 100% were positive for nuclear and 83% were positive for cytoplasmic BAG-1 staining. Of the 30 normal lymph nodes investigated, 20% were positive for nuclear and 0% were positive for cytoplasmic BAG-1 staining. Nuclear staining in DLBCL samples was significantly higher than those of normal lymph nodes (100% versus 20%, p <0.001). Besides, cytoplasmic staining in DLBCL samples was significantly higher than those of normal lymph nodes (83% versus 0%, p <0.001). There was no association between BAG-1 staining and patients' overall survival. Conclusion: Our data indicated that BAG-1 protein was deregulated in this disease similar to some other malignancies such as breast and colon cancer. Overexpression of BAG-1 in DLBCL suggests that this protein probably plays an important role in the pathogenesis of DLBCL. Besides, higher nuclear BAG-1 staining might be correlated with poor prognosis.