Human immunology
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To discover immune factors that can predict the progression of COVID-19, we evaluated circulating immune cells and plasma cytokines in COVID-19 patients. We found that T cells, including CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, were significantly decreased in severe COVID-19 symptoms but not in mild symptoms, in comparison with healthy people. T cells remained at a low level after recovery from severe COVID-19. ⋯ Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that CD4+ T cells, B cells, IL-6, and IL-10 were significantly associated with COVID-19 severity. Therefore, these parameters are indicators of COVID-19 severity. Dynamic monitoring of these parameters would benefit therapy planning and prognosis evaluation.
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The impact of patient/donor matching for HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1 and -DQB1 genes in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is well-recognized, but typing for additional genes, such as HLA-DPB1, is still controversial. Based on defined T-cell epitope (TCE) groups, all HLA-DPB1 mismatches can be classified as permissive or non-permissive. ⋯ The analysis did not reveal any significant influence of HLA-DPB1 alleles on overall survival (OS), non-relapse mortality (NRM) or graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) incidence. In conclusion, our study presents evidence that HLA-DPB1 matching influenced the relapse rate in patients after HSCT so the HLA-DPB1 alleles should be implemented in the MUD search algorithm as a transplantation determinant.
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Early allograft dysfunction (EAD) after liver transplantation is mostly a reversible event caused by factors related to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. EAD represents a hepatic injury associated with pre- and early post-transplant inflammatory cytokine responses. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic and diagnostic value of CRP in liver transplant recipients with EAD. ⋯ Our results indicate a prognostic and diagnostic value of CRP in patients with early graft dysfunction and predict 6-month and 12-month mortality in liver transplant recipients.
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Pretransplant anti-HLA donor-specific antibodies (DSA) are recognized as a risk factor for acute antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in kidney transplantation. The predictive value of C4d-fixing capability by DSA or of IgG DSA subclasses for acute AMR in the pretransplant setting has been recently studied. In addition DSA strength assessed by mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) may improve risk stratification. We aimed to analyze the relevance of preformed DSA and of DSA MFI values. ⋯ Preformed DSA cMFI values were clinically-relevant for the prediction of acute AMR and graft survival in kidney transplantation. A threshold of 4300-5300 cMFI was a significant outcome predictor.
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One of the major asthma susceptibility loci is 17q12-17q21.1, but the relationship between this locus and adult asthma is unclear. Association analysis of 13 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes from 17q12-17q21.1 was performed in 418 adult patients with asthma and 288 controls from Slovenia. Single SNP analysis revealed only marginal associations with adult asthma for SNPs located in GSDMA, GSDMB, ORMDL3 and ZPBP2 genes, and rs7219080 was the most highly associated. ⋯ The four most common haplotypes, TCCG, TTTA, CCCA and TTCA, were more frequent in patients with asthma, whereas TTCG, TCCA, TCTA and TTTG were more frequent in controls. Only 3% of asthma patients belonged to haplotypes TTCG, TCCA, TCTA and TTTG compared with nearly one-third (31%) of controls. Associations confirmed that the 17q12-17q21.1 locus harbours a genetic determinant for asthma risk in adults and suggest that in addition to the previously known ORMDL3-GSDM locus, CSF3-PSMD3-MED24 also plays a role in asthma pathogenesis.