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Chronic inflammation is believed as the main culprit of the link between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine with a key role in RA pathophysiology and also correlates with joint destruction and disease activity. This study evaluates the association between IL-6 plasma level and cardiac biomarker NT-proBNP, HS-CRP, CVD predictor algorithms, Framingham Risk Score (FRS) and Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), as well as with CXCL9 and its receptor, CXCR3 in RA patients compared to the controls. Sixty RA patients (30 early and 30 late) and 30 healthy persons were included in this study. IL-6 and NT-proBNP plasma levels were measured by the ELISA. Also, HS-CRP plasma levels were quantified using the immunoturbidimetric assay. The CVD risk was assessed by the FRS and SCORE. IL-6 plasma levels were significantly higher in the early and late RA patients compared to the controls (p < 0.001). There was a positive correlation between IL-6 with DAS-28 (p = 0.007, r = 0.346), BPS (p = 0.002, r = 0.396), BPD (p = 0.046, r = 0.259), SCORE (p < 0.001, r = 0.472), and FRS (p < 0.001, r = 0.553), and a negative association with HDL (p = 0.037, r = -0.270), in the patients. Also, IL-6 plasma level positively correlated with HS-CRP (p = 0.021, r = 0.297) and NT-proBNP (p = 0.045, r = 0.260) in the patients. Furthermore, a positive association was found between IL-6 plasma levels and CXCL9 (p = 0.002, r = 0.386), and CXCR3 (p = 0.018, r = 0.304) in the patients. Given the interesting association between IL-6 with various variables of CVD, IL-6 may be considered a biomarker for assessing the risk for future cardiovascular events in RA patients., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background and Aims: Breast cancer (BC) is considered one of the most common malignant tumors leading to death in women, and genetic factors have a crucial role in BC pathogenesis. Zyxin (ZYX) is one of these factors that may be important in p53 level and function. Thus, the present work aimed to investigate the ZYX gene and protein expression in tumor tissue and matched margin tissue and its correlation with the p53 expression., Methods: In a present case-control study, 30 tumors and 30 matched margin tissues were obtained from Iran Tumor Bank/Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the genes and protein expression, respectively., Results: The data showed that expression of the ZYX gene in tumor tissues significantly decreased ( p  = 0.0274) compared to matched margin tissues. In contrast, the p53 gene expression in tumor tissues had no significant difference with matched margin tissues. Additionally, we observed that ZYX and p53 genes expression in tumor tissues of estrogen receptor-positive patients had significant elevation than estrogen receptor-negative patients ( p  < 0.001, p  < 0.001, respectively). The data of the western blot analysis technique showed that protein expression of ZYX ( p  = 0.0024) and P53 protein ( p  = 0.0218) in tumor tissues was significantly reduced compared to matched margin tissues. Additionally, our analysis showed a direct and significant correlation between the expression of ZYX and p53 proteins ( r  = 0.7797, p  = 0.0126) and expression of ZYX and p53 genes ( r  = 0.3079, p  = 0.0187)., Conclusion: Based on our observation, ZYX might have a tumor suppressor role and is associated with p53., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Health Science Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objectives: The dysregulated immune response is one of the cardinal features of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study was conducted to clarify the occurrence of autoantibodies (AABs) associated with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs) in hospitalized patients with a moderate, severe, and critical form of COVID-19., Methods: The serum samples obtained from 176 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were investigated in this study, including patients with moderate (N = 90), severe (N = 50), and critical (N = 36) forms of COVID-19. Also, the serum samples collected from healthy subjects before the COVID-19 pandemic were used as controls (N = 176). The antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), antidouble-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA), cytoplasmic-anti neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (c-ANCA), perinuclear ANCA (p-ANCA), antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs), and anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) occurrence was evaluated using a solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)., Results: The results showed that the occurrence of ANAs, anti-dsDNA, anti-CCP, c-ANCA, and p-ANCA was significantly higher in the COVID-19 patients compared to serum obtained from healthy subjects (p < .0001, p < .0001, p < .0001, p < .05, and p < .001, respectively). The positive number of anti-CCP tests increased significantly in severe COVID-19 compared to the moderate group (p < .01)., Conclusion: Our study further supports the development of autoantibodies related to systemic autoimmune rheumatologic diseases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study with a large sample size that reported the occurrence of anti-CCP in a severe form of COVID-19., (© 2024 The Authors. Immunity, Inflammation and Disease published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Metabolic dysregulation and excessive inflammation are implicated in the pathogenesis of the highly infectious disease of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by a newly emerging coronavirus (i.e., severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2; SARS-CoV-2). The adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an energy sensor regulating the metabolic pathways in diverse cells, exerts a regulatory role in the immune system. This study aims to examine the mRNA expression level of AMPK and the plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-10 cytokines in patients with different grades of COVID-19., Methods: Peripheral blood was collected from 60 patients with COVID-19 (Moderate, severe, and critical). The plasma levels of IL-6 and IL-10 were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the mRNA expression level of AMPK was determined using real-time PCR., Results: The results showed that the plasma levels of IL-6 increased significantly in critical and severe patients compared to moderate cases of COVID-19 (P < 0.001). Moreover, IL-10 plasma concentrations were significantly higher in critical and severe cases than in moderate cases of COVID-19 (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). Also, the gene expression of AMPK was meaningfully enhanced in critical patients relative to moderate and severe cases of COVID-19, in order (P < 0.001 and P < 0.01, respectively). There was a positive association between AMPK gene expression and plasma levels of IL-6 and IL-10 (P = 0.006, r = 0.348, P = 0.028, r = 0.283, respectively)., Conclusion: Increasing AMPK gene expression is likely a necessary effort of the immune system to inhibit inflammation in critical COVID-19. However, this effort seems to be inadequate, probably due to factors that induce inflammation, like erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and IL-6., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)