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Abstract The etiology of tic disorders (TDs) is not precisely known, although several lines of evidence suggest involvement of the immune system in pathogenesis. Here, we aimed to determine the expression levels of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in children with TD and compare them with those of healthy controls. Furthermore, we also evaluated their association with clinical variables in the TD group. Within the study period, 88 children with tic disorders and 111 healthy control children were enrolled. Most children with tic disorders were diagnosed with Tourette’s disorder (n = 47, 53.4%) or persistent motor tic disorder (n = 39, 44.3%), while the remainder (n = 2, 2.3%) were diagnosed with persistent vocal tic disorder. We found that children with tic disorders had significantly elevated levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-4 expression, while we detected lower expression levels of IL-17 in children with tic disorders. Our findings provide a molecular landscape of cytokine expression in children with TD, which may suggest a proinflammatory state not affected by the presence of comorbidity and symptom severity. Delineating the contribution of alterations in the immune system to the pathogenesis of tic disorders may pave the way for better therapeutic interventions.

Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient and has important functions such as vision, growth, reproduction embryogenesis, cellular differentiation, and proliferation, immune function and epithelial protector in the organism. Biotechnological production of vitamins is increasing due to their advantages and significant advances. The vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) gene is extremely effective in binding oxygen and conducting it under hypoxic conditions. In this study, the production of vitamin A in E. herbicola (wild type) and its recombinant strains was investigated in LB medium and M9 medium (containing high concentrations (1%) of different carbon sources). The maximum production of vitamin A of the recombinant strain with the hemoglobin gene (vgb+) was observed in including glucose and sucrose M9 medium and their total product levels in vgb+ recombinant strain were 0.14 µg/ml and 0.1 µg/ml, respectively. The vitamin A production in the M9 medium with glucose and sucrose were 2-fold and 1.4- fold higher than that of the wild strain, respectively. The extracellular product level (0.07 µg/ml) in LB was 7-fold higher than wild strain at 48 h. These results reveal that the expression of VHb in E. herbicola in the both LB and M9 medium (containing 1% glucose and 1% sucrose, specially) increase the vitamin A production.