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Foster care young people have an increased overall risk for the development of chronic health conditions.Smoking is a major risk factor for many conditions with inflammatory component. We performed a cross-sectional pilot study to assess the correlation between tobacco consumption status and inflammatory profile among adolescents living with foster parents in the central region of Romania. A number of 35 teenagers aged 10-18 were enrolled. Blood samples were collected by venipuncture for complete blood count (CBC), fibrinogen, Interleukin-6 (IL 6), C reactive protein (CRP). Exhaled CO was measured and urine samples were collected in the same session for cotinine assessment. Of the 123 teenagers initially enrolled, 35 completed the entire study protocol. Urinary cotinine accurately reflected smoker status. Smoking did not affect hemoglobin levels or other hematological parameters in foster care teenagers. The value of C-reactive protein was higher in smokers. Plasma fibrinogen correlated with the daily number of cigarettes. Interleukin-6 did not correlate with the smoker status or the daily number of cigarettes consumed. Our study highlights the existence of an inflammatory response to smoking in foster care adolescents, a social category otherwise predisposed to various addictive behaviors.

International audience; Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a major burden for public health worldwide. Although newer direct-acting antivirals show good efficacy, their cost precludes their wide adoption in resource-limited regions. Thus, strategies are being developed to help identify patients with high susceptibility to response to classic PEG-interferon + ribavirin therapy. IL28B polymorphism rs12979860 C/T is an important predictor for an efficient response to interferon-based therapy. A genetic variant in adiponutrin (PNPLA3) gene, rs738409 C/G, is associated with steatosis, severity, and progression of liver fibrosis in CHC patients, and predicts treatment outcome in difficult-to-cure HCV-infected patients with advanced fibrosis. We developed a rapid and inexpensive assay based on duplex high-resolution melting (HRM) for the simultaneous genotyping of these two polymorphisms. The assay validation was performed on synthetic DNA templates and 132 clinical samples from CHC patients. When compared with allele-specific PCR and sequencing, our assay showed 100% (95% CI: 0.9724-1) accuracy, with 100% sensitivity and specificity. Our assay was robust against concentration and quality of DNA samples, melting curve normalization intervals, HRM analysis algorithm, and sequence variations near the targeted SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphism). This duplex assay should provide useful information for patient-oriented management and clinical decision-making in CHC.

Liver disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. As in other fields of medicine, there is a stringent need for non-invasive markers to improve patient diagnostics, monitoring and prognostic ability in liver pathology. Cell-free circulating RNA molecules have been recently acknowledged as an important source of potential medical biomarkers. However, many aspects related to the biology of these molecules remain to be elucidated. In this review, we summarize current concepts related to the origin, transportation and possible functions of cell-free RNA. We outline current development of extracellular RNA-based biomarkers in the main forms of non-inherited liver disease: chronic viral hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-alcoholic fatty liver, hepato-toxicity, and liver transplantation. Despite recent technological advances, the lack of standardization in the assessment of these markers makes their adoption into clinical practice difficult. We thus finally review the main factors influencing quantification of circulating RNA. These factors should be considered in the reporting and interpretation of current findings, as well as in the proper planning of future studies, to improve reliability and reproducibility of results.