Project description:Background: The diagnosis of acute appendicitis can be surprisingly difficult without computed tomography, which carries significant radiation exposure. Genome-wide expression profiling was applied to whole blood RNA of acute appendicitis patients versus patients with other abdominal disorders, in order to identify biomarkers of appendicitis. From a large cohort of emergency patients, a discovery set of patients with surgically confirmed appendicitis, or abdominal pain from other causes, was identified. RNA from whole blood was profiled by microarrays, and RNA levels were filtered by a combined fold-change (>2) and p value (<0.05). A separate set of patients, including patients with respiratory infections, was used to validate a partial least squares discriminant (PLSD) prediction model. Results: Transcript profiling identified 37 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in appendicitis versus abdominal pain patients. The DEG list contained 3 major ontologies: infection-related, inflammation-related, and ribosomal processing. Appendicitis patients had lower level of neutrophil defensin mRNA (DEFA1,3), but higher levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALPL) and interleukin-8 receptor-ß (IL8RB), which was confirmed in a larger cohort of 60 patients using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Conclusions: Patients with acute appendicitis have detectable changes in the mRNA expression levels of factors related to neutrophil inate defense systems. The low defensin mRNA levels suggest that appendicitis patient's immune cells are not directly activated by pathogens, but are primed by diffusible factors in the microenvironment of the infection. The detected biomarkers are consistent with prior evidence that biofilm-forming bacteria in the appendix may be an important factor in appendicitis.
Project description:Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) remains among the most formidable challenges facing public health practice in the 21st century. Accurate diagnosis of APE is severely hindered by the lack of biomarkers with both high sensitivity and specificity. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) involve various pathophysiologic processes underlying multitudinous diseases. Accmulating evidences point to the fact that miRNAs may serve as ideal biomarkers.The aim of the present study was to explore the potential of plasma miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis of APE. Two TaqMan miRNA arrays were performed on plasma of 10 APE patients and 10 healthy controls.
Project description:Exosomal miRNAs have emerged as promising disease biomarkers. We aim to investigate the potential of exosomal miRNAs to assist with AIS clinical diagnosis. In the present research, we used the Affymetrix Genechip miRNA 4.0 Array to investgate the profiles of differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) in the exosomes of peripheral blood plasma. As a result, exosomal miRNA profiling yielded a total of 05 DEMs between the AIS (Acute Ischemic Stroke) patients and controls.
Project description:Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) remains among the most formidable challenges facing public health practice in the 21st century. Accurate diagnosis of APE is severely hindered by the lack of biomarkers with both high sensitivity and specificity. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) involve various pathophysiologic processes underlying multitudinous diseases. Accmulating evidences point to the fact that miRNAs may serve as ideal biomarkers.The aim of the present study was to explore the potential of plasma miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosis of APE.
Project description:Compared to whole serum miRNAs, miRNAs in serum small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are well protected form RNA enzymes, thus provide a consistent source of miRNA for disease biomarker detection. Serum sEVs and their miRNA cargos released by injured liver cells could be promising biomarkers for diagnosis of liver diseases. We were very interested to find out the effects of liver injury on serum extracellular vesicles as well as the small RNA components they transported, if there is any difference between acute and chronic injury. Study in this regard will help us to identify new serum biomarkers for liver injury, and to find out if there are specific markers for acute or chronic liver injury. To identify potential biomarker for liver injury based on serum sEVs miRNAs, we established the carbon tetrachloride (CCL4) induced acute and chronic liver injury mice model, and examined the dynamic changes of small RNA components, especially miRNAs, in serum sEVs.