Iranian journal of immunology
Volume:10 Issue: 1, Winter 2013

A common Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) class II allele, DQβ1*03:01, seems to be associated with Bullous pemphigoid (BP) in Caucasians whereas previous studies in other ethnic groups showed other HLA class II alleles as genetic predisposing factors for BP. To investigate the association of HLA class II alleles and haplotypes with BP in Iranian population. Fifty patients with Bullous pemphigoid and 180 geographically matched, healthy individuals as control group enrolled into this study. HLA typing of class II (DR and DQ alleles) was carried out using polymerase chain reaction based on sequence-specific primers method. Class II DQA1 and DQB1 typing showed a significantly higher frequency of HLA-DQA1*05:01 (45% vs. 33%, p=0.03), HLA-DQB1*03:01 (36% vs. 23.6%, p=0.02) and HLA-DQB1*04:01 (4% vs. 1.6%, p=0.04) in the BP patients compared with controls. For DRB1 allele frequencies, there were no significant disease associations. The frequency of DRB1*08:01/DQA1*05:01/DQB1*03:01 (3% vs. 0%, p=0.02) haplotype showed an increase among patients compared with controls. Our data suggest that Iranian patients with BP present the same genetic predisposition linked to HLA-DQB1*03:01 previously reported in Caucasians

Sclareol is a phytochemical used in people's diet in Southeast Asia. To investigate the immunotherapeutic effectiveness of Sclareol against breast cancer by direct intraperitoneal injection. Sclareol was isolated and purified from Salvia sclarea. Effect of Sclareol on cell growth inhibition was evaluated by MTT assay. Intraperitoneally injected Sclareol effects on reducing the tumor volume and shifting the cytokine profile were investigated. We also assessed if intraperitoneally injected Sclareol could improve the outcome of cancer therapy through suppressing the regulatory T cells. The results confirmed a significant decrease in the tumor size. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the level of IL-4 and an increase in the level of IFN-γ were noticed in the intraperitoneally injected Sclareol group (p<0.05). It was also observed that the splenocytes of treated animals significantly increase in cell proliferation assay. Moreover, measurements of splenic T regulatory cell indicated that intraperitoneally injected Sclareol significantly decreased the number of splenic T regulatory cell. Our results suggest that Sclareol, by reducing T-reg cells frequency nd also tumor size can enhance the effect of cancer therapy as an immunostimulant.

Regulatory T cells (T-regs) have an important role in cancer by suppression of protective antitumor immune responses. Regulatory T cells express the forkhead/ winged helix transcription factor (FOXP3) and OX40 molecules which have important regulatory roles in the immune system. To evaluate FOXP3 and OX40 transcripts in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of women with breast cancer. Blood samples from 40 women with histologically-confirmed infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast and 40 healthy volunteer women without a history of malignancy or autoimmune disorders were collected. The abundance of FOXP3 and OX40 gene transcripts were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). There was a significant positive correlation between FOXP3 and OX40 gene expression in women with breast cancer in a stage dependent manner. This finding emphasizes the importance of T-regs as predominant targets for breast cancer immunotherapy

A possible mechanism by which hyperthermia enhances tumorimmunogenicity is the induction of NKG2D ligands on tumor cells. Although the expression of MHC class I chain-related protein A and B (MICA/B) has previously been reported in different carcinomas, there is no information about MICA/B expression in liposarcomas. To investigate MICA/B induction in a human liposarcoma cell line (SW-872) after thermotherapy. SW-872 and HeLa cell lines were subjected to thermal stress for 1 h at 42, 44 and 46C, and after 2, 4 and 6 h of incubation at 3 C, MICA/B expression was assessed at the mRNA and protein levels. Despite high levels of MICA/B transcripts in SW-872 cells at baseline, the expression of these genes decreased significantly at both the mRNA and protein levels after almost all thermal treatments. Our data conclude that thermotherapy under 42-46°C had no effect on MICA/B induction on SW-872 liposarcoma cell line but the effects of fever-range temperatures remain to be tested on this cell line.

Alopecia Areata (AA) is a non-scarring, autoimmune disorder which causes hair loss. Inflammatory reactions are involved in hair loss of the scalp and/or body. The involvement of chemokine receptors in the pathogenesis of AA is well defined among which, CXCL1 acts on neutrophils and CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL12 and serve as T lymphocytes recruiters. To study the serum levels of ELR+ and ELR- CXCL1, CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL12 in the patients suffering from AA and healthy controls. The study population of consisted of 30 patients suffering from AA and 30 healthy controls. Serum concentrations of CXCL1, CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL12 were measured using enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Current results showed that AA patients had significantly elevated serum levels of CXCL9 and CXCL10 in comparison to controls (p<0.001). These results also demonstrated that serum levels of CXCL1 and CXCL12 were significantly decreased in AA patients compared to control (p<0.001). CXCL9 and CXCL10 are elevated inthe AA patients and may be involved in the recruitment of T lymphocytes to the inflamed tissues. Moreover, due to the significant role played by these chemokines in angiogenesis/ angiostatis phenomenon they could be considered as useful biomarkers in AA diagnosis and therapy.

Effector CD4+ T cell subsets play an important role in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Interleukin-27 (IL-27) suppresses Th (Th1, Th2 and Th17) cells and dampens autoimmunity and tissue inflammation by promoting the generation of Type 1 regulatory T cells (Tr1). To identify the relative levels of IL-27 and IL-17A in MS disease. In a case-control study, venous blood was collected from forty MS patients and forty-three healthy subjects as control group. Serum levels of IL-27 and IL- 17A were measured by ELISA method. A significant difference between serum IL-17A concentration in patients (120.68 ± 209.85 pg/ml) and control group (67.26 ± 117.76 pg/ml, p=0.016) was found. Serum IL-27 levels of the MS patients (159.7 ± 581.4 pg/ml) were significantly lower than control subjects (180.35 ± 507.84 pg/ml, p=0.001). Our findings show decreased levels of IL-27 against increasing IL-17A levels in patients group which may suggest the suppressive role of IL-27 on inflammatory process of MS

Selective antibody deficiency with normal immunoglobulins (SADNI) may be identified as part of distinct primary or secondary immunodeficiency disorders. The clinical manifestations include recurrent, often severe or prolonged, upper or lower respiratory tract infections. To evaluate SADNI in patients with recurrent sinopulmonary infections and its relation to IgG subclass deficiencies. In a case-control study, anti-pneumococcal antibody titer and IgG2, IgG3 levels before injection of pneumococcal vaccine and anti-pneumococcal antibody titer at least 4 weeks the vaccination were measured in 46 patients and 54 controls. The results were compared using student's t-test. There was a significant correlation between age and anti-pneumococcal antibody titers before and after vaccination in patients. No significant relation was found between pre and post vaccination pneumococcal antibody titer and IgG2 and IgG3 in cases and controls (p>0.05). The mean of anti-pneumococcal antibody before and after vaccination were significantly different in cases and controls and were higher in control group (p=0.01, p=0.001, respectively). Anti-pneumococcal antibody titers in 97.8% of cases and 100% of controls group were normal (>3.4 μg/ml). 34.8% of cases and 9.1% of controls had low titers of anti-pneumococcal antibody (<20 μg/ml) while 18.7% of cases and no controls failed to respond to vaccine. Evaluation of anti-pneumococcal antibody titer in patients with recurrent, chronic and severe respiratory infections with normal immunoglobulin levels seems to be necessary as early diagnosis. Treatment of such a cases could prevent later sequelae such as mastoiditis and bronchiecstasia.