Diagnosis of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children by a Whole-Blood Transcriptional Signature.

Background: To identify a diagnostic blood transcriptomic signature that distinguishes multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) from Kawasaki disease (KD), bacterial infections, and viral infections.

Methods: Children presenting with MIS-C to participating hospitals in the United Kingdom and the European Union between April 2020 and April 2021 were prospectively recruited. Whole-blood RNA Sequencing was performed, contrasting the transcriptomes of children with MIS-C (n = 38) to those from children with KD (n = 136), definite bacterial (DB; n = 188) and viral infections (DV; n = 138).

Oncostatin M: Risks and Benefits of a Novel Therapeutic Target for Atherosclerosis.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is predicted that approximately 23.6 million people will die from CVDs annually by 2030.

Bridging a diagnostic Kawasaki disease classifier from a microarray platform to a qRT-PCR assay.

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis that mainly affects children under 5 years of age. Up to 30% of patients develop coronary artery abnormalities, which are reduced with early treatment. Timely diagnosis of KD is challenging but may become more straightforward with the recent discovery of a whole-blood host response classifier that discriminates KD patients from patients with other febrile conditions.

Common Variants Associated With Expression Contribute to Carotid Plaque Vulnerability, but Not to Cardiovascular Disease in Humans.

Oncostatin M (OSM) signaling is implicated in atherosclerosis, however the mechanism remains unclear. We investigated the impact of common genetic variants in and its receptors, and , on overall plaque vulnerability, plaque phenotype, intraplaque and expression, coronary artery calcification burden and cardiovascular disease susceptibility. We queried Genotype-Tissue Expression data and found that rs13168867 (C allele) was associated with decreased expression and that rs10491509 (A allele) was associated with increased expression in arterial tissues.

Oncostatin M reduces atherosclerosis development in APOE*3Leiden.CETP mice and is associated with increased survival probability in humans.

Objective: Previous studies indicate a role for Oncostatin M (OSM) in atherosclerosis and other chronic inflammatory diseases for which inhibitory antibodies are in development. However, to date no intervention studies with OSM have been performed, and its relation to coronary heart disease (CHD) has not been studied.

Approach And Results: Gene expression analysis on human normal arteries (n = 10) and late stage/advanced carotid atherosclerotic arteries (n = 127) and in situ hybridization on early human plaques (n = 9) showed that OSM, and its receptors, OSM receptor (OSMR) and Leukemia Inhibitory Factor Receptor (LIFR) are expressed in normal arteries and atherosclerotic plaques.

Inflammatory cytokine oncostatin M induces endothelial activation in macro- and microvascular endothelial cells and in APOE*3Leiden.CETP mice.

Aims: Endothelial activation is involved in many chronic inflammatory diseases, such as atherosclerosis, and is often initiated by cytokines. Oncostatin M (OSM) is a relatively unknown cytokine that has been suggested to play a role in both endothelial activation and atherosclerosis. We comprehensively investigated the effect of OSM on endothelial cell activation from different vascular beds and in APOE*3Leiden.

Integrated Human Evaluation of the Lysophosphatidic Acid Pathway as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Atherosclerosis.

Variants in the gene encoding for lipid phosphate phosphohydrolase 3 have been associated with susceptibility to atherosclerosis independently of classical risk factors. PLPP3 inactivates lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a pro-inflammatory, pro-thrombotic product of phospholipase activity. Here we performed the first exploratory analysis of PLPP3, LPA, and LPA receptors (LPARs 1-6) in human atherosclerosis.

Gelatin Microspheres as Vehicle for Cardiac Progenitor Cells Delivery to the Myocardium.

Inadequate cell retention and survival in cardiac stem cell therapy seems to be reducing the therapeutic effect of the injected stem cells. In order to ameliorate their regenerative effects, various biomaterials are being investigated for their potential supportive properties. Here, gelatin microspheres (MS) are utilized as microcarriers to improve the delivery and therapeutic efficacy of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) in the ischemic myocardium.