Elevated Interleukin-21 expression is correlated with systemic sclerosis' severity in Tunisian patients.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), a rare and lethal autoimmune disorder where patients presents diverse clinical features, therefore unravelling a potential biomarker within a specific cohort is crucial for improving patient care, especially for rare diseases. This study sought to identify potential biomarkers in Tunisian SSc patients. Gene expression analysis of interleukins (IL)-21 and IL-22 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qrt-pcr), revealed upregulated IL-21 and downregulated IL-22 in SSc patients compared to healthy controls.

Imbalance of TH17/TREG cells in Tunisian patients with systemic sclerosis.

Fibrosis is a pathological manifestation in which connective tissue replaces normal one. It can affect many tissues from the skin to internal organs such as the lungs. Manifestations of pulmonary involvement can be pulmonary arterial hypertension or pulmonary fibrosis.

TH17 cells expressing CD146 are significantly increased in patients with Systemic sclerosis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by vascular damage, excessive fibrosis and abnormal T cells immune-regulation. CD146 is an adhesion molecule essentially expressed in the vascular system, but also on TH17 lymphocytes. In view of the recently described role of CD146 in SSc, we hypothesized an involvement of CD146 positive TH17 cells in this disease.

Computer-Assisted Classification Patterns in Autoimmune Diagnostics: The AIDA Project.

Antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) are significant biomarkers in the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases in humans, done by mean of Indirect ImmunoFluorescence (IIF) method, and performed by analyzing patterns and fluorescence intensity. This paper introduces the AIDA Project (autoimmunity: diagnosis assisted by computer) developed in the framework of an Italy-Tunisia cross-border cooperation and its preliminary results. A database of interpreted IIF images is being collected through the exchange of images and double reporting and a Gold Standard database, containing around 1000 double reported images, has been settled.

miRNAs in Sera of Tunisian patients discriminate between inflammatory breast cancer and non-inflammatory breast cancer.

In recent years, circulating miRNAs have attracted interest as stable, non-invasive biomarkers for various pathological conditions. Here, we investigated their potential to serve as minimally invasive, early detection markers for inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and non-inflammatory breast cancer (non-IBC) in serum. miRNA profiling was performed on serum from 20 patients with non-IBC, 20 with IBC, and 20 normal control subjects.