Increased Activity of MAPKAPK2 within Mesenchymal Cells as a Target for Inflammation-Associated Fibrosis in Crohn's Disease.

Background: Mesenchymal stromal cells are suggested to play a critical role in Crohn's disease [CD]-associated fibrosis. MAPKAPK2 [MK2] has emerged as a potential therapeutic target to reduce inflammation in CD. However, the cell-specific pattern of phospho-MK2 activation and its role in CD-associated fibrosis are unknown.

Pyoderma Gangrenosum Is Associated With Increased Risk of Inflammatory Pouch-Related Complications: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a rare, neutrophilic dermatosis that is a well-established extraintestinal manifestation (EIM) of inflammatory bowel disease. The clinical implications of developing PG in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) who undergo total proctocolectomy colectomy and ileal pouch anal anastomosis (TPC-IPAA) surgery remain unknown.

Methods: Study participants were selected from patients enrolled in the Carlino Family Inflammatory Bowel and Colorectal Disease Biobank between 1998 and 2021 with a pre-colectomy diagnosis of UC and who underwent TPC-IPAA surgery.

Comparing Patients Diagnosed With Ineffective Esophageal Motility by the Chicago Classification Version 3.0 and Version 4.0 Criteria.

Background: The Chicago Classification version 4.0 (CCv4.0) of ineffective esophageal motility (IEM) is more stringent than the Chicago Classification version 3.

MicroRNA-146a is induced by inflammatory stimuli in airway epithelial cells and augments the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as central regulators of inflammation, but their role in asthma and airway epithelial cells is not well studied. Glucocorticoids are the cornerstone of therapy in asthma and other inflammatory disease, yet their mechanisms of action are not completely elucidated, and it is not clear whether miRNAs modulate their effects.

Objective: We aimed to identify miRNAs that regulate cytokine and chemokine expression in airway epithelial cells and whether these miRNAs are subject to the effects of glucocorticoids.

Effects of allergic stimulation and glucocorticoids on miR-155 in CD4 T-cells.

Rationale: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as important regulators of allergic inflammation and potential therapeutic targets. We sought to identify which miRNAs are expressed in CD4 T-cells and determine whether allergic stimuli or glucocorticoids alter their expression.

Methods: After IRB approval, blood was collected from dust mite (DM) allergic rhinitis subjects (n=20), non-allergic controls (n=8), and asthmatics (n=16).

Isolation and profiling of plasma microRNAs: Biomarkers for asthma and allergic rhinitis.

Chronic inflammatory diseases can be particularly challenging to diagnose and characterize, as inflammatory changes in tissue may not be present in blood. There is a crucial need to develop non-invasive biomarkers that would be useful in diagnosing disease and selecting medical therapies. For example, there are no blood tests to diagnose asthma, a common inflammatory lung disease.

Severe Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis With Significantly Elevated Ferritin Levels in an Immunocompetent Host in Pennsylvania: A Case Report.

Human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) is a tick-borne, infectious disease caused by that generally presents with nonspecific symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, malaise, and myalgia. If not treated immediately, HGA can cause hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a well-documented but underrecognized sequela of severe HGA. In this article, we report a case of severe HGA with hyperferritinemia in a 74-year-old male from Central Pennsylvania who initially presented with recurrent fevers, nausea, and malaise to our emergency department and was subsequently discharged home that same day.

Drosophila IRBP bZIP heterodimer binds P-element DNA and affects hybrid dysgenesis.

In Drosophila, P-element transposition causes mutagenesis and genome instability during hybrid dysgenesis. The P-element 31-bp terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) contain sequences essential for transposase cleavage and have been implicated in DNA repair via protein-DNA interactions with cellular proteins. The identity and function of these cellular proteins were unknown.

Circulating microRNAs as biomarkers in patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are emerging as important regulatory molecules that might be involved in the pathogenesis of various diseases. Circulating miRNAs might be noninvasive biomarkers to diagnose and characterize asthma and allergic rhinitis (AR).

Objective: We sought to determine whether miRNAs are differentially expressed in the blood of asthmatic patients compared with those in the blood of nonasthmatic patients with AR and nonallergic nonasthmatic subjects.

Coordinated post-transcriptional regulation of the chemokine system: messages from CCL2.

The molecular cross-talk between epithelium and immune cells in the airway mucosa is a key regulator of homeostatic immune surveillance and is crucially involved in the development of chronic lung inflammatory diseases. The patterns of gene expression that follow the sensitization process occurring in allergic asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis and those present in the neutrophilic response of other chronic inflammatory lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are tightly regulated in their specificity. Studies exploring the global transcript profiles associated with determinants of post-transcriptional gene regulation (PTR) such as RNA-binding proteins (RBP) and microRNAs identified several of these factors as being crucially involved in controlling the expression of chemokines upon airway epithelial cell stimulation with cytokines prototypic of Th1- or Th2-driven responses.

Post-transcriptional regulation of meprin α by the RNA-binding proteins Hu antigen R (HuR) and tristetraprolin (TTP).

Meprins are multimeric proteases that are implicated in inflammatory bowel disease by both genetic association studies and functional studies in knock-out mice. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease show decreased colonic expression of meprin α, although regulation of expression, particularly under inflammatory stimuli, has not been studied. The studies herein demonstrate that the human meprin α transcript is bound and stabilized by Hu antigen R at baseline, and that treatment with the inflammatory stimulus phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate downregulates meprin α expression by inducing tristetraprolin.

Differential microRNA epression in asthma and the role of miR-1248 in regulation of IL-5.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that can be difficult to manage due to a lack of diagnostic biomarkers and an incomplete understanding of the molecular pathogenesis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNAs with increasing importance in regulation of immune function and as biomarkers. We profiled miRNAs in the serum of asthmatics and non-asthmatic controls to identify miRNAs that could serve as diagnostic markers and potential regulators of allergic inflammation.