Immunoregulation
Volume:5 Issue: 1, Summer 2022

Inflammation is a protective response that occurs in response to tissue injury and microbial infections. A significant advancement has been made in our understanding of inflammation, which is one of the most fundamental concepts in medicine. Immunoregulation of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases depends on Th17/Treg balance. Costimulatory receptors, cytokines, metabolic pathways, and the intestinal microbiome all affect this balance in inflammatory conditions. Maintaining a functional equilibrium between these two subsets is very important to design an appropriate and effective treatment strategy.

In 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused one of the biggest virus pandemics called Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).  This virus has been responsible for the death of millions of people around the world. The biological function of SARS-CoV-2 and its pathophysiology mechanisms, as well as the host immunity against this virus, has attracted the attention of the scientific community all over the world. The current study reviewed innate and acquired immune responses following COVID-19 infection. These immune responses are probably involved in the severity of the disease and death. Also, the cause and consequence of potential clinical strategies to treat or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection have been proposed.

A safe and effective vaccine would be the best solution to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic. Classic platforms are used to develop vaccines including live-attenuated vaccines, inactivated vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, and viral vectors. The high vaccine production rate has raised concerns about their safety, although vaccines are still the sole promising solution to vanish COVID-19. The reported severe adverse effects have raised fear about their complications. Previous studies have unveiled that some vaccines like measles, mumps, rubella, influenza, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, human papillomavirus, diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis induce some diseases. It becomes critical to know whether COVID-19 vaccines will cause neurologic disorders, ischaemic stroke, encephalomyelitis, acute transverse myelitis, myocarditis, kidney disease, myositis, and allergic reactions. We exemplify potential problems these vaccines could cause by looking at previous studies. By reviewing the reports of side effects of different COVID-19 vaccines, we have investigated some diseases that may be associated with vaccination; however, it should be noted that the observation of the long-time effect is still needed.

The lives of people all over the world have been affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic since 2019. The virus originated in Wuhan City, China, and many people around the world are still infected with it daily, and many of them die. Following the prevalence of the virus, many countries were quarantined and came under economic, social, and medication pressure. As a result, various countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Iran, have begun to develop vaccines against SARS-COV-2 and have achieved great success. The Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine was the first vaccine against the virus that obtained World Health Organization (WHO) emergency use listing (EUL) on the last day of 2020 and promised hope for the people of the world. Clinical trials of the vaccines were not performed on all people including those with compromised immune systems such as cancer patients, or children under 12. Therefore, important questions arose: Are these vaccines available to everyone? Or do these vaccines protect everyone? As a result, studies were performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccines in specific groups of individuals such as cancer patients. This review article addresses some of the ambiguities surrounding the vaccination of cancer patients and suggestions for improving their condition.

Sulfur mustard as a chemical warfare agent causes short and long-term pulmonary complications in its victims. MicroRNAs are known to act as remarkable regulators of biological pathways, monitoring, and treatment of diseases including respiratory problems. In this study, we investigated the expression of miR-106a-5p and miR-106b-5p, two regulators of TGF-β signaling, as well as their target molecule, TGFβ1I1, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from SM-exposed individuals. A total of 70 veterans with SM-induced pulmonary complications were examined and compared to 35 gender and age-matched healthy controls. After clinical examination and pulmonary function tests, the severity of pulmonary complications was classified. Total RNA was extracted from PBMCs and the purity of extracted RNA samples was evaluated by a NanoDrop 2000. The miR-106a-5p, miR-106b-5p, and TGFβ1I1 expression levels were measured by real-time RT-PCR. The miR-106a-5p expression levels were significantly increased in both mild (P=0.015) and severe groups compared with the control group. The miR-106b-5p expression levels were considerably elevated in the severe group TGFβ1I1 expression levels were notably reduced in the severe group compared with the control group. Although, a slight decrease in TGFβ1I1 expression levels was observed in the mild group compared with the control. Our results indicate that exposure to sulfur mustard affects the expression of miR-106a-5p, miR-106b-5p, and their target gene, TGFβ1I1, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Considering the role of TGFβ1I1 in the regulation of TGF-β signaling, the mentioned changes might point to a potential mechanism by which SM exposure causes chronic pulmonary complications. In a ROC analysis, miR-106a-5p and miR-106b-5p potentially turned out to be a suitable diagnostic biomarker in the mild and severe categories of patients. Although, miR-106a-5p could be considered a better biomarker than miR-106b-5p.

Cancer stem cells are a subpopulation of tumor cells with self-renewal capacity that promote tumorigenesis, resistance to chemotherapy, and metastasis. Sox2, Oct4, and Nanog are three pluripotent transcription factors expressed in embryonic stem cells and cancer stem cells. This study aimed to evaluate the expression of Sox2, Nanog, and Oct4, and analyze their clinical significance in human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Expression of Sox2, Nanog, and Oct4 was assayed in cancer tissues and their corresponding paracancerous tissues from 30 patients with NSCLC. RT-PCR was used to analyze the expression of these genes. The correlation between the expression of these three genes and clinical parameters including disease stage, smoking, lymph node, and cancer subgroups (adenocarcinoma and squamous) were analyzed. All three genes were expressed simultaneously in 76.6% of tumor samples. A significant correlation was observed between the expression of Sox2, Nanog, and Oct4 in the cancer tissues in comparison to the paracancerous tissues (P<0.000). Expression of Sox2 and Oct4 gene had a positive correlation with the stage of cancer (Sox2 P=0.01, Oct4 P=0.0007), while the expression profile of Nanog showed a significant positive correlation with sex (P=0.0063), smoking (P=0.0253), tumor stages (P=0.0003), and tumor type (P=0.0085). Evaluating the expression of Sox2, Nanog, and Oct4 genes in NSCLC might have some implications for diagnosis and prognosis; they might be also promising treatment targets. The correlations between prognosis and pathological features and Nanog overexpression in NSCLC suggest Nanog is a potential indicator of the early stage of NSCLC.

Childhood asthma is mainly developed by an interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Atopic asthma has been regarded as the most common form of asthma in the pediatric age group. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the role of atopy in inducing uncontrolled asthma in children. Seventy-five children between 1 to 14 years of age, referred to The Asthma and allergy clinics of Azad University hospitals for a period of one year because of wheezing and or chronic cough with a diagnosis of asthma were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. After scrutinizing the children’s medical history relevant to their asthmatic manifestations, they were evaluated with a skin prick test (SPT) for common aero and food allergens. Thirty-five asthmatic children had positive SPTs with their mean age higher than those with negative skin test results (P≤0.0001). In those with positive SPTs, the symptoms recurred if the medications were discontinued within a month of symptom improvement (P=0.001). The same results were true considering the history of previous atopic disorders in response to the discontinuation of therapy (P<0.0001). To conclude, in most patients with negative skin tests, symptoms of asthma improved in less than a month from the initiation of appropriate therapies. However, in those with positive SPTs and a history of atopy, the symptoms recurred if the medications were discontinued within less than a month of symptom improvement (P=0.001 and P<0.0001, respectively).

Chronic urticaria (CU) is the recurrence of erythematous itching papular skin lesions for at least 6 weeks. Although it is often considered a benign condition, there are reports of the association of chronic idiopathic urticaria with infections, thyroid disease, foods, medications, autoimmunity, neoplasms, and low serum level of vitamin D. We aimed to identify the effect of lifestyle characteristics, environmental factors, family history, and specific comorbidities as potential external eliciting factors on the onset of chronic urticaria. The present research was conducted on 141 adult patients diagnosed by CU at the allergy clinics of Azad University hospitals in Tehran from January 2021 to January 2022. A questionnaire on different life events during the past 3 months before the onset of urticaria was developed to evaluate the characteristics of the patients with chronic urticaria. Meanwhile, 58 healthy individuals who were similar to the patients in terms of age range and gender were asked to participate in the study as the control group. The mean age of the patients and the controls were 41.7 years and 39.8 years, respectively. The female and male patients were 105(74.47%) and 36(25.53%), respectively. Only two of the evaluated predisposing factors were meaningful including the use of new medications (23.4% versus 19%; P=0.006) and the co-existence of anxiety and depression (14.1% versus 4%; P=0.036). Among the different factors evaluated in this study, only two were found to be significant in relationship with CU which are anxiety/depression and medications.