Indian J Med Res
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Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is a polyclonal antiserum introduced into clinical medicine more than 30 years ago. It induces a broad non-specific immunosuppression. In haematology, standard indications are severe aplastic anaemia and prophylaxis and treatment of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) (after allogeneic transplantation). ⋯ In the situation of allogeneic transplantation, ATG lessens the risk of chronic GVHD but may not improve survival. There is current controversy regarding which patients benefit most from ATG and what the ideal dosage is. It is likely that in the coming years a more specific immunosuppressive will be developed that will minimize GVHD while maintaining the graft-versus-malignancy effect.
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Comparative Study
Diagnostic ability of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction versus immunohistochemistry for Ki-67 assessment in breast cancer: An Indian perspective.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer of women. Inferior prognosis in some patients has been attributed to the higher proliferative capability of the tumour. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for Ki-67, despite being a simple and cost-effective method, has not become a valid tool to evaluate this biomarker. This is ascribed to variation in pre-analytical and analytical techniques, variable expression, hotspot distribution and inter-and intra-observer inconsistency. This study was aimed at defining the analytical and clinical validity of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) as an alternative to IHC evaluation. ⋯ The study results showed a significant correlation between the two methods. While IHC is subject to technical and interpretative variability, RT-qPCR may offer a more objective alternative.
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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder and is caused mainly by deletion, duplication and point mutations in the DMD gene. Diagnosis of DMD has been a challenge as the mutations in the. ⋯ Our findings showed the importance of NGS in the routine diagnostic practice in the identification of DMD mutations over sequential testing. It may be used as a single-point diagnostic strategy irrespective of the mutation type, thereby reducing the turnaround time and cost for multiple diagnostic tests such as MLPA and Sanger sequencing. Though MLPA is a sensitive technique and is the first line of a diagnostic test, the targeted NGS of the DMD gene may have an advantage of having a single diagnostic test. A study on a larger number of patients is needed to highlight NGS as a single, comprehensive platform for the diagnosis of DMD.
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Chronic exposure to pesticides can damage DNA and lead to cancer, diabetes, respiratory diseases and neurodegenerative and neurodevelopment disorders. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of DNA damage through the comet assay and micronucleus (MN) test in two groups of children, under 10 yr of age living in rural Paraguay and in relation to pesticide exposure. ⋯ In children exposed to pesticides, a greater genotoxic and cytotoxic effect was observed compared to non-exposed children. Our findings suggest that monitoring of genetic toxicity in population exposed to pesticides and agrochemicals should be done.
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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae are considered common cause of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in children. The present study was conducted to detect M. pneumoniae and RSV in paediatric LRTIs employing serology, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) analysis. ⋯ Our study showed the presence of RSV and M. pneumoniae infection in 44 and 35 per cent children, respectively with community-acquired LRTIs and aged less than five years.