Biomarkers in medicine最新文献

Aims: Pancreatic cancer has a very poor prognosis and is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Our aim is to investigate the presence of novel prognostic markers in pancreatic cancer that are easy to calculate, inexpensive, non-invasive, and do not cause a loss of time.

Methods: A total of 164 patients were included in the study. The demographic and clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and radiological data of the patients were retrospectively reviewed using hospital records.

Results: Of the patients, 112 (68.3%) were male, and the mean age of all patients was 63.29 ± 12.5 years. The one-,two-,and five-year survival rates of the patients were determined to be 43.9% (n = 72), 29.3% (n = 48), and 21.3% (n = 35), respectively. During the 1-,2, and 5-year follow-ups, the absence of surgery, advanced disease stage, and elevated systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) were identified as independent risk factors for increased mortality in pancreatic cancer. SIRI was found to be a prognostic factor influencing both short- and long-term survival in pancreatic cancer.

Conclusion: We found that SIRI is a stronger prognostic factor than the NLR, PIV, and SII indices in predicting survival in pancreatic cancer. Monitoring SIRI in pancreatic cancer may provide insight into the status of the local immune response and systemic inflammation, and help in estimating patient survival.

Background: Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) are at an increased risk of cognitive impairment, yet reliable noninvasive biomarkers for identifying high-risk individuals in this population remain scarce. This study aimed to investigate the association between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and cognitive function in patients with CAD.

Methods: This study included 1163 patients with CAD who underwent cognitive function assessment. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relationship between the TyG index and cognitive function. Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to determine the discriminatory ability of the TyG index in identifying patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Results: The TyG index was negatively correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores (r = -0.16, p < 0.001 and r = -0.33, p < 0.001, respectively). Specifically, when the TyG index was ≥8.72, higher values were associated with increased risk of MCI (OR: 3.69, 95% CI: 2.12, 6.58). ROC analysis revealed that the optimal cutoff value for the TyG index was 8.906 (specificity: 73.8%, sensitivity: 60.2%).

Conclusion: The TyG index is independently associated with cognitive function in patients with CAD, with elevated values associated with an increased risk of MCI.

Aim: A retrospective study was designed to compare the expression levels of TNF superfamily member 12 (TNFSF12), which encodes the protein TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK), and CD163 in peripheral blood monocytes between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and controls, and to correlate their expression with clinical parameters to investigate their potential association with RA.

Materials & methods: RT-qPCR method was used to determine gene expression of TNFSF12 and CD163 in patients with RA, ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and healthy controls (HC). ROC curve, Pearson correlation analysis, and western blot were used to access the diagnostic performance of TNFSF12/TWEAK and CD163, analyze their correlation with other clinical parameters in RA, and evaluate the protein expression of TWEAK and CD163 in RA.

Results: TNFSF12 and CD163 in RA patients were higher expressed compared with AS and HC; they were helpful to identify RA patients from controls, with area under ROC curve (AUC) being 0.813 and 0.826, respectively, and correlated with ESR and CRP. TWEAK and CD163 in monocytes from RA were significantly upregulated compared with controls.

Conclusion: TNFSF12 and CD163 gene higher expressed in RA patients and related with therapeutic response and inflammation status, can be used as reference index for RA diagnosis and disease monitoring.

Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) remains a life-threatening condition despite treatment advances. Early identification of high-risk patients is essential. The neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) is a novel inflammatory marker linked to poor outcomes in various diseases, but its prognostic value in IE remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between NPAR and in-hospital mortality in patients with IE.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 263 patients diagnosed with IE between January 2009 and January 2024 at a tertiary care center. Clinical, laboratory, and echocardiographic data were collected. NPAR was calculated as (Neutrophil %/Albumin [g/dL]). Predictors of mortality were identified using LASSO-based logistic regression, and a nomogram was constructed to illustrate predictive performance.

Results: In-hospital mortality occurred in 59 patients (22.4%). NPAR was significantly higher among non-survivors (median: 0.335 vs. 0.228, p < 0.001). High NPAR ( >0.274) was independently associated with in-hospital mortality (OR: 6.70, 95% CI: 3.07-15.61, p < 0.001), along with large vegetation and diabetes mellitus. High NPAR showed good discriminative power (AUC = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.66-0.79, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: High NPAR was an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality in IE and may serve as a simple, cost-effective biomarker for early risk stratification.

Objective: There are meta-analyses about the correlation between non-coding RNA and the prognosis of gastric cancer, which are focus on a single or a particular type of non-coding RNA. This study aims to verify the correlation between various non-coding RNAs and the prognosis of gastric cancer through meta-analysis.

Methods: The studies documenting the association between non-coding RNAs and the prognosis of gastric cancer up until September 2023 were extracted. The outcomes of the univariate and multivariate analyses were combined for each noncoding RNA. Sources of heterogeneity were determined by meta-regression analysis, and publication bias was assessed using the Egger test.

Results: Fifty-five studies were included in meta-analysis, of which 40 reported miRNAs and 14 reported lncRNAs. The up-regulation of miR-17-5p, miR-21, miR-214, miR-20a, lnc-CECR7, lnc-SNHG15, lnc-Sox2ot, lnc-ANRIL, lnc-DSCR8, lnc-ZEB1-AS1 and lnc-NEAT1 were associated with an unfavorable OS in gastric cancer. Elevated level of lnc-PVT1 correlated with an adverse DFS in gastric cancer. A diminished expression of miR-133a, miR-141, miR-206, and miR-1236-3p predicted a poor OS of gastric cancer.

Conclusions: Various non-coding RNAs are associated with the prognosis of gastric cancer based on new evidence-based medical evidence, which provides a potential value for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Introduction: The use of biomarkers as surrogate endpoints, supported by strong mechanistic, epidemiologic, and/or clinical data, provides drug development programs with endpoints that predict clinical benefit and may be more sensitive to drug effects than clinical endpoints. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a marker of neuroaxonal injury that has emerged as a promising biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases.

Methods: We identified Investigational New Drug programs submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2005-2024 that proposed to use NfL as a pharmacodynamic biomarker, biomarker for patient selection or stratification, and/or surrogate endpoint for accelerated approval.

Results: A total of 50 programs were identified with most from the last five years. Of the 50 programs, 94% (n = 47) proposed NfL as a pharmacodynamic biomarker, 8% (n = 4) for patient selection, 52% (n = 26) for patient stratification, and 20% (n = 10) as a surrogate endpoint. Of the programs evaluating NfL as a pharmacodynamic biomarker with available data on NfL levels (n = 21), approximately 50% reported NfL changes that correlated with drug exposure.

Conclusion: This analysis highlights the important role that NfL plays in clinical trials and identifies future areas of research and study design considerations to strengthen the support of NfL as a biomarker.

Background: The Naples Prognostic Score (NPS) is a composite index of inflammation and nutritional status. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of NPS for long-term all-cause mortality in non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI).

Methods: In this study, 396 consecutive NSTEMI patients who underwent coronary angiography/percutaneous coronary intervention between 1 August 2023, and 31 July 2024, were included. Patients were stratified into low (NPS: 0-1), intermediate (NPS: 2), and high (NPS: 3-4) risk groups. Median follow-up was 433 days. Univariate logistic regression identified predictors of longterm mortality. These were then entered into LASSOpenalized logistic regression for variable selection. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models assessed the independent predictors of long-term mortality, adjusting for SYNTAX score, hemoglobin, sodium, age, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

Results: High-risk NPS patients (n = 91) had higher long-term mortality (17.6%) compared with intermediate-risk (3.7%) and low-risk (3.5%) groups (p < 0.001). In the adjusted Cox model, high-risk NPS independently predicted long-term mortality (HR:3.79; 95% CI 1.55-9.27; p = 0.003), whereas neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were not significant when substituted for NPS.

Conclusion: In NSTEMI patients, NPS independently predicts long-term all-cause mortality beyond traditional risk markers and outperforms isolated inflammatory indices such as NLR and CRP.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection in pregnant women and adverse pregnancy events (APEs), as well as serum inflammatory factors (IFs) and coagulation parameters.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 2,200 late-pregnancy women who delivered at Maternal and Child Health Hospital from March 2020 to January 2023. Data on GBS infection, serotyping, immunofluorescence, coagulation parameters, and APEs were collected. APE incidence was compared between groups, and logistic regression was performed to analyze inflammatory factors and coagulation parameters in GBS-positive women with and without APEs.

Results: Among the participants, 593 (26.95%) were GBS-positive, and 1,607 (73.05%) were GBS-negative. The GBS-positive group had significantly higher rates of preterm birth, intrauterine infection, premature rupture of membranes, placental abruption, postpartum hemorrhage, and meconium-stained amniotic fluid compared to the GBS-negative group (p < 0.05). Logistic regression identified white blood cell count, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β, procalcitonin, and fibrinogen as independent risk factors for APEs (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: GBS infection increases the risk of adverse pregnancy events and is closely associated with alterations in inflammatory and coagulation markers.