Sustaining exposure to high concentrations of bifidobacteria inhibits gene expression of Mouse's mucosal immunity
HELIYON
Authors: El Hadad, Sahar; Zakareya, Ayeshah; Al-Hejin, Ahmed; Aldahlawi, Alia; Alharbi, Mona
Abstract
Numerous dietary products are supplemented with probiotics that may be beneficial for human health. Recently, bifidobacteria have received increasing attention as a genus of probiotic bacteria with high efficiency and few side effects. To examine potential effects of different bifidobacteria concentrations on the mucosal immune response, we fed mice with (a) 10(8) colony-forming units (CFU) of bifidobacteria (group 10(8)B), and (b) with 10(12) CFU of bifidobacteria (group 10(12)B) over 42 days and assessed gene expression in intestinal mucosa and immune marker concentrations in serum samples; ten untreated female mice were used as a control. Continuous exposure to 10(8) CFU of bifidobacteria activated both macrophages and T-reg immune cells through significantly increasing the expression of mucosal TLR2 and IL10-mRNA genes, but inhibited Th1 and Th2 cells via significant down-regulation of IL4 and IFN gamma gene expression, compared to untreated mice. Interestingly, group 10(12)B showed down-regulated expression of TLR2, IL10, and IL4 genes but up-regulated expression of IFN gamma, compared to group 10(8)B and to the control. Also, polyclonal immunoglobulins IgG, IgM, and IgA showed a significant increase in all treated mice compared to the control. We conclude that high concentrations of bifidobacteria reduced innate immune functions. Furthermore, adaptive immunity seemed to be enhanced by increasing stimulation of T and B lymphocytes, suggesting aberration of the immune system following intestinal inflammation due to constant exposure to high concentrations of bifidobacteria. Both experimental bifidobacteria concentrations increased the total levels of circulating Igs, particularly of IgA.
A First Step for the Molecular Characterization of Neurological Involvement of Behcet Syndrome: an Italian Pivotal Study
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR NEUROSCIENCE
Authors: Padula, Maria Carmela; Leccese, Pietro; Lascaro, Nancy; Padula, Angela Anna; Carbone, Teresa; Martelli, Giuseppe; D'Angelo, Salvatore
Abstract
Behcet syndrome (BS) is a vasculitis characterized by several clinical manifestations including the rare neurological involvement (neuro-BS, NBS). The aim of our pivotal study was to investigate the mutational status of several inflammation-related genes in a cohort of Italian patients with and without the neurological involvement (20 NBS vs 40 no-NBS patients). The preliminary in silico single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) selection and primer design were performed by NCBI Primer-Blast tool. Genomic DNA was isolated and amplified using PCR. PCR amplicons were sequenced and bioinformatically analysed. Twelve tagSNPs were selected and genotyped: ERAP1 rs30187, rs17482078, and rs27044; IL10 rs1800872 and rs1518111, IL12A rs17810546, IL23R rs17375018, IL23R-IL12RB2 rs924080, STAT4 rs7572482, CCR1 rs7616215, KLRC4 rs2617170, and UBAC2 rs3825427. ERAP1 and IL23R SNPs showed statistically significant higher frequencies in NBS group than no-NBS. ERAP1 rs30187 AA was more common in no-NBS patients (20.0% NBS vs 47.5% no-NBS; p < 0.05), while rs17482078 GA frequency was higher in NBS patients (55.0% NBS vs 22.5% no-NBS; p < 0.05, OR: 4.21). IL23R rs17375018 GG was more frequent in NBS group (65.0% NBS vs 40.0% no-NBS; p < 0.05), according to a previous finding. No other statistically significant differences were found. In conclusion, ERAP1 and IL23R SNPs were found associated with neurological involvement of BS. Additional and larger analyses were required to verify our preliminary findings.