Human BTLA blocking peptide

Purpose: To explore the expression of herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM) in ovarian serous adenocarcinoma tissues and its relationship with clinicopathological features. Methods: Paraffin-embedded specimens from 40 patients with ovarian serous adenocarcinoma who were subjected to surgical treatment were used for the determination of HVEM expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Then the relationship between the expression of HVEM and the patient clinicopathological features was analyzed. Results: There were 29 cases (72.5%) of HVEM/tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)SF14-positive and 11 cases (27.5%) of HVEM/TNFRSF14-negative. The positive rate of HVEM was significantly correlated with TNM staging, lymph node metastasis and recurrence (p <0.05), but not with age, grade of differentiation and distant metastasis (p>0.05). Conclusion: HVEM is highly expressed in ovarian serous adenocarcinoma tissues and correlated with the patient clinicopathological features, such as TNM staging, lymph node metastasis and recurrence. HVEM can provide a basis in the search for a new targeting treatment for ovarian serous adenocarcinoma.

The aim of this study was to determine the association between polymorphisms in gene encoding Band T-lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) and susceptibility to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and their influence on mRNA expression of BTLA gene in T and B cells from CLL patients (pts.). The following BTLA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs): rs2705511, rs1982809, rs9288952, rs76844316, rs16859633, rs9288953, rs2705535, rs1844089, rs2705565, rs2633580 were genotyped with use of TaqMan probes in 321 CLL pts. and in 470 controls. The mRNA levels of human BTLA were determined in subpopulations of T and B cells from 37 CLL patients with use of Applied Biosystems assays. Three SNPs: rs1982809, rs2705511 and rs9288953 were associated with susceptibility to CLL. The frequency of rs1982809[G] allele and rs2705511[C] allele carriers was higher in patients compared to the controls (0.51 vs. 0.41, OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.14-2.02, p = 0.004 and 0.56 vs. 0.44, OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.22-2.16, p = 0.0009, respectively). Furthermore, rs9288953[TT] genotype was overrepresented in CLL pts. compared to the controls (0.22 vs. 0.14, OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.20-2.53, p = 0.004). The evaluation of the influence of BTLA SNPs on BTLA mRNA expression in CLL pts. showed that the presence of rs1982809[G] allele was associated with lower median (+/- SD) BTLA mRNA expression in T cells (expressed as 2-delta Ct) in CLL pts. as compared to [AA] homozygotes (0.009 +/- 0.013 vs. 0.026 +/- 0.012, p = 0.03). Our results indicate that rs1982809 BTLA gene polymorphism is associated with mRNA expression level and that variations in the BTLA gene might be considered as potentially low-penetrating CLL risk factor.