Interferons (IFN), a family of naturally occurring proteins, are secreted mainly from White Blood Cells (WBC), Natural killer cells, fibroblasts and epithelial cells. They are the primary modulator of response of the immune system to viruses, bacteria, cancer and other foreign substances that invade the body. Three types of IFNs have been identified till date and commercially available now by recombinant DNA technology. Type 1 IFN especially IFN-β has already successfully passed the clinical trial against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome related Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) and also being tried in “Solidarity clinical trial for COVID-19 treatments” announced by World Health Organisation (WHO) in March, 2020. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged from China in December, 2019. It has rapidly spread out all over the world and become pandemic now. It has infected more than eight million and killing around four lac people worldwide up to June 17, 2020. Elderly persons and people with comorbidities like diabetes, chronic lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases and immune compromised states are the primary victim of this deadly virus. In this regard, we are trying to evaluate the potential benefits of type 1 IFN as a promising and safer treatment modality as well as specific prognostic marker when there are no specific and established vaccines, drugs or prognostic biomarkers available yet against SARS-CoV-2. We can hypothesise that thorough evaluation of these molecules against COVID-19 may open-up a new opportunity to successfully combat this evil.
The most common liver disorder nowadays is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) and it is a progressive disease that rises in severity from steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH), fibrosis and cirrhosis to increase risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. It is a cause of great concern as there is an estimated seventy million Americans who are currently affected by NAFLD, and this is expected to only increase because of its association with obesity and diabetes and also a lack of therapies to keep its development and progression in check. In this particular study we performed a gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA) of differentially expressed genes in a green tea against methionine-choline deficient diet in high-fat patients in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). The downregulated genes were used to perform an enrichment analysis and in the ARCHS4 TFs Coexpression database the most significant gene was found to be KLF5_human_tf_ARCHS4_coexpression. In the ARCHS4 Kinases Coexpression pathway database STYK1_human_kinase_ARCHS4 Coexpression was found to be the most significant gene. And finally for the upregulated genes a similar enrichment analysis was performed and in the humancy database γ-linolenate biosynthesis_Homo sapiens_PWY-6000 gene was discovered to be the most significant one. This study has used bioinformatics tools and the Enrichr software to perform a comparative analysis of differentially expressed gene sets for high-fat patients having a diet consisting of green tea against a methionine-choline deficient diet. Green tea is known to contain several antioxidants and polyphenols which provide protection against many liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). The present study simply tries to build awareness of this to the general public and allow them to learn more about certain diets which have protective effects against liver diseases. Hopefully by implementing these in their daily lifestyles the public can gain some form of protection against these types of liver disorders.
Background and Objectives In the last few decades,Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) has become a common health issue that leads to serious complications like cirrhosis, cardiovascular disease, etc. Insulin resistance (IR) is the key pathogenic factor for NAFLD. The young medicos being habituated in stressful and sedentary lifestyle and representative of the youth as well can fully justify their selection as study population and help to build social awareness by emphasizing the importance of early lifestyle modifications in preventing or delaying the severe complications of NAFLD. This study is aiming to find out if there is any correlation of hepatic steatosis with IR, Alanine Transaminases (ALT), Aspartate Transaminases (AST) or Gama Glutamyl Transferases (GGT) and also to identify if one enzyme is better correlating with hepatic steatosis than others in the scenario of Insulin Resistance among young medicos. METHODS: 132 medical students of North Bengal Medical College, aged between 18-25 years were included in this institution based observational cross-sectional study. Their Fasting Insulin, glucose, ALT, AST, GGT were measured, and IR was calculated by the Homeostatic Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) calculator. Sonography was done to assess Hepatic steatosis. RESULTS: Among 132 subjects normal, grade 1 and grade 2 fatty changes have been found in 67.4%, 25%, and 7.6% of the study population respectively. The Grouping was done using the cut-off value of IR (i.e. subjects with IR<1.525 vs. IR≥1.525). Significant differences were found in the mean values of ALT, AST, GGT between groups. Significant positive concordances were found between enzymes ALT, GGT, and hepatic steatosis in subjects having IR ≥ 1.525.Regression analysis showed that higher GGT values have a stronger positive correlation with hepatic steatosis than ALT among the same. Interpretation and Conclusion From this study, we can interpret that subjects having higher GGT values are better associated with steatosis than those having higher ALT values and can lead us to the conclusion that GGT might be an important independent marker for NAFLD associated with IR. Furthermore, such observations may suggest considering GGT as a marker for assessing the severity of fatty liver irrespective of etiopathogenesis, though the population-based vivid evaluation is highly recommended.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered as the hepatic expression of insulin resistance. The high occurrence of obesity and dyslipidaemia in insulin resistant condition favours NAFLD.The hepatic effect of insulin resistance are diverse including increased hepatic cholesterol secretion, biliary cholesterol supersaturation and decreased biliary motility all of which leads to gallstone formation.NAFLD and gallstone disease (GSD) shares common pathological factors like hyperinsulinemia, dyslipidaemia. As all the factors are common association with Insulin resistance there could be common occurrence of NAFLD and GSD in patients with insulin resistance.During a study two patients with insulin resistance were found to have both NAFLD and GSD. Both the patients were found to be dyslipidemic and on sonography one was found to have multiple gall bladder stones and the other with a single gall bladder stone.
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