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Background: IL–4 is a determining factor in immunologic mechanisms to allergy and inflammation. The authors designed a case–controlled study to investigate the potential association of a repeat polymorphism in IL–4 gene with specific clinical phenotypes of asthma. Methods: The authors used the polymerase chain reaction to characterize the variation of the IL–4 intron 2 region in 145 unrelated Tunisian patients with asthma and 160 healthy control subjects. In order to strengthen the case–controlled study, analysis of IL–4 polymorphism was performed in families of several asthmatic patients. Asthma scores were determined and correlated with this polymorphism. Results: Analysis of IL–4 polymorphism in patients with allergic asthma and in control subjects demonstrated a significant association between the IL–4 A1 allele and asthma. Further evidence of the strong association found between IL–4 intron 2 polymorphism and asthma was provided by the finding that asthma is transmitted in association with the inheritance of the IL–4 A1 marker. When patients were stratified into two groups according to the degree of the severity of asthma, the IL–4 A1 allele was specifically not associated with mild asthma, but highly associated with the moderate and severe forms of the disease. The relative risk (RR) of severe asthma is especially high in patients carrying the A1/A3 genotype (RR = 3.94, p = 0.0001). Conversely, a major decrease in the frequency of the IL–4 A3/A3 genotype was observed in patients with severe asthma, resulting in a significantly negative RR of this clinical phenotype of asthma (RR = 0.165, p = 0.0001). Conclusions: Tunisian persons carrying the IL–4 A1/A3 genotype may have an increased risk of severe asthma.

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The simple and rapid method for the simultaneous detection of the five beta2 AR alleles is suitable for the study of beta2 polymorphism and its clinical consequences.

Background: Serum Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been used for screening and diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa) but it is burdened by its low accuracy, creating a need for reliable diagnostic markers. Despite prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) being widely expressed in the tissue of PCa, no definite conclusion regarding their use as clinical biomarkers due to their lacking organ specificity. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the peripheral blood levels of PSMA and PSCA mRNAs and examine their diagnostic significance as non-invasive integrated markers. Materials and Methods: 125 subjects were enrolled in this study. They were divided into 25 healthy controls, 25 BPH patients, and 75 PCa patients. The expression levels of PSMA and PSCA were determined using quantitative RT-PCR, in addition to measuring serum PSA. Results: Levels of PSMA and PSCA were over-expressed in PCa patients compared to controls and BPH patients and were found to be associated with increased susceptibility to PCa. Moreover, the diagnostic values of PSMA and PSCA to distinguish PCa patients from BPH patients and controls were inferior to that of PSA. However, the combination of PSMA and PSCA with PSA enhanced the efficacy of the latter. Conclusion: This study suggests that these genes were associated with malignant susceptibility. Concerning the duality of PSMA-PSA or PSCA-PSA, this implies the significance of their investigation together in peripheral blood of prostate patients.