Background: Interleukin (IL)-37, a novel anti-inflammatory cytokine previously known as interleukin-1 family member 7 before it was renamed, has a pivotal role in the suppression of immune responses. Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the expression of IL-37 and its potential role in the pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Patients and Methods: The study was carried out in Zagazig University Hospital, Pediatric Department. The total sample size was 60 participants divided into 4 groups. They were 45 patients (15 patients with newly diagnosed ITP, 15 patients with complete remission after 1 st line therapy and 15 patients with chronic ITP) and 15 age -sex matched healthy children as a control group. Results: Our study showed that the mean value of age among patients group was (6.89± 4.13) with female predominance than males (60%). The current work showed that regarding history of bleeding tendency it was present in 45 (100%). This study showed the bone marrow examination was done for 8 of our patients (17.8%) and revealed hypercellular megakaryopoiesis. In the current study there was no statistically significant difference between patients group and control group regarding hemoglobin (HB) and white blood cells (WBC). Our study showed that there was no statistically significant correlation between IL 37 level and platelets in patients group. Conclusion:Accumulating evidence suggests that serum level of IL 37 has a pivotal role in autoimmune diseases. In the present study, the expression of IL-37 in ITP patients was evaluated for the first time in Egypt, but no significant abnormal expression of IL-37 was identified in these patients. It was therefore concluded that serum level of IL 37 may not have a pivotal role in the development of ITP.

Background:Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most critical complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Approximately 30–50% of SLE patients develop LN with 5-year survival rate of about 70-80%. Thus, finding reliable non-invasive biomarkers at the early stages of SLE is of great interest (1). Many studies focused on the association between microRNAs and the risk of LN. miRNA-146a (miR-146a) was one of the most promising circulating markers which was suggested recently for early diagnosis of SLE but its diagnostic relevancies regarding LN have not been extensively investigated.Objectives:This study aims to test the expression of miR-146a in patients with LN in relation to Kallikrein-1 as another widely investigated diagnostic marker for LN along with other conventional measures.Methods:One hundred and thirty subjects were enrolled in this study. They were divided into forty six patients with LN, forty four patients with SLE but without nephritis and forty healthy controls. The expression levels of miR-146a in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were detected via RT-qPCR analysis. Besides, serum Kallikrein-1 levels were determined by ELISA. The diagnostic role of miR-146a and Kallikrein-1 in LN was evaluated by Receiver operating curve (ROC). The impact of miR-146a and Kallikrein-1 on renal disease was compared to albumin creatinine ratio, renal biopsy findings as well as renal SLEDAI.Results:Levels of miR-146a were significantly lower in the plasma of LN patients than both patients of SLE without LN and normal controls (p < 0.05). However, serum levels of Kallikrein-1 were significantly higher in LN patients when compared to SLE patients and normal population (p < 0.05). ROCs were conducted to assess the diagnostic values of both miR-146a and kallikrein-1. They revealed good diagnostic values with AUC of 0.888 and 0.913 respectively. Also, plasma miR-146a was observed to be negatively associated with serum creatinine, proteinuria as well as SLEDAI score (p < 0.01) while serum Kallikrein-1 was positively correlated with them (p < 0.05) and inversely correlated with miR-146a (p < 0.01).Conclusion:The expression levels of miR-146a are reduced in SLE patients with more reduction with LN. Therefore, miR-146a could be considered as potential biomarker for detecting LN either alone or in combination with Kallikrein-1. However, more studies are required.References:[1]Soliman S. And Mohan C. Lupus nephritis Biomarkers.Clin Immunol.2017 Dec; 185: 10-20.Disclosure of Interests:None declared