Considering the important role of microbiome, many of current investigations have focused on its beneficial aspects. Although, research explores new dimensions of the impact of microbiome and examines the differences in patients and healthy individuals for identifying biomarker patterns, but limited information is available, and investigation in this field seems to be of great value. On the other hand, new therapeutic approaches, called personalized medicine, have opened a new window in medical science, and the association between microbiome and personalized medicine seems to be one of the most interesting aspects of the subsequent research, and has a pivotal perspective on the treatment of diseases such as cancer. Accordingly, given the novelty of the relationship between these two axes, there are very few studies in this regard. The presence of specific strains may have the ability to modulate cancer progression and therapeutics; this increases the likelihood of precision medicine in relation to microbiota, in terms of treatment and prognosis, and therefore, microbiota is a next generation medicine and may develop a novel therapeutic action in this field.

MicroRNAs are non-coding RNAs, playing an important role in regulating many biological pathways, such as innate immune response against various infections. Different studies confirm that many miRNAs act as important regulators in developing a strategy for the survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the host cell. On the other hand, an innate immune response is one of the important aspects of host defense against Mycobacterium. Considering the importance of miRNAs during tuberculosis infection, we focused on studies that performed on the role of various miRNAs related to pathogenic bacteria, M. tuberculosis in the host. Also, we have introduced important miRNAs that can be used as a biomarker for the detection of Mycobacterium.

Occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (OCI) is described as the presence of viral genome in both hepatocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) despite constant negative results on serum HCV RNA tests. Betathalassemia major (BTM) describes a group of inherited blood diseases. Patients with BTM require repeated blood transfusions, increasing the risk of exposure to infectious agents. We aimed to assess the prevalence of OCI in Iranian BTM patients and to identify the role of host factors in OCI positivity. A total of 181 BTM patients with HCV negative markers were selected. HCV RNA was tested in PBMCs using nested polymerase chain reaction assay. The positive samples were then genotyped via restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) and 5′-untranslated region sequencing. Six (3.3%) out of 181 BTM patients had viral HCV genomes in PBMC samples. Three (50.0%), two (33.3%), and one (16.7%) out of these six patients were infected with HCV-1b, HCV-1a, and HCV-3a, respectively. OCI positivity was significantly associated with the serum level of uric acid (P = 0.045) and ABO blood group (P = 0.032). Also, OCI patients had unfavorable IFNL3 rs12979860 TT, IFNL3 rs8099917 GG, IFNL3 rs12980275 GG, and IFNL4 ss469415590 ΔG/ΔG genotypes. In conclusion, we indicated the low frequency of OCI in BTM patients. Nevertheless, more attention is warranted considering the importance of this infection. Also, further studies are necessary to determine the actual prevalence of OCI among BTM patients in Iran.

Aim The presence of occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (OCI) is still controversial, however, this infection cannot be ignored. Therefore, the current study aimed at assessing the OCI frequency in patients on chronic hemodialysis (CHD) and also evaluating the association between OCI incidence with clinical parameters and interferon lambda 3/4 (IFNL3/4) gene polymorphisms. Methods A total of 515 patients on CHD and HCV negative markers were selected. Plus‐ and minus‐stranded HCV‐RNA was tested in peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction and then genotyped using the restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Results The frequency of OCI was 11.3% in patients on CHD. Among 58 patients with OCI, 25.8%, 62.1%, and 12.1% were infected with HCV‐1a, HCV‐1b, and HCV‐3a, respectively. The mean alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase levels were 31.9 ± 24.8, 32.3 ± 19.1, and 171.6 ± 88.9, respectively. None of the patients with OCI had a history of liver disease. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that cholesterol, triglyceride, low‐density lipoprotein, 25‐hydroxyvitamin D, platelets, duration of hemodialysis, HCV subtypes, IFNL3 rs12979860 TT, IFNL3 rs8099917 GG, IFNL3 rs12980275 GG, and IFNL4 ss469415590 ΔG/ΔG genotypes were associated with OCI. Conclusion There was a moderate prevalence of OCI in Iranian patients on CHD. The current study findings indicated that this infection was associated with clinical parameters and unfavorable genotypes of IFNL3 single nucleotide polymorphisms and IFNL4 ss469415590. Further studies are required to determine the correlation between OCI incidence with clinical parameters and host genetic factors.

No abstract