Kidney transplantation is the promising treatment of choice for chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease and can effectively improve the quality of life and survival rates of patients. However, the allograft rejection following kidney transplantation has a negative impact on transplant success. Therefore, the present study is aimed at screening novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of allograft rejection following kidney transplantation for improving long-term transplant outcome. In the study, a total of 8 modules and 3065 genes were identified by WGCNA based on the GSE46474 and GSE15296 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Moreover, the results of Gene Ontology (GO) annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis showed that these genes were mainly involved in the immune-related biological processes and pathways. Thus, 317 immune-related genes were selected for further analysis. Finally, 5 genes (including CD200R1, VAV2, FASLG, SH2D1B, and RAP2B) were identified as the candidate biomarkers based on the ROC and difference analysis. Furthermore, we also found that in the 5 biomarkers an interaction might exist among each other in the protein and transcription level. Taken together, our study identified CD200R1, VAV2, FASLG, SH2D1B, and RAP2B as the candidate diagnostic biomarkers, which might contribute to the prevention and treatment of allograft rejection following kidney transplantation.

Histories of blood transfusion before 1995, plasma donation, previous hepatitis infection, or elevated ALT were risk factors for HCV infection among blood donors in Beijing.

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As a strategy to prevent the well-known immunosuppressant effects of cyclophosphamide (CY), the immunomodulatory activity of the polysaccharide isolated from Urtica macrorrhiza Hand.-Mazz. (UMHMPS) was investigated in the present study. The chemical properties of UMHMPS, including total carbohydrates, uronic acid, protein contents, monosaccharide compositions, molecular weight and structural confirmation, were investigated. The immunomodulatory activity of UMHMPS was evaluated using a CY-induced immunosuppression mouse model. The results revealed that UMHMPS, which is composed of rhamnose, gluconic acid, galactose acid, galactose and xylose, exhibited potent immunomodulatory activity and low toxicity in mice. It increased the secretions of secretory immunoglobulin A, interferon (IFN)-γ and interleukin (IL)-4, and maintained the balance of the ratios of IFN-γ/IL-4 and cluster of differentiation (CD)3 + /CD19 + cells in Peyer's patches. Furthermore, it increased the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4, indicating that TLR4 may be one of the receptors of UMHMPS. Therefore, the present study provides evidence for the potential use of UMHMPS as an immune enhancement drug in chemotherapy.