Background: A type of delivery represents an epigenetic factor with potential to affect further development by multiple mechanisms. One of them can be DNA methylation, which represents major epigenetic mechanism inolving direct chemical modification to the DNA. This study aims to examine wheather type of delivery induces changes of DNA methylation comparing the umbilical cord blood and periphery blood of the newborns. Methods: The blood samples from infants, born by vaginal delivery and cesarean section, were used to preparation of the Methylseq library according to NEBNext enzymatic Methyl-seq Methylation Library Preparation Kit with further generation of target-enriched DNA libraries by Twist Human Methylome Panel. DNA methylation status was measured using Illumina next-generation sequencing. Results: We identified 168 differentially methylated regions in umbilical cord blood samples and 157 regions in peripheral blood samples. These were associated with 59 common biological, metabolic and signaling pathways for umbilical cord and peripheral blood samples. Conclusions: Cesarean section probably represents important epigenetic factor with potential to induce changes in genome, which could play an important role in development of broad spectrum of disorders. Our results could contribute to elucidate how epigenetic factors, like type of delivery, could have an adverse impact on health later in the life.

Endometrial cancer belongs to the most common gynecologic cancer types globally, with increasing incidence. There are numerous ways of classifying different cases. The most recent decade has brought advances in molecular classification, which show more accurate prognostic factors and the possibility of personalised adjuvant treatment. In addition, diagnostic approaches lag behind these advances, with methods causing patients discomfort while lacking the reproducibility of tissue sampling for biopsy. Minimally invasive liquid biopsies could therefore represent an alternative screening and diagnostic approach in patients with endometrial cancer. The method could potentially detect molecular changes in this cancer type and identify patients at early stages. In this pilot study, we tested such a detection method based on circulating tumour DNA isolated from the peripheral blood plasma of 21 Slovak endometrial cancer patients. We successfully detected oncomutations in the circulating DNA of every single patient, although the prognostic value of the detected mutations failed to offer certainty. Furthermore, we detected changes associated with clonal hematopoiesis, including DNMT3A mutations, which were present in the majority of circulating tumour DNA samples.

On the present, when the world brave out the rapidly spreading pandemic of COVID-19, the silent epidemic of diabetes should not be omitted. In comparison, while COVID-19 led to about 6 million of deaths in 2021, diabetes caused 6.7 million deaths in the same year. Diabetes mellitus is serious risk factor for worse outcome in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, it seems that there is a bidirectional relationship between pre-existing diabetes pandemic and rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we sum up mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 infects the host cell and we discuss bidirectional relationship of diabetes and COVID-19. We focus also on clinical variables in which diabetic patients differ from nondiabetic patients and which could have promising predictive value for course and outcome of diabetic COVID-19 patient’s therapy management.

Since its outbreak in late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been the main subject of interest for a number of studies. Clinical manifestations are ranging from asymptomatic to mild and severe. Major risk factors for developing severe COVID-19 are age and comorbidities, although younger people suffer from severe COVID-19 as well. One of the explanations for why can be the composition of respiratory tract microbiota. In this article, we review studies linking respiratory tract microbiome and its changes during COVID-19 infection. The respiratory tract microbiome helps shape immunity and it is assumed that it can affect the outcome of several viral infections. Several studies show differences in the microbial composition of the respiratory tract between COVID-19 patients and healthy individuals. The diversity of the respiratory tract microbiome is reduced with increasing severity of COVID-19.