Background: Fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene is a tumor suppressor gene which involved in breast cancer pathogenesis. Epigenetics alterations in FHIT contributes to tumorigenesis of breast cancer. Objective: Our objective was to study FHIT promoter region hypermethylation in Egyptian breast cancer patients and its association with clinicopathological features. Materials and Methods: Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction was performed to study the hypermethylation of FHIT promoter region in 20 benign breast tissues and 30 breast cancer tissues. Results: The frequency of hypermethylation of FHIT promoter region was significantly increased in breast cancer patients compared to bengin breast disease patients. The Odd´s ratio (95%CI) of development of breast cancer in individuals with FHIT promoter hypermethylation (MM) was 11.0 (1.22-250.8). There were also significant associations between FHIT promoter hypermethylation and estrogen, progesterone receptors negativity, tumor stage and nodal involvment in breast cancer pateints. Conclusions: Our results support an association between FHIT promotor hypermethylation and development of breast cancer in Egyptian breast cancer patients. FHIT promoter hypermethylation is associated with some poor prognostic features of breast cancer.

No abstract

In various genome-wide correlation studies, interleukin (IL)28B gene polymorphism has been strongly correlated with both the therapeutic and spontaneous mediated clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the genotype and allele frequency distributions of IL28B (rs12979860) in patients with chronic hepatitis C and assess the IL28B polymorphisms as predictors of sustained virological response to SOF-based therapy for HCV in Egyptian patients. This retrospective case-control study was conducted on 54 chronic HCV patients who completed treatment with SOF/DCV ± RBV for 12 weeks and responded to treatment with SVR12 (the responder group) as a control group, and 54 chronic HCV patients who completed treatment with SOF/DCV ± RBV for 12 weeks and did not respond to treatment and failed to achieve SVR12 (the non-responder group) as a case group. The CC genotype frequency of IL-28B (rs12979860) was greater in the responder group (51.9%). In contrast, the TT genotype frequency was higher in the non-responder group (48.1%) (p < 0.001), and the T allele significantly increased the risk of non-responses by 3.13 fold. Therefore IL-28B (rs12979860) SNP could be used as a genetic predictor of sustained virological response to SOF+DCV ± RBV-based HCV treatment in Egyptian patients.

No abstract

Background: In Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) disease, the role of Treg is still controversial and most studies yielded conflicting reports. Our study aimed to assess the influence of baseline Tregulatory cells on Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) disease progression and response to treatment with direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAA).Method: This prospective cohort study included 120 CHC patients who are eligible to receive DAA treatment in National Committee for Combating Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH) at Al-AHRAR hospital, were subjected to routine laboratory investigation, pre and post-treatment polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and flow cytometry analysis to reveal ratio percentages of T-regulatory cells subsets. According to response to DAA into the sustained virological response (SVR) group and Non-response (NR) group included 112 and 8 patient respectively also divided into Non-Cirrhotic and Cirrhotic groups included 103 and 17 patients respectively. Result: Comparison SVR and NR groups resulted in a significant difference between both groups with higher FOX-p3 expression among NR populations (p= 0.002). Multivariate regression analysis resulted in FOX-p3 expression as an independent factor for nonresponse to DAA treatment, there is a positive correlation between T-regulatory cells and the severity of liver disease. ROC curve analysis had shown a cut-off for FOX-p3 expression percentage (≥6.92) that can differentiate between SVR and NR groups. CD25+CD4 (P =0.002) and Fox+ve Treg (P =0.018) were higher in Cirrhotic than Non Cirrhotic group. Conclusion: T-Regulatory cell level may predict the response to DAA treatment in CHC patients.