The presence of HLA-DQB1*0602 allele, but not HLA-DRB1*15 allele, was significantly associated with OSA.

Background: Genetic variations in the HLA system may cause susceptibility to a large number of autoimmune and infectious diseases, and the complexity of HLA makes it hard to investigate HLA types associated with diseases. The association between HLA and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is not well investigated due to the complexity of OSA pathogenesis; including genetic and non-genetic in different populations. Our previous study using PCR-SSPs technique showed that HLA-DQB1*0602 allele is associated with almost 6 times increase in risk in North Jordan OSA patients. Aim: The aim of this study was to see if there are any HLA genetic variations using DNA sequencing technique in the region in which HLA-DQB1*0602 is located that might interact with HLA-DQB1*0602 and affect OSA development in OSA patients who were positive for HLA-DQB1*0602 allele. Result: The DNA sequencing results showed 8 nucleotide substitution variations, which are p.G77E (c.230G>A), p.R80R (c.240C>G), p.Q85L (c.254A>T), p.R87P (c.260G>C), p.Y69D (c.205T>G), p.A70V (c.209C>T), p.A70A (c.210G>A), p.Y79Y (c.237C>T). Although only 5 variants resulted in amino acid change, all 8 variants were included in the statistical analysis, and none of these genetic variants was significant (p-value> 0.05). Additionally, eight haplotypes were detected. Some of these haplotypes might have a role in disease development through the interaction with HLA-DQB1*0602 and other genetic variants or could be as markers for OSA by the mechanism of linkage disequilibrium. Conclusion: Further studies are needed to explain the pathogenesis of OSA in terms of possible self or non-self-antigens involved. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.18(3) 2019 p.473-478

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecological cancer. The current treatment for EOC involves surgical debulking of the tumors followed by a combination of chemotherapy. While most patients achieve complete remission, many EOCs will recur and develop chemo-resistance. The cancer cells can adapt to several stress stimuli, becoming resistant. Because of this, new ways to fight resistant cells during the disease are being studied. However, the clinical outcomes remain unsatisfactory. Recently, ferroptosis, a novel form of regulated cell death trigged by the accumulation of iron and toxic species of lipid metabolism in cells, has emerged as a promising anti-tumor strategy for EOC treatment. This process has a high potential to become a complementary treatment to the current anti-tumor strategies to eliminate resistant cells and to avoid relapse. Cancer cells, like other cells in the body, release small extracellular vesicles (sEV) that allow the transport of substances from the cells themselves to communicate with their environment. To achieve this, we analyzed the capacity of epithelial ovarian cancer cells (OVCA), treated with ferroptosis inducers, to generate sEV, assessing their size and number, and study the transmission of ferroptosis by sEV. Our results reveal that OVCA cells treated with ferroptotic inducers can modify intercellular communication by sEV, inducing cell death in recipient cells. Furthermore, these receptor cells are able to generate a greater amount of sEV, contributing to a much higher ferroptosis paracrine transmission. Thus, we discovered the importance of the sEV in the communication between cells in OVCA, focusing on the ferroptosis process. These findings could be the beginning form to study the molecular mechanism ferroptosis transmission through sEV.