Perinatal granulopoiesis and risk of pediatric asthma

There are perinatal characteristics, such as gestational age, reproducibly associated with the risk for pediatric asthma. Identification of biologic processes influenced by these characteristics could facilitate risk stratification or new therapeutic targets. We hypothesized that transcriptional changes associated with multiple epidemiologic risk factors would be mediators of pediatric asthma risk. Using publicly available transcriptomic data from cord blood mononuclear cells, transcription of genes involved in myeloid differentiation was observed to be inversely associated with a pediatric asthma risk stratification based on multiple perinatal risk factors. This gene signature was validated in an independent prospective cohort and was specifically associated with genes localizing to neutrophil-specific granules. Further validation demonstrated that umbilical cord blood serum concentration of PGLYRP-1, a specific granule protein, was inversely associated with mid-childhood current asthma and early-teen FEV1/FVCx100. Thus, neutrophil-specific granule abundance at birth predicts risk for pediatric asthma and pulmonary function in adolescence.

Proteomic Profiling of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Serum and its Potential Use in Regenerative Therapies

Application of mediators directly to the injured site to promote de novo tissue can be the most promising strategy in regenerative medicine. However, understanding the mechanism of regional application of proteins /growth factors is challenging. Likewise, the proteins from Human Umbilical Cord Blood Serum(hUCBS) remain inadequately understood in terms of its therapeutic use. Several biological processes of the components in hUCBS remains unanswered. Human umbilical cord blood was collected in vacutainer tubes from 35 healthy mothers.hUCBS was obtained after centrifuge -4oC at 10,000 rpm for 20minutes. After the removal of high abundant proteins, proteomic profiling of UCBS was done by Mass Spectrometry. The Mascot search engine was used for peptide sequence identification. Proteins identified were assessed for tissue expression, cellular components, and biological functions based on Gene Ontology (GO) analyses. A total of 99 proteins were detected. The tissue expression information of proteins obtained included the Stomach, Liver, Heart, Lungs. Around 91 proteins were expressed in embryo organs. Proteins in hUBCS reflect the physiological status of the fetus/pregnancy. Major proteins found in hUCBS were expressed in the embryo, indicating that proteins were involved in organ development. Data contributed to a better understanding of the protein functions present in hUCBS.

Proteomic Profiling of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Serum and its Potential Use in Regenerative Therapies

A few biomedical applications of Human umbilical cord blood serum used for the treatment of blood disorders and ocular therapy have been documented. Umbilical cords are relatively free of bacterial and viral contamination and often discarded after birth. Previous studies on human umbilical cord blood serum have certain factors exhibiting a distinctive differentiation potential and pharmacological influence like to boost anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and wound healing property. Cord blood can be collected without pain and cryopreserved without causing any changes in the functional properties. Human umbilical cord blood serum has been increasingly used in regenerative medicine because of their ability to treat tissue injury and causing immunomodulatory properties. Human cord blood serum possesses a striking natural resemblance of nutrients required for cell/tissue engineering. Cord blood serum being allogenic in nature, makes it a favorable biomaterial over other autogenous therapies. It contains a number of proteins that are exchanged from the mother to the fetus for growth and development.These exclusive proteins may perhaps participate in the modulation of cell proliferation and differentiation along with accelerated migration of keratinocyte at the wound edge with the generation of the intact epithelium.In the present study, umbilical cord blood serum was obtained from 35 patients and was subjected toMass Spectrometry. A total of 99 proteins were identified in the sample. Functions of proteins were analyzed using the Uniprot database.Thus, understanding the protein functions could give us insight into the regenerative properties of umbilical cord blood serum.

Mapping Epitopes of a Novel Peptidoglycan Cross-Linking Enzyme Cwp22 Recognized by Human Sera Obtained from Patients with Clostridioides difficile Infection and Cord Blood

Clostridioides difficile (CD) cause a severe diarrhea which can lead to pseudomembranous colitis and even patient death. CD infection (CDI) is connected mainly with changes in intestinal microbiota as a consequence of antibiotic treatment. The growing resistance to antibiotics, justifies the search for new methods of combating CD. Despite of ongoing research on the immunity against the pathogen, there is still lack of any reliable vaccine. Most recently, Cwp22, that is a cross-linking enzyme involved in the production of CD peptidoglycan, seems to be a promising target to prevent CDI in high-risk patients. In this paper, the Cwp22 protein polypeptide-specific epitopes were mapped in silico and using PEPSCAN procedure. They were recognized not only by antibodies from CDI patients’ but also by umbilical cord blood sera. We identified three epitopes 54EFRVAT59, 201KVNGKM206 and 268WQEKNGKKYY277 of Cwp22 protein. Since Cwp22 protein has key functionality and the described above epitopes are also recognized by umbilical cord blood serum, we postulate that they could have important protective properties. In this paper, we propose Cwp22 protein as a good antigen candidate for CDI preventive vaccine. Our results open the possibility to use 54EFRVAT59, 201KVNGKM206 and 268WQEKNGKKYY277, epitopes as suitable anti-CD vaccine antigens.