User login
Image courtesy of PLOS ONE
A study published in Blood has revealed a protein that could be used to diagnose chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD).
Investigators found elevated levels of the protein, CXCL10, in the blood of transplant recipients around the time they developed cGVHD.
The team therefore believes that testing a transplant patient for this protein could potentially enable early diagnosis of cGVHD.
“Diagnostic tests are desperately needed to make blood and marrow transplants safer,” said study author Kirk Schultz, of BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
“At this time, there are no good tests to diagnose cGVHD, and the disease can only be identified too late—when it is already established. If we can diagnose it earlier and better, then treatments can be used to stop it before it becomes a chronic, disabling disease.”
For this study, Dr Schultz and his colleagues searched for cGVHD biomarkers in blood samples from 2 groups of adult patients—36 cGVHD patients who were at least 1 month from diagnosis and 31 time-matched control subjects without cGVHD.
This revealed 11 potential biomarkers. The investigators went on to test the validity of these biomarkers in 2 replication cohorts, which included a total of 134 patients with cGVHD and 154 control subjects.
Results showed that the inflammatory protein CXCL10 was consistently elevated in patients with cGVHD. This protein appears to impact a patient’s normal immune cells, preventing the body from fighting cGVHD.
The investigators also found evidence to suggest that another protein, sBAFF, is a biomarker of cGVHD.
Although these results may bring us one step closer to a diagnostic test for cGVHD, the team said further study is needed in larger patient groups. 
Image courtesy of PLOS ONE
A study published in Blood has revealed a protein that could be used to diagnose chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD).
Investigators found elevated levels of the protein, CXCL10, in the blood of transplant recipients around the time they developed cGVHD.
The team therefore believes that testing a transplant patient for this protein could potentially enable early diagnosis of cGVHD.
“Diagnostic tests are desperately needed to make blood and marrow transplants safer,” said study author Kirk Schultz, of BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
“At this time, there are no good tests to diagnose cGVHD, and the disease can only be identified too late—when it is already established. If we can diagnose it earlier and better, then treatments can be used to stop it before it becomes a chronic, disabling disease.”
For this study, Dr Schultz and his colleagues searched for cGVHD biomarkers in blood samples from 2 groups of adult patients—36 cGVHD patients who were at least 1 month from diagnosis and 31 time-matched control subjects without cGVHD.
This revealed 11 potential biomarkers. The investigators went on to test the validity of these biomarkers in 2 replication cohorts, which included a total of 134 patients with cGVHD and 154 control subjects.
Results showed that the inflammatory protein CXCL10 was consistently elevated in patients with cGVHD. This protein appears to impact a patient’s normal immune cells, preventing the body from fighting cGVHD.
The investigators also found evidence to suggest that another protein, sBAFF, is a biomarker of cGVHD.
Although these results may bring us one step closer to a diagnostic test for cGVHD, the team said further study is needed in larger patient groups.
Image courtesy of PLOS ONE
A study published in Blood has revealed a protein that could be used to diagnose chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD).
Investigators found elevated levels of the protein, CXCL10, in the blood of transplant recipients around the time they developed cGVHD.
The team therefore believes that testing a transplant patient for this protein could potentially enable early diagnosis of cGVHD.
“Diagnostic tests are desperately needed to make blood and marrow transplants safer,” said study author Kirk Schultz, of BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
“At this time, there are no good tests to diagnose cGVHD, and the disease can only be identified too late—when it is already established. If we can diagnose it earlier and better, then treatments can be used to stop it before it becomes a chronic, disabling disease.”
For this study, Dr Schultz and his colleagues searched for cGVHD biomarkers in blood samples from 2 groups of adult patients—36 cGVHD patients who were at least 1 month from diagnosis and 31 time-matched control subjects without cGVHD.
This revealed 11 potential biomarkers. The investigators went on to test the validity of these biomarkers in 2 replication cohorts, which included a total of 134 patients with cGVHD and 154 control subjects.
Results showed that the inflammatory protein CXCL10 was consistently elevated in patients with cGVHD. This protein appears to impact a patient’s normal immune cells, preventing the body from fighting cGVHD.
The investigators also found evidence to suggest that another protein, sBAFF, is a biomarker of cGVHD.
Although these results may bring us one step closer to a diagnostic test for cGVHD, the team said further study is needed in larger patient groups.