Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
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Clinical analysis of 293 cases of cirrhosis from two moderate sized hospitals in the city of Dacca has been presented. Maximum number of cases were in the age group over 40 with 150 (51.2%) males and 19 (5.8%) females. Significant past history included viral hepatitis (21.5%), kala-azar (11.6%) and malaria (10.24%). History of alcoholism was present only in 16 (5.5%) cases. Weakness (84.3%), weight loss (72%) and anorexia (39.3%) constituted the most common symptoms. Ascites (45%), haematemesis (11.6%) and melaena (28.7%) were the next common symptoms. Hepatosplenomegaly was found in about one-third of the cases. Testicular atrophy was recorded in 41.63% cases whereas gynaecomastia was relatively less common (5.5%). Scanty body hair and white nails were present in almost equal number of cases (14.7% and 18%). The cases presented here are those with overt manifestation. Nevertheless, the clinical features are not materially different from those reported by other authors. In the absence of alcoholism, viral hepatitis is presumably the most important aetiological factor in our cases and the clinical features compare favourably with non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the western writers. Cryptogenic cirrhosis has been considered to be most common type constituting 43.7% of our cases.
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PMID:Cirrhosis of liver. 734 4

Several observations suggest that bacteria induce autoimmunity in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Since no PBC-specific bacterial species could be identified, it can be speculated that the triggers are non-species-specific bacterial proteins. This hypothesis would imply that several or even all bacterial species can trigger PBC. Therefore, we investigated whether PBC exhibits immune reactions to non-species-specific bacterial antigens. Yersinia enterocolitica O3 was screened for the presence of proteins that were labeled by immunoblotting using PBC sera. We focused our investigations on a 160-kDa protein, which was further enriched and characterized by partial N-terminal amino acid sequencing. The prevalence of antibodies to this protein was determined by immunoblotting in a variety of diseases. The 160-kDa protein was identified as the beta-subunit of bacterial RNA-polymerase, a highly conserved bacterial protein with a very high degree of sequence identity among all bacterial species. Antibodies to the beta-subunit of bacterial RNA polymerase were specific for this protein. Until now no mammalian protein could be found that cross-reacts with these antibodies. The prevalence of antibodies to the beta-subunit of bacterial RNA polymerase (ARPA) using the protein from Yersinia enterocolitica O3 (serum dilution 1:1000) was: healthy controls (HC, N = 101) 7.9%, primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC, N = 61) 32.8%, autoimmune hepatitis type 1 (AIH, N = 46) 26.1%, alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC, N = 44) 9.1%, Crohn's disease (CD, N = 38) 7.9%, ulcerative colitis (UC, N = 24) 8.3%, primary sclerosing cholangitis + UC (PSC/UC, N = 11) 0%, acute yersiniosis (Yers, N = 36) 19.4%, acute infection with Campylobacter jejuni (Camp, N = 10) 0%, acute Q-fever (QF, N = 16) 6.25%, chronic hepatitis C (HCV, N = 39) 7.7%, c-ANCA-positive vasculitis (Vasc, N = 40) 15%, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, N = 28) 10.7%, and malaria tropica (MT, N = 24) 16.7%. There was no significant difference between PBC and AIH. The group of autoimmune liver diseases (PBC + AIH, N = 107, 29.9%) differed highly significantly from HC, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (CD + UC + PSC/UC, N = 73, 6.8%), ALC, and HCV and also differed significantly (P = 0.01) from the group with bacterial and parasitic diseases (Yers + Camp + QF + MT, N = 86,13.95%) and from the group with Vasc + SLE (N = 68,13.2%). Testing of ARPA using the protein from E. coli yielded nearly identical results. In conclusion, an increased prevalence of antibodies to the beta-subunit of bacterial RNA polymerase, a highly conserved non-species-specific bacterial protein, can be found in primary biliary cirrhosis, but also in autoimmune hepatitis type I. These findings do not add an argument for a bacterial trigger of PBC. Rather, they suggest that ARPA belong to the pool of natural antibodies that are up-regulated in autoimmune liver diseases.
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PMID:Identification of beta-subunit of bacterial RNA-polymerase--a non-species-specific bacterial protein--as target of antibodies in primary biliary cirrhosis. 1275 71