Recent Publications

Erratum for
Comprehensive aptamer-based screening identifies a spectrum of urinary biomarkers of lupus nephritis across ethnicities.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. While cirrhosis is the main risk factor for HCC, the factors influencing progression from cirrhosis to HCC remain largely unknown. Gut microbiota plays a key role in liver diseases; however, its association with HCC remains elusive. This study aimed to elucidate microbial differences between patients with HCC-associated cirrhosis (HCC-cirrhosis) and cirrhotic patients without HCC and healthy volunteers and to explore the associations between diet, lifestyle, and the microbiome of these patients.

Our recent study has implicated bradykinin (BK) signaling as being of pathogenic importance in lupus. This study aims to investigate the biomarker potential of BK peptides, BK and BK-des-arg-9, in lupus and other rheumatic autoimmune diseases.

The purpose of our systematic review was to investigate the prevalence of level IV involvement and skip metastases in patients with clinically negative neck (cN0) oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC).

Highlights
• Similar therapeutic and immunological effects are observed in human and murine SLE studies.
• Studies with belimumab and rituximab treatment reveal resistant B cell populations, present in both human and murine SLE.
• CyTOF immunophenotyping can identify potential SLE patient clusters more likely to respond to specific therapies.
• Testing in lupus animal models remains an important avenue in SLE drug development.

Bottom-up approaches to disparity reduction present a departure from traditional service models where health services are traditionally delivered top-down. Raphael, a novel bottom-up social incubator, was developed in a disadvantaged region with the aim of 'hatching' innovative health improvement interventions through academia-community partnership.

Community organizations were invited to submit proposals for incubation. Selection was made using the criteria of innovation, population neediness and potential for health impact and sustainability. Raphael partnered with organizations to pilot and evaluate their intervention with $5000 seed-funding. The evaluation was guided by the conceptual framework of technological incubators. Outcomes and sustainability were ascertained through qualitative and quantitative analysis of records and interviews at 12 months and 3-5 years, and the Community Impact of Research Oriented Partnerships (CIROP) questionnaire was administered to community partners.

Regular menstrual cycling during the reproductive years is an indicator of spontaneous ovulation but sometimes falsely perceived as an indicator of preserved fertility. In contrast, menstrual cycle shortening, a physiologic occurrence preceding the menopausal transition, is not usually perceived as an indicator of decreased ovarian reserve in the general population. The individual decrease in menstrual cycle length (MCL) might represent a sensitive biomarker of diminishing ovarian reserve. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to examine the possible association between MCL in regularly cycling women (21-35 days) and ovarian reserve tests (ORT), fecundability in natural cycles and IVF outcomes.

Both cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders represent considerable health burden on community clinics and hospitals with overwhelming economic cost. An overlap in the occurrence of these disorders is encountered in daily practice. Both affect each other in bidirectional manner through several mechanisms including altered hemodynamics, systemic inflammation, bacterial overgrowth and interactions and adverse effects of medications. In addition, to the known overlap in the symptoms occurrence of upper gastrointestinal tract diseases and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Awareness of this interplay and its clinical manifestations optimizes patient management, and could prevent catastrophic consequences and even save lives. In this review, we highlighted the clinical aspects of this bidirectional association between gastrointestinal and CVDs aiming to shed light on this topic and improve patients' care.

A new coronavirus infection, COVID-19, has recently emerged, and has caused a global pandemic along with an international public health emergency. Currently, no licensed vaccines are available for COVID-19. The identification of immunodominant epitopes for both B- and T-cells that induce protective responses in the host is crucial for effective vaccine design. Computational prediction of potential epitopes might significantly reduce the time required to screen peptide libraries as part of emergent vaccine design. In our present study, we used an extensive immunoinformatics-based approach to predict conserved immunodominant epitopes from the proteome of SARS-CoV-2. (Sumit Mukherjee, Dmitry Tworowski, Rajesh Detroja, Sunanda Biswas Mukherjee, Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern)

This report shows that angioedema of the hands and feet, in patients with CSU, can mimic arthritis/arthralgia. This can lead to unnecessary and ineffective treatment and to a delay of effective treatment. The clinical implications of these findings include that patients with CSU who report episodes of joint pain should be assessed for recurrent angioedema and treated appropriately.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health challenge, affecting as much as 8 to 18% of the world population. Identifying childhood risk factors for future CKD may help clinicians make early diagnoses and initiation of preventive interventions for CKD and its attendant comorbidities as well as monitoring for complications. The purpose of this review is to describe childhood risk factors that may predict development of overt kidney disease later in life. 

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is associated with decreased appetite. The ghrelin hormone is one of the major regulators of appetite. This study evaluates appetite and ghrelin levels in patients with IDA, to investigate the change in appetite and ghrelin following intravenous iron therapy.

The aortic valve (AV) is the most commonly affected valve in valvular heart diseases (VHDs). The objective of the study is to identify microRNA (miRNA) molecules expressed in VHDs and the differential expression patterns of miRNA in AVs with either calcification or rheumatism etiologies. (Nofar Asulin, Natalia Volinsky, Liza Grosman-Rimon, Erez Kachel, Leonid Sternik, Ehud Raanani, Roman Altshuler, Inbar Ben-Zvi, Nufar Margalit,  Shemy Carasso,  Izhak Haviv, Offer Amir)

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is underutilized globally despite evidence of clinical benefit. Major obstacles for wider adoption include distance from the rehabilitation center, travel time, and interference with daily routine. Tele-cardiac rehabilitation (tele-CR) can potentially address some of these limitations, enabling patients to exercise in their home environment or community.

Evaluates the clinical and physiological outcomes as well as adherence to tele-CR in patients with low cardiovascular risk and to assess exercise capacity, determined by an exercise stress test, using a treadmill before and following the 6-month intervention.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is more frequent in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) compared with age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. SLE is an autoimmune disease that is more prevalent in women (9:1). Women tend to develop CVD in post-menopausal years; however, women with SLE may develop endothelial dysfunction and CVD at a younger age in the pre-menopausal years. 

Studies the endothelial function of adult-onset SLE patients from the north of Israel (the Galilee region) and to determine whether modern management (including biological treatments) changes the risk of developing CVD.