Browsing by Author "Vanarsa, Kamala"
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Item The Identification of Urinary Proteins as Markers of Disease Activity in Childhood-onset SLE(2023-04-13) Lea, Gabrielle; Vanarsa, Kamala; Castillo, JessicaThe objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of urine CD36, FCGR2α, FCLR5, ferritin, IL2Rβ, LAIR2, L-Selectin, MCSFR, NCAM-1, and TGFβ for detecting disease activity in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE) patients. Sixty consecutive pediatric patients fulfilling ≥ 4 ACR criteria for SLE and twenty healthy controls were recruited for testing of ten urinary proteins by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Disease activity was assessed using SLEDAI-2000. Urine CD36, FCLR5, ferritin, L-Selectin, M-CSFR, and NCAM-1 had significantly increased concentration levels in active renal patients in comparison to all other cohorts, which shows high potential for the proteins to act as biomarkers for SLE disease activity within a pediatric cohort. L-Selectin, M-CSFR, CD36, FCRL5, NCAM-1, and ferritin presented with excellent AUC values, respectively ranging between 0.96 and 0.89 (P<0.0001). Lupus nephritis patients were ascertained by biopsy activity and chronicity indices. FCLR5, ferritin, L-Selectin, M-CSFR, and NCAM-1 positively correlated with SLEDAI and renal SLEDAI (rSLEDAI) (P<0.0001). MCSFR and NCAM-1 were further investigated to have strong correlations with various pathology metrics outperforming the other protein markers as well as conventional metrics like double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and complement C3. Urine L-Selectin, M-CSFR, CD36, FCRL5, NCAM-1, and ferritin, showed high ROC AUC values, sensitivities, and specificities indicating a strong ability to accurately distinguish between active renal and inactive SLE patients. Continued focus on these urinary proteins within longitudinal studies would further validate the clinical utility of these biomarkers in tracking kidney disease activity and progression in children with lupus nephritis. ***This project was completed with contributions from M. John Hicks and Scott E. Wenderfer from Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.Item Urine Protein Biomarkers of Bladder Cancer arising from Aptamer-based Screening of 1300 proteins(2020-09-29) Enan, Shereen; Vanarsa, KamalaBladder cancer is currently the fourth most common cancer, the sixth most common cause of cancer death among men, and has proven to be a recurring challenge to find a non-invasive form of detection and monitoring. About one in three bladder cancers spread into deep tissue layers, but more commonly, cancer tends to spread outside the bladder. The number of bladder cancer cases and deaths have recently dropped, however, in men, death rates remain stable. The most common techniques used for bladder cancer detection include cystoscopy and biopsy, urine-based biomarkers, and urinary cytology. In recent years, Aptamer-based screening and ELISA validation have been able to analyze protein arrays in relatively large scales with exceptional accuracy. SOMAscan technology can quantify multiple biomarkers from a single well with a very small amount of sample allowing the analysis of multiple proteins and their characteristics that are related to different forms of cancer. Using these methods, one can assess even low abundance proteins and measure their concentrations within different solutions. The current study examines urine samples from 51 subjects, comprised of 15 Urology clinic controls, 35 bladder cancer patients, and 9 prostate cancer patients using an Aptamer-based screening platform. From the data collected, 26 proteins were then selected to undergo target ELISA validation using urine samples from the initial cohort. Proteins that are successfully validated will then be selected for secondary ELISA validation using an independent patient cohort. Allowing experimenters to identify which proteins prove to be novel urinary biomarkers of bladder cancer.