Background The genetic determinants of the human innate immune response are poorly understood. Apolipoprotein (Apo) E, a lipid-trafficking protein that affects inflammation, has well-described ...wild-type (ε3) and disease-associated (ε2 and ε4) alleles, but its connection to human innate immunity is undefined. Objective We sought to define the relationship of APOε4 to the human innate immune response. Methods We evaluated APOε4 in several functional models of the human innate immune response, including intravenous LPS challenge in human subjects, and assessed APOε4 association to organ injury in patients with severe sepsis, a disease driven by dysregulated innate immunity. Results Whole blood from healthy APOε3 / APOε4 volunteers induced higher cytokine levels on ex vivo stimulation with Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2, TLR4, or TLR5 ligands than blood from APOε3 / APOε3 patients, whereas TLR7/8 responses were similar. This was associated with increased lipid rafts in APOε3/APOε4 monocytes. By contrast, APOε3 / APOε3 and APOε3 / APOε4 serum neutralized LPS equivalently and supported similar LPS responses in Apoe -deficient macrophages, arguing against a differential role for secretory APOE4 protein. After intravenous LPS, APOε3/APOε4 patients had higher hyperthermia and plasma TNF-α levels and earlier plasma IL-6 than APOε3/APOε3 patients. APOE4-targeted replacement mice displayed enhanced hypothermia, plasma cytokines, and hepatic injury and altered splenic lymphocyte apoptosis after systemic LPS compared with APOE3 counterparts. In a cohort of 828 patients with severe sepsis, APOε4 was associated with increased coagulation system failure among European American patients. Conclusions APOε4 is a determinant of the human innate immune response to multiple TLR ligands and associates with altered patterns of organ injury in human sepsis.
Background and Purpose:
Systemic inflammation and nutritional status have been shown to be associated with the prognosis of colorectal cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of ...the serum C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio on the prognosis of patients with curatively resected colorectal cancer.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective analysis of a database of 2,471 eligible patients with colorectal cancer who underwent curative resection at our hospital between 2004 and 2019. The optimal cut-off for CPR-to-BMI ratio was determined using maximally selected rank statistics. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to the cut-off value of the serum C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression analysis were used to compare overall survival. A two-sided P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results:
The proportion of patients with a high C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio increased with increasing age, male sex, right-sided colon cancer, poorly differentiated tumors, advanced-stage disease, local/distant metastases, tumor–node–metastasis stage, and microsatellite instability. In subgroup analysis according to tumor–node–metastasis stage, the overall survival of the high C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio group was significantly shorter than that of the low C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio group (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified age, differentiation, tumor–node–metastasis stage, carcinoembryonic antigen level, and the C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio as independent poor prognostic factors for overall survival.
Conclusions:
The C-reactive protein-to-body mass index ratio predicts the prognosis of patients with curatively resected colorectal cancer and is an independent risk factor for overall survival in patients with colorectal cancer.