We describe the seroprevalence of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) and the association of antibody occurrence with location, sex, and age among the human population in Pakistan. Our results indicate substantial activity of SFTSV and SFTSV-related viruses in this country.

Objectives: To present 2010-2019 cancer data from the Dow Cancer Registry representing all districts of Karachi (~17.4 million). Methods: The study was conducted at the Dow University of Health Sciences. After ethical approval, the Dow Cancer Registry was established at the largest government-run diagnostic and reference center of Karachi (Dow Labs). All cancers registered during 2010-2019 were analyzed. Patients >18years of age were labeled as adults while those with ages ≤18years were classified as children/young adults. Results: During 2010-2019, a total of 22,858 cancers were registered. Of these, 9,112(39.9%) cancers were diagnosed in males while 13,746(60.1%) in females. Incidence rates for all cancers (all ages) were 108/1,00,000 for males and 188.6/1,00,000 for females. In adult males, cancer of lip and oral cavity was the most frequently diagnosed cancer (33.6%), followed by non-melanoma –skin-cancer (NMSC) (7.2%), oesophagus (6.8%), colorectum (6.7%) and stomach (4.9%). In adult females, breast cancer was the most frequently recorded malignancy (53.2%), followed by cancers of lip and oral cavity (10.4%), oesophagus (5.3%), colorectum (3.3%) and NMSC (3%). In children, most common malignancy was that of brain and nervous system (15.3%), followed by Hodgkin’s lymphoma (14.2%), colorectum (8.1%), endocrine-&-related organs (8%) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (7.8%) Conclusion: Cancers of lip and oral cavity and breast cancer were the most common malignancies in males and females respectively. In paediatric group, cancers of brain and nervous system were most common. Alarmingly, Karachi males have highest ASR of cancers of lip and oral cavity compared to any other city of Pakistan. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.3056 How to cite this:Qureshi MA, Khan S, Sharafat S, Quraishy MS. Common Cancers in Karachi, Pakistan: 2010-2019 Cancer Data from the Dow Cancer Registry. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(7):1572-1578. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.7.3056 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

An important role for B cells and immunoglobulin deposition in the inflammatory tumor cell environment has been recognized in several cancers, and this is recapitulated in our murine model of inflammation-associated carcinogenesis: transgenic mice expressing the Epstein-Barr virus oncogene LMP1 in epithelia. Similarly in several autoimmune disorders, immunoglobulin deposition represents a key underlying event in the disease process. However, the autoantigens in most cases are not known. In other studies, overexpression of the enzymatically inactive mammalian chitinase-like proteins (CLPs) has been observed in a number of autoimmune disorders and numerous cancers, with expression correlated with poor prognosis, although the function of these proteins is largely unknown. We have now linked these observations demonstrating that overexpression of the CLPs renders them the targets for autoantigenicity during carcinogenic progression. We show that the CLPs, Chi3L1, Chi3L3 /YM1, and Chi3L4/YM2, are abundantly overexpressed in the transgenic epidermis at an early, preneoplastic stage and secreted into the serum. Immunoglobulin G reactive to the CLPs is detected in the serum and deposited in the hyperplastic tissue, which goes on to become inflamed and progressively displastic. The CLPs are also upregulated in chemical carcinogen-promoted lesions in both transgenic and wild-type mice. Expression of the related, active chitinases, Chit1 and AMCase, increases following infiltration of inflammatory cells. In this model, the 3 CLPs are autoantigens for the tissue-deposited immunoglobulin, which we propose plays a causative role in promoting the inflammation-associated carcinogenesis. This may reflect their normal, benign function to promote tissue remodeling and to amplify immune responses. Their induction during carcinogenesis and consequent autoantigenicity provides a missing link between the oncogenic event and subsequent inflammation. This study identifies the CLPs as important and novel therapeutic targets to limit inflammation in cancer and potentially also autoimmune disorders.

We previously demonstrated that a common dietary protein component, wheat amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATI), stimulate intestinal macrophages and dendritic cells via toll like receptor 4. Activation of these intestinal myeloid cells elicits an inflammatory signal that is propagated to mesenteric lymph nodes, and that can facilitate extraintestinal inflammation. Mice were fed a well-defined high fat diet, with (HFD/ATI) or without (HFD) nutritionally irrelevant amounts of ATI. Mice on HFD/ATI developed only mild signs of intestinal inflammation and myeloid cell activation but displayed significantly higher serum triglycerides and transaminases compared to mice on HFD alone. Moreover, they showed increased visceral and liver fat, and a higher insulin resistance. ATI feeding promoted liver and adipose tissue inflammation, with M1-type macrophage polarization and infiltration, and enhanced liver fibrogenesis. Gluten, the major protein component of wheat, did not induce these pathologies. Therefore, wheat ATI ingestion in minute quantities comparable to human daily wheat consumption exacerbated features of the metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, despite its irrelevant caloric value.