Due to current depression prevalence, it is crucial to make the correct diagnosis as soon as possible. The study aimed to identify commonly available, easy to apply, and quick to interpret tools allowing for a differential diagnosis between unipolar and bipolar disorder. The study group includes women with long duration of unipolar (UP, N = 34) and bipolar (BP, N = 43) affective disorder. The diagnosis was established according to the DSM criteria using SCID questionnaire. Additional questionnaires were used to differentiate between UP and BP. BP patients had an earlier age of onset, were hospitalized more times, and more often had a family history of psychiatric disorders than UP (p-value < 0.05). Moreover, BP achieved a higher impulsiveness score and more frequently had experienced severe problems with close individuals. To our knowledge, this is the first publication presenting results of numerous questionnaires applied simultaneously in patients on clinical group. Several of them suggest the direction of clinical assessment, such as: the age of onset, family psychiatric burdens, history of stressful life events, learning problems, social and job relations. Further studies are necessary to confirm the utility of this approach.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their miRNA cargo are important regulators of intercellular communication, but their role in connecting respiratory inflammation in asthma with systemic metabolic alterations remains unclear. We hypothesized that HDM-induced allergic inflammation alters selected serum EV-derived miRNAs and that these changes are associated with molecular alterations in lung and adipose tissue. Serum EV-miRNAs from control and HDM-induced allergic rats were isolated by size-exclusion chromatography and analyzed using TaqMan Advanced miRNA Assays. Candidate rno-let-7b-5p targets were integrated with lung and adipose tissue microarray data, validated by qPCR, and assessed in silico using IntaRNA and DMISO. Among the 13 analyzed miRNAs, rno-let-7b-5p showed a nominally significant 1.5-fold increase in serum EVs from allergic rats (unadjusted p = 0.03); no multiple-testing correction was applied. Ptafr and Vav3 were enriched in lung inflammatory pathways, whereas Zbtb16 was downregulated in adipose tissue. qPCR confirmed increased pulmonary Ptafr expression (p = 0.00802) and reduced adipose Zbtb16 expression (p = 0.00034). Computational analyses yielded high-confidence predictions of interactions between rno-let-7b-5p and both genes, which require experimental validation. These preliminary, hypothesis-generating findings suggest that serum EV-associated rno-let-7b-5p may be associated with molecular alterations in the lung and adipose tissue during HDM-induced allergic inflammation. Confirmation in larger independent cohorts is required.

Cystic fibrosis is a progressive disease affecting various organs of the human body, including the respiratory system. While the effect of bacterial infection on cystic fibrosis outcome has been comprehensively described, little is known about the impact of viruses. We collected 49 nasopharyngeal swabs derived from cystic fibrosis paediatric patients during pulmonary exacerbation and tested them for the presence of respiratory viruses to elucidate the influence of the viral infection on their clinical outcome. We found that patients infected with a virus, compared to those in whom molecular testing for viruses was negative, are characterised by a better clinical outcome, as measured by the Shwachman–Kulczycki score (p = 0.006) and have better chest radiographs, as indicated by the Brasfield score (p = 0.002). Moreover, these patients have lower C-reactive protein levels (p = 0.002). We assume this unexpected association of better clinical outcomes during viral infection should be studied further.

Endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) stress is an imbalance between the load of unfolded proteins and the ability of cellular mechanisms to handle it. Under the influence of this stress, cells activate the unfolded protein response (UPR). The molecular mechanisms of ER stress have been repeatedly linked to metabolic and inflammatory diseases, such as obesity and allergic inflammation. The aim of our study was to investigate if the allergic inflammation in adipocytes affects the expression of UPR pathway genes and Ormdl3 and whether miRNA-665 can modify inflammatory response in adipocytes. We isolated rat preadipocytes and treated them with IL-13 to induce allergic inflammation. Later, we transfected them with miRNA-665 inhibitor. RNA was isolated from adipocytes and analyzed by qPCR. From cell culture medium, we performed an LDH assay and ELISA for secreted IL-6 and TNFα proteins. A comparison between control cells and IL-13-treated cells showed significant differences in the expression of most of the studied UPR pathway genes, Ormdl3 and Bax. Comparing the IL-13-treated cells after miR-665 transfection with non-transfected ones, we observe significant differences only in Ire1α gene. Our research suggests that allergic inflammation induces an adaptive UPR in adipocytes and miR-665 may selectively modify this response, triggering the IRE1/XBP1 axis.