AUTHOR=Duru Augustine Nwakuche , Ocheni Sunday , Ibegbulam Obike , Okpala Iheanyi 

TITLE=Plasma Concentration of 12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic Acid, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of 12-Lipooxygenase Gene and Vaso-Occlusion in Sickle Cell Disease

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genome Editing

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genome-editing/articles/10.3389/fgeed.2021.722190

DOI=10.3389/fgeed.2021.722190

ISSN=2673-3439

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background and Novel Aspect of this Work:</bold> In the light of previous findings that inflammation predisposes to intercellular adhesion and microvascular occlusion in sickle cell disease (SCD), this study investigated the relationship between the number of vaso-occlusive events in SCD, plasma levels of the pro-inflammatory molecules 12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE)<bold>,</bold> TNF-α and IL-1β; and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene 12-Lipooxygenase (ALOX-12), which encodes the enzyme 12-Lipoxygenase that catalyzes the biosynthesis of 12-HETE.</p><p><bold>Objective:</bold> To evaluate the relationship between vaso-occlusion in SCD and plasma concentrations of 12-HETE, TNF-α, and IL-1β; and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ALOX-12 gene.</p><p><bold>Participants and Methods:</bold> In 50 HbSS patients, the numbers of vaso-occlusive crisis requiring hospital treatment in the previous 1 year and the vaso-occlusive complications of SCD developed to date (e.g stroke) were added to obtain the vaso-occlusive events (VOE) score. In the HbSS patients and 30 healthy sibling control persons, plasma concentrations of 12-HETE, TNF-α and IL-1β were measured by ELISA, the ALOX12 SNPs rs2073438 and rs1126667 detected by DNA sequencing, and the accrued data statistically analyzed.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Compared to SCD patients with VOE score 0–1, those with scores ≥3 had higher plasma levels of 12-HETE (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.0001) and TNF-α (<italic>p</italic> = 0.19), but not IL-1β (<italic>p</italic> = 0.27). VOE score showed strong direct correlation with plasma level of 12-HETE (r = 0.65, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.0001), but not with TNF-α nor IL-1β. Neither VOE score nor plasma concentration of 12-HETE showed any relationship with the ALOX12 SNPs rs2073438 and rs1126667.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> The strong direct correlation of VOE score with plasma concentration of 12-HETE suggests that the clinical relevance of this pro-inflammatory molecule in SCD-associated vaso-occlusion needs to be evaluated in further studies.</p>