Effect of the pulsation type (alternate or simultaneous) on milk yield and health status of the mammary gland of Murciano-Granadina goats

Recent research into how the pulsation type affects goat milking concluded that alternate pulsation (AP) and simultaneous pulsation (SP) similarly affect the milking efficiency (milking duration and milking fractioning) and teat end condition after milking when both pulsations are employed in short-term experiments. However, the use of SP in high pipeline milking machines led to higher vacuum fluctuations, which, in the long term, may entail a potential risk factor for the mammary gland health status. The aim of this work was to study how AP and SP affect the milk yield, mammary gland health status, and milk composition of goats in the long term, during a complete lactation period, in a high pipeline milking machine. With this objective, 100 Murciano-Granadina goats with similar parturition dates (4 ± 1 postpartum weeks) were divided into 2 similar groups (50 goats per group) according their parity, milk yield, mammary gland health status, and milking duration (after a 15-d pre-experimental period). Throughout the experimental period (7 mo), one group was milked using SP and the other group using AP. Every month, samplings were carried out of the variables related to sanitary status of the mammary gland, milk fractioning, milking duration, average and maximum milk flows, milk composition, teat end status, vacuum fluctuations at the short milk tube during milking, and pulsation tests. Results showed that the use of SP in a high pipeline milking machine showed higher vacuum fluctuations without involving any difference in the other variables studied. We concluded that the use of AP in the milking of Murciano-Granadina goats offers little improvement of the milking performance and increases the investment required for installation and maintenance of the milking machines.

Evaluation of 11C-LSN3172176 as a Novel PET Tracer for Imaging M1 Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Nonhuman Primates

The M₁ muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) plays an important role in learning and memory, and therefore is a target for development of drugs for treatment of cognitive impairments in Alzheimer disease and schizophrenia. The availability of M₁-selective radiotracers for PET will help in developing therapeutic agents by providing an imaging tool for assessment of drug dose-receptor occupancy relationship. Here we report the synthesis and evaluation of ¹¹C-LSN3172176 (ethyl 4-(6-(methyl-¹¹ C)-2-oxoindolin-1-yl)-[1,4'-bipiperidine]-1'-carboxylate) in nonhuman primates. Methods: ¹¹C-LSN3172176 was radiolabeled via the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling method. PET scans in rhesus macaques were acquired for 2 h with arterial blood sampling and metabolite analysis to measure the input function. Blocking scans with scopolamine (50 μg/kg) and the M₁-selective agent AZD6088 (0.67 and 2 mg/kg) were obtained to assess tracer binding specificity and selectivity. Regional brain time-activity curves were analyzed with the 1-tissue-compartment model and the multilinear analysis method (MA1) to calculate regional distribution volume. Nondisplaceable binding potential values were calculated using the cerebellum as a reference region. Results: ¹¹C-LSN3172176 was synthesized with greater than 99% radiochemical purity and high molar activity. In rhesus monkeys, ¹¹C-LSN3172176 metabolized rapidly (29% ± 6% parent remaining at 15 min) and displayed fast kinetics and extremely high uptake in the brain. Imaging data were modeled well with the 1-tissue-compartment model and MA1 methods. MA1-derived distribution volume values were high (range, 10-81 mL/cm³) in all known M₁ mAChR-rich brain regions. Pretreatment with scopolamine and AZD6088 significantly reduced the brain uptake of ¹¹C-LSN3172176, thus demonstrating its binding specificity and selectivity in vivo. The cerebellum appeared to be a suitable reference region for derivation of nondisplaceable binding potential, which ranged from 2.42 in the globus pallidus to 8.48 in the nucleus accumbens. Conclusion: ¹¹C-LSN3172176 exhibits excellent in vivo binding and imaging characteristics in nonhuman primates and appears to be the first appropriate radiotracer for PET imaging of human M₁ AChR.

Study of arterial stiffness in patients with an acute coronary event and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease confirmed by spirometry

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) worsens the prognosis for patients with an acute coronary event (ACE) treated with percutaneous coronary intervention. Objective To assess the effect of COPD on arterial stiffness in patients with an ACE.

METHODS

The study included patients with an ACE treated with percutaneous coronary intervention. At 1 month, postbronchodilation spirometry was performed, and arterial stiffness and markers of myocardial damage (troponin T and ProBNP) were measured.

RESULTS

We included 68 patients, 33% of whom had COPD (59% undiagnosed). The patients with COPD presented higher arterial stiffness values after adjusting for age and blood pressure readings. The troponin T and ProBNP levels were higher in the patients with COPD.

CONCLUSIONS

Arterial stiffness is greater in patients with an ACE if they have concomitant COPD. These findings can help explain the poorer prognosis of patients with both conditions.

128 Next-generation RNA sequencing of horse adipose and endometrial mesenchymal stem cells from the same donors unveils striking differences in their transcriptomic pattern

Earlier we successfully isolated and characterised endometrial (eMSC) and adipose (aMSC) mesenchymal stem cells from the same donors. Mesenchymal stem cells share biological traits but display different surface marker phenotype and migration ability. Here we extended our research to their mRNA signature using next-generation sequencing. The RNA from cells (3 biological replicates from each cell type and 3 technical replicates) at 90% confluence was extracted using a total RNA extraction kit and sent for mRNA-Seq (Norgen, Ontario, Canada; Illumina Sequencing Platform NextSEqn 500). Raw 76-bp single-end reads were aligned against the EquCab3 genome using RNA-STAR aligner. Counts were filtrated at a minimum of 5. Pairwise comparisons between the cell types were the input for gene ontology enrichment analysis. Only genes differentially expressed (DE) with 5 folds change (FC; P<0.05) were analysed. For DE analysis, eMSC were set as control and compared with aMSC. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the global gene expression signatures was done to compare the samples from each line using principal component analysis (PCA) and EdgeR: v3.20.9. Gene expression was normalized using FPKM. The heat map was built using R studio with G-plot package. A total of 14,896 transcripts with at least 5 reads were found; of these, 1598 were DE: 627 up-regulated (FC range: 2 to 236×) and 971 down-regulated (FC range: 2 to 464×) in eMSC. There was a marked dispersion in the FC of up- and down-regulated genes (>50×: 8 and 13; >20×, <50×: 9 and 17; >10×, <20×: 29 and 63; >5×, <10×: 91 and 130 and >2×, <5×: 490 and 748, respectively). Only genes DE with FC at least 5× were used for gene ontology and PCA analysis. Though 14,058 genes were common to both cell types, specific set of genes were found only in eMSC (n=162) or aMSC (n=676). Among the top 50 genes overexpressed in eMSC, several genes key for stem cell growth, immune response, migration and angiogenesis were found: TRIL, CXCL8, PDGF-D, SEMA5A, PTGS2, FGD, LAMA2, IL36G. In the top 50 down-regulated genes, some pivotal for osteoblast, adipogenic and neural differentiation were dramatically down-regulated (GPM6B, SCARA5 and NOTCH3 or NEFM, respectively), but no genes involved in immune rejection or stem cell proliferation were found. In gene ontology, the categories represented the most were cellular, developmental, metabolic, and immune system processes, as well as biological regulation, response to stimuli, organellar biogenesis, locomotion, localization and biological adhesion. Heat map and PCA analysis showed that one individual cell line from each type diverged markedly from the shared pattern. Individual variability of the donors may impinge upon the results; nevertheless, striking differences in the mRNA portfolio of eMSC and aMSC were detected. The importance and potential biological role of several of the genes and processes named above will be discussed in detail elsewhere. This work was supported by grant FONDECYT REGULAR 1150757 and the Government of Chile.

Phenotypic evaluation of ESBL- and carbapenemaseproducing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae from a teaching hospital in the Philippines

Antimicrobial resistance is a worldwide public health concern. Rise in the number of antimicrobial resistant organisms, such as extended spectrum β-lactamase- (ESBL) and carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, continue to burden millions of people worldwide. E. coli and K. pneumoniae were isolated and collected for four months from a teaching hospital in the Philippines. All isolates were subjected to ESBL and carbapenemase testing using the double disk synergy test and modified Hodge test, respectively. Their pattern of resistance among different classes of antimicrobial agents was also investigated using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion test. Among the 32 clinical isolates tested, 28.1% were positive for ESBL production and 6.3% were positive for carbapenemase production. Species-specific classification showed that E. coli (44.4%) has the highest rate of ESBL production whereas both E. coli (5.6%) and K. pneumoniae (7.1%) showed almost similar rates of carbapenemase production. Antimicrobial resistance pattern of drug resistant isolates showed that all organisms were resistant to ampicillin, and majority showed resistance towards ciprofloxacin, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim. ESBL production is seen highest among E. coli isolates while similar rates of carbapenemase production was observed to both E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. Overall, antimicrobial resistance continues to rise and poses a huge threat in public health worldwide. Efforts should be made in developing rapid tests for antimicrobial resistance and to search for effective treatment from infections caused by multidrug resistant organisms.

Dual MET and ERBB inhibition overcomes intratumor plasticity in osimertinib-resistant-advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Background

Third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) such as osimertinib are the last line of targeted treatment of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) EGFR-mutant harboring T790M. Different mechanisms of acquired resistance to third-generation EGFR-TKIs have been proposed. It is therefore crucial to identify new and effective strategies to overcome successive acquired mechanisms of resistance.

Methods

For Amplicon-seq analysis, samples from the index patient (primary and metastasis lesions at different timepoints) as well as the patient-derived orthotopic xenograft tumors corresponding to the different treatment arms were used. All samples were formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded, selected and evaluated by a pathologist. For droplet digital PCR, 20 patients diagnosed with NSCLC at baseline or progression to different lines of TKI therapies were selected. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks corresponding to either primary tumor or metastasis specimens were used for analysis. For single-cell analysis, orthotopically grown metastases were dissected from the brain of an athymic nu/nu mouse and cryopreserved at -80°C.

Results

In a brain metastasis lesion from a NSCLC patient presenting an EGFR T790M mutation, we detected MET gene amplification after prolonged treatment with osimertinib. Importantly, the combination of capmatinib (c-MET inhibitor) and afatinib (ErbB-1/2/4 inhibitor) completely suppressed tumor growth in mice orthotopically injected with cells derived from this brain metastasis. In those mice treated with capmatinib or afatinib as monotherapy, we observed the emergence of KRAS G12C clones. Single-cell gene expression analyses also revealed intratumor heterogeneity, indicating the presence of a KRAS-driven subclone. We also detected low-frequent KRAS G12C alleles in patients treated with various EGFR-TKIs.

Conclusion

Acquired resistance to subsequent EGFR-TKI treatment lines in EGFR-mutant lung cancer patients may induce genetic plasticity. We assess the biological insights of tumor heterogeneity in an osimertinib-resistant tumor with acquired MET-amplification and propose new treatment strategies in this situation.

Clinical impact of the subclonal architecture and mutational complexity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Genome studies of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have revealed the remarkable subclonal heterogeneity of the tumors, but the clinical implications of this phenomenon are not well known. We assessed the mutational status of 28 CLL driver genes by deep-targeted next-generation sequencing and copy number alterations (CNA) in 406 previously untreated patients and 48 sequential samples. We detected small subclonal mutations (0.6-25% of cells) in nearly all genes (26/28), and they were the sole alteration in 22% of the mutated cases. CNA tended to be acquired early in the evolution of the disease and remained stable, whereas the mutational heterogeneity increased in a subset of tumors. The prognostic impact of different genes was related to the size of the mutated clone. Combining mutations and CNA, we observed that the accumulation of driver alterations (mutational complexity) gradually shortened the time to first treatment independently of the clonal architecture, IGHV status and Binet stage. Conversely, the overall survival was associated with the increasing subclonal diversity of the tumors but it was related to the age of patients, IGHV and TP53 status of the tumors. In conclusion, our study reveals that both the mutational complexity and subclonal diversity influence the evolution of CLL.