Adenoviral CD40 Ligand Immunotherapy in 32 Canine Malignant Melanomas-Long-Term Follow Up.

Malignant melanoma is a serious disease in both humans and dogs, and the high metastatic potential results in poor prognosis for many patients. Its similarities with human melanoma make spontaneous canine melanoma an excellent model for comparative studies of novel therapies and tumor biology. Gene therapy using adenoviruses encoding the immunostimulatory gene CD40L (AdCD40L) has shown promise in initial clinical trials enrolling human patients with various malignancies including melanoma. We report a study of local AdCD40L treatment in 32 cases of canine melanoma (23 oral, 5 cutaneous, 3 ungual and 1 conjunctival). Eight patients were World Health Organization (WHO) stage I, 9 were stage II, 12 stage III, and 3 stage IV. One to six intratumoral injections of AdCD40L were given every seven days, combined with cytoreductive surgery in 20 cases and only immunotherapy in 12 cases. Tumor tissue was infiltrated with T and B lymphocytes after treatment, suggesting immune stimulation. The best overall response based on result of immunotherapy included 7 complete responses, 5 partial responses, 5 stable and 2 progressive disease statuses according to the World Health Organization response criteria. Median survival was 285 days (range 20-3435 d). Our results suggest that local AdCD40L therapy is safe and could have beneficial effects in dogs, supporting further treatment development. Clinical translation to human patients is ongoing.

An unusual presentation of pseudocowpox associated with an outbreak of pustular ulcerative vulvovaginitis in a Swedish dairy herd.

Species Pseudocowpox virus (PCPV; family Poxviridae) is known to cause pustular cutaneous disease in cattle. We describe an outbreak of pseudocowpox with an unusual clinical picture in a free-stall dairy herd of ~80 cows. Approximately 90% of the cows had vesicles, erosions, papules, and scabs on the vulva and vaginal mucosa. Histologic analysis of biopsy tissues indicated a primary, although not specified, viral infection. Transmission electron microscopy revealed parapoxvirus particles in both tissue and vesicular materials. Deep sequencing analysis of extracted DNA from swabbed vesicle areas gave a contig of nearly 120,000 nucleotides, matching the PCPV strain VR 634 with 100% identity. Analyses confirmed the absence of other potential causes of pustular vulvovaginitis such as bovine herpesvirus 1 and Ureaplasma diversum. A rolling cow brush was suspected to be the fomite.

Treatment efficacy and immune stimulation by AdCD40L gene therapy of spontaneous canine malignant melanoma.

Malignant melanoma is a serious disease in both humans and dogs, and the high metastatic potential results in poor prognosis for many patients. Its similarities with human melanoma make spontaneous canine melanoma an excellent model for comparative studies of novel therapies and tumor biology. We report a pilot study of local adenovector CD40L (AdCD40L) immunogene treatment in 19 cases of canine melanoma (14 oral, 4 cutaneous, and 1 conjunctival). Three patients were World Health Organization stage I, 2 were stage II, 10 stage III, and 4 stage IV. One to 6 intratumoral injections of AdCD40L were given every 7 days, followed by cytoreductive surgery in 9 cases and only immunotherapy in 10 cases. Tumor tissue was infiltrated with T and B lymphocytes after treatment, suggesting immune stimulation. The best overall response included 5 complete responses, 8 partial responses, and 4 stable and 2 progressive disease statuses according to the World Health Organization response criteria. Median survival was 160 days (range, 20-1141 d), with 3 dogs still alive at submission. Our results suggest that local AdCD40L therapy is safe and could have beneficial effects in dogs, supporting further treatment development. Clinical translation to human patients is in progress.

The first Swedish H1N2 swine influenza virus isolate represents an uncommon reassortant.

The European swine influenza viruses (SIVs) show considerable diversity comprising different types of H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2 strains. The intensifying full genome sequencing efforts reveal further reassortants within these subtypes. Here we report the identification of an uncommon reassortant variant of H1N2 subtype influenza virus isolated from a pig in a multisite herd where H1N2 swine influenza was diagnosed for the first time in Sweden during the winter of 2008-2009. The majority of the European H1N2 swine influenza viruses described so far possess haemagglutinin (HA) of the human-like H1N2 SIV viruses and the neuraminidase (NA) of either the European H1N2 or H3N2 SIV-like viruses. The Swedish isolate has an avian-like SIV HA and a H3N2 SIV-like NA, which is phylogenetically more closely related to H3N2 SIV NAs from isolates collected in the early '80s than to the NA of H3N2 origin of the H1N2 viruses isolated during the last decade, as depicted by some German strains, indicative of independent acquisition of the NA genes for these two types of reassortants. The internal genes proved to be entirely of avian-like SIV H1N1 origin. The prevalence of this SIV variant in pig populations needs to be determined, as well as the suitability of the routinely used laboratory reagents to analyze this strain.The description of this H1N2 SIV adds further information to influenza epidemiology and supports the necessity of surveillance for influenza viruses in pigs.

Efficient adenovector CD40 ligand immunotherapy of canine malignant melanoma.

Cutaneous canine melanomas are usually benign in contrast to human malignant melanoma. However, the canine oropharyngeal, uveal, and mucocutaneous neoplasms are aggressive and have metastatic potential. Surgery and to a lesser extent radiotherapy and chemotherapy are widely adopted treatments but are seldom curative in advanced stages. The similarities between human and canine melanoma make spontaneous canine melanoma an excellent disease model for exploring novel therapies. Herein, we report the first 2 adenovector CD40L immunogene (AdCD40L) treatments of aggressive canine malignant melanoma. Case no. 1 was an advanced stage III oral melanoma that was cured from malignant melanoma with 2 intratumor AdCD40L injections before cytoreductive surgery. After treatment, the tumor tissue was infiltrated with T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes suggesting immune activation. This dog survived 401 days after the first round of gene therapy and was free of melanoma at autopsy. Case no. 2 had a conjunctival malignant melanoma with a rapid progression. This case was treated with 6 AdCD40L injections over 60 days. One hundred and twenty days after start of gene therapy and 60 days after the last injection, the tumor had regressed dramatically, and the dog had a minimal tumor mass and no signs of progression or metastasis. Our results indicate that AdCD40L immunogene therapy is beneficial in canine malignant melanoma and could be considered for human malignant melanoma as well.