Metastatic immune infiltrates correlate with those of the primary tumour in canine osteosarcoma.

Our lack of understanding of the immune microenvironment in canine osteosarcoma (cOSA) has limited the identification of potential immunotherapeutic targets. In particular, our ability to utilize readily available tissue from a dog's primary tumour to predict the type and extent of immune response in their pulmonary metastatic lesions is unknown. We, therefore, collected 21 matched pairs of primary tumours and pulmonary metastatic lesions from dogs with OSA and performed immunohistochemistry to quantify T-lymphocyte (CD3), FOXP3+ cell, B-lymphocyte (Pax-5), and CD204+ macrophage infiltration. We found that T-lymphocytes and FOXP3+ infiltrates in primary tumours positively correlated with that of metastatic lesions (ρ = 0.512, P = 0.038 and ρ = 0.698, P = 0.007, respectively), while a strong trend existed for CD204+ infiltrates (ρ = 0.404, P = 0.087). We also observed T- and B-lymphocytes, and CD204+ macrophages to be significantly higher in a dog's pulmonary metastasis compared to their primary tumour (P = 0.018, P = 0.018, P = 0.016, respectively), while FOXP3+ cells were only significantly higher in metastases when all primary tumour and metastasis lesions were compared without pairing (P = 0.036). Together, these findings suggest that the metastatic immune microenvironment may be influenced by that of the primary cOSA, and that primary tumour immune biomarkers could potentially be applied to predict immunotherapeutic responses in gross metastatic disease. We, therefore, provide a rationale for the treatment of cOSA pulmonary metastases with immunotherapeutics that enhance the anti-tumour activity of these immune cells, particularly in dogs with moderate to high immune cell infiltration in their primary tumours.

Association of macrophage and lymphocyte infiltration with outcome in canine osteosarcoma.

Immunotherapeutic strategies have shown promise for the treatment of canine osteosarcoma (cOSA). Very little is known about the immune microenvironment within cOSA, however, limiting our ability to identify potential immune targets and biomarkers of therapeutic response. We therefore prospectively assessed the disease-free interval (DFI) and overall survival time (ST) of 30 dogs with cOSA treated with amputation and six doses of adjuvant carboplatin. We then quantified lymphocytic (CD3+, FOXP3+) and macrophage (CD204+) infiltrates within the primary tumours of this cohort using immunohistochemistry, and evaluated their association with outcome. Overall, the median DFI and ST were 392 and 455 days, respectively. The median number of CD3+ and FOXP3+ infiltrates were 45.8 cells/mm2 (4.6-607.6 cells/mm2 ) and 8.5 mm2 (0-163.1 cells/mm2 ), respectively. The median area of CD204+ macrophages was 4.7% (1.3%-23.3%), and dogs with tumours containing greater than 4.7% CD204+ macrophages experienced a significantly longer DFI (P = 0.016). Interestingly, a significantly lower percentage of CD204+ macrophages was detected in cOSA arising from the proximal humerus compared to other appendicular bone locations (P = 0.016). Lymphocytic infiltrates did not appear to correlate with outcome in cOSA. Overall, our findings suggest that macrophages may play a role in inhibiting cOSA progression, as has been suggested in human osteosarcoma.

Multi-color flow cytometry for evaluating age-related changes in memory lymphocyte subsets in dogs.

While dogs are increasingly being utilized as large-animal models of disease, important features of age-related immunosenescence in the dog have yet to be evaluated due to the lack of defined naïve vs. memory T lymphocyte phenotypes. We therefore performed multi-color flow cytometry on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from young and aged beagles, and determined the differential cytokine production by proposed memory subsets. CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in aged dogs displayed increased cytokine production, and decreased proliferative capacity. Antibodies targeting CD45RA and CD62L, but less so CD28 or CD44, defined canine cells that consistently exhibited properties of naïve-, central memory-, effector memory-, and terminal effector-like CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocyte subsets. Older dogs demonstrated decreased frequencies of naïve-like CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, and an increased frequency of terminal effector-like CD8+ T lymphocytes. Overall findings revealed that aged dogs displayed features of immunosenescence similar to those reported in other species.

Lidocaine suppresses the increased extracellular signal-regulated kinase/cyclic AMP response element-binding protein pathway and pro-inflammatory cytokines in a neuropathic pain model of rats.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Rats which have undergone spinal nerve ligation (SNL) display increases in the expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK 1/2) and cyclic AMP response element-binding (CREB) protein. The present study was designed to determine whether lidocaine has a beneficial effect on the treatment of neuropathic pain by analysing related proteins. METHODS: Twenty-four male Sprague­Dawley rats were randomly allocated to three groups (eight per group): shamoperated (control) group, a neuropathic pain and normal saline group (NP+NS), a neuropathic pain and lidocaine group (NP+Lido, 2mgkg(-1) h(-1)). Anaesthetised rats received left L5 and L6 SNL. The mechanical withdrawal threshold test was performed 7 days after SNL and for 7 days with the pump implanted (saline or lidocaine). At post-implanted pump day 7, their brains and spinal cords were harvested. ERK 1/2, CREB proteins and mRNA amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor a, intercellular adhesion molecule 1, monocyte chemo-attractive protein 1 and macrophage inflammatory protein 2) were assessed by immunoblotting or reverse transcriptase-PCR on samples collected from the three groups. RESULTS: Lidocaine increased the mechanical withdrawal threshold of a neuropathic rats. In only spinal tissues, ERK 1/2 and CREB proteins in the NP+Lido group was significantly reduced to 39%, and 48% in comparison with the NP+NS group. The NP+Lido group showed a significant reduction in mRNA amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines compared with the NP+NS group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that lidocaine therapy may be effective in treating neuropathic pain after spinal nerve injury, and that these effects may occur via suppression of ERK 1/2 and CREB signalling proteins and anti-inflammatory effects.

Evaluation of combinatorial cis-regulatory elements for stable gene expression in chicken cells.

BACKGROUND: Recent successes in biotechnological application of birds are based on their unique physiological traits such as unlimited manipulability onto developing embryos and simple protein constituents of the eggs. However it is not likely that target protein is produced as kinetically expected because various factors affect target gene expression. Although there have been various attempts to minimize the silencing of transgenes, a generalized study that uses multiple cis-acting elements in chicken has not been made. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether various cis-acting elements can help to sustain transgene expression in chicken fibroblasts. RESULTS: We investigated the optimal transcriptional regulatory elements for enhancing stable transgene expression in chicken cells. We generated eight constructs that encode enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) driven by either CMV or CAG promoters (including the control), containing three types of key regulatory elements: a chicken lysozyme matrix attachment region (cMAR), 5'-DNase I-hypersensitive sites 4 (cHS4), and the woodchuck hepatitis virus posttranscriptional regulatory element (WPRE). Then we transformed immortalized chicken embryonic fibroblasts with these constructs by electroporation, and after cells were expanded under G418 selection, analyzed mRNA levels and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) by quantitative real-time PCR and flow cytometry, respectively. We found that the copy number of each construct significantly decreased as the size of the construct increased (R2 = 0.701). A significant model effect was found in the expression level among various constructs in both mRNA and protein (P < 0.0001). Transcription with the CAG promoter was 1.6-fold higher than the CMV promoter (P = 0.027) and the level of eGFP expression activity in cMAR- or cHS4-flanked constructs increased by two- to three-fold compared to the control CMV or CAG promoter constructs. In addition, flow cytometry analysis showed that constructs having cis-acting elements decreased the level of gene silencing as well as the coefficient of variance of eGFP-expressing cells (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our current data show that an optimal combination of cis-acting elements and promoters/enhancers for sustaining gene expression in chicken cells is suggested. These results provide important information for avian transgenesis and gene function studies in poultry.

Complete reconstitution of a highly reducing iterative polyketide synthase.

Highly reducing iterative polyketide synthases are large, multifunctional enzymes that make important metabolites in fungi, such as lovastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug from Aspergillus terreus. We report efficient expression of the lovastatin nonaketide synthase (LovB) from an engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as well as complete reconstitution of its catalytic function in the presence and absence of cofactors (the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate and S-adenosylmethionine) and its partner enzyme, the enoyl reductase LovC. Our results demonstrate that LovB retains correct intermediates until completion of synthesis of dihydromonacolin L, but off-loads incorrectly processed compounds as pyrones or hydrolytic products. Experiments replacing LovC with analogous MlcG from compactin biosynthesis demonstrate a gate-keeping function for this partner enzyme. This study represents a key step in the understanding of the functions and structures of this family of enzymes.

Down-regulation of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling activity by TCR signaling is required for proper thymocyte maturation.

The process of thymocyte development requires an exquisite regulation of many genes via transcription factors and chromatin remodeling activities. Even though the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex has been thought to play important roles during thymocyte development, its known function is very limited. In this study, we show that the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling activity is finely regulated during thymocyte maturation process, especially during thymocyte selections. We found that TCR signaling directly down-regulates mBRG1 and SWI3-related gene, the core components of murine SWI/SNF complex, during thymocyte maturation. Constitutive expression of SWI3-related gene in developing thymocytes attenuated the down-regulation of the SWI/SNF complex and resulted in a change in the expression of genes such as linker for activation of T cells and casitas B lineage lymphoma, which affected the TCR-mediated intracellular signaling pathway. The defects in TCR signaling resulted in the disruption of both positive and negative selections in specific TCR transgenic mice systems. Our results state, for the first time, that the chromatin remodeling activity needs to be finely controlled for proper thymocyte selection and maturation processes.