The development and validation of methods for evaluating the immune system in preweaning piglets.

The preweaning piglet has been found to be a valuable research model for testing ingredients used in infant formula. As part of the safety assessment, the neonates' immune system is an important component that has to be evaluated. In this study three concurrent strategies were developed to assess immune system status. The methods included (1) immunophenotying to assess circulating innate immune cell populations, (2) monitoring of circulating cytokines, particularly in response to a positive control agent, and (3) monitoring of localized gastrointestinal tissue cytokines using immunohistochemistry (IHC), particularly in response to a positive control agent. All assays were validated using white papers and regulatory guidance within a GLP environment. To validate the assays precision, accuracy and sample stability were evaluated as needed using a fit for purpose approach. In addition animals were treated with proinflammtory substances to detect a positive versus negative signal. In conclusion, these three methods were confirmed to be robust assays to evaluate the immune system and GIT-specific immune responses of preweaning piglets.

VaxCelerate II: rapid development of a self-assembling vaccine for Lassa fever.

Development of effective vaccines against emerging infectious diseases (EID) can take as much or more than a decade to progress from pathogen isolation/identification to clinical approval. As a result, conventional approaches fail to produce field-ready vaccines before the EID has spread extensively. Lassa is a prototypical emerging infectious disease endemic to West Africa for which no successful vaccine is available. We established the VaxCelerate Consortium to address the need for more rapid vaccine development by creating a platform capable of generating and pre-clinically testing a new vaccine against specific pathogen targets in less than 120 d A self-assembling vaccine is at the core of the approach. It consists of a fusion protein composed of the immunostimulatory Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein 70 (MtbHSP70) and the biotin binding protein, avidin. Mixing the resulting protein (MAV) with biotinylated pathogen-specific immunogenic peptides yields a self-assembled vaccine (SAV). To meet the time constraint imposed on this project, we used a distributed R&D model involving experts in the fields of protein engineering and production, bioinformatics, peptide synthesis/design and GMP/GLP manufacturing and testing standards. SAV immunogenicity was first tested using H1N1 influenza specific peptides and the entire VaxCelerate process was then tested in a mock live-fire exercise targeting Lassa fever virus. We demonstrated that the Lassa fever vaccine induced significantly increased class II peptide specific interferon-γ CD4(+) T cell responses in HLA-DR3 transgenic mice compared to peptide or MAV alone controls. We thereby demonstrated that our SAV in combination with a distributed development model may facilitate accelerated regulatory review by using an identical design for each vaccine and by applying safety and efficacy assessment tools that are more relevant to human vaccine responses than current animal models.

Validation of an eight parameter immunophenotyping panel in adult canines for assessment of immunotoxicity.

Analysis of peripheral blood leukocyte populations by flow cytometry in adult beagles is a critical component of immunotoxicity assessment in regulated pre-clinical toxicology studies. In this study, data is presented utilizing a single panel, six-color method to simultaneously enumerate absolute cell counts and determine the relative percentage of leukocytes. A GLP validation was performed to determine intra- and inter-assay variance, inter-instrument variance, and pre- and post-fixation stability for the target populations. The results demonstrated all samples met acceptance criteria, CV values less than 25%, for all precision and stability intervals assessed. The intra and inter-assay data demonstrated the single panel method generated acceptable precision. Furthermore, stability results indicated whole blood samples and processed samples may be stored without a statistically significant difference in the data compared to samples immediately processed and analyzed after blood collection. This assay will provide researchers a more precise and efficient tool to evaluate the immunotoxic effects of a test article on canine peripheral blood leukocytes during pre-clinical drug testing.

A mouse model for an erythropoietin-deficiency anemia.

In mammals, the production of red blood cells is tightly regulated by the growth factor erythropoietin (EPO). Mice lacking a functional Epo gene are embryonic lethal, and studying erythropoiesis in EPO-deficient adult animals has therefore been limited. In order to obtain a preclinical model for an EPO-deficient anemia, we developed a mouse in which Epo can be silenced by Cre recombinase. After induction of Cre activity, Epo(KO/flox) mice experience a significant reduction of serum EPO levels and consequently develop a chronic, normocytic and normochromic anemia. Furthermore, compared with wild-type mice, Epo expression in Epo(KO/flox) mice is dramatically reduced in the kidney, and expression of a well-known target gene of EPO signaling, Bcl2l1, is reduced in the bone marrow. These observations are similar to the clinical display of anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease. In addition, during stress-induced erythropoiesis these mice display the same recovery rate as their heterozygous counterparts. Taken together, these results demonstrate that this model can serve as a valuable preclinical model for the anemia of EPO deficiency, as well as a tool for the study of stress-induced erythropoiesis during limiting conditions of EPO.

Runx1 is required for the endothelial to haematopoietic cell transition but not thereafter.

Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the founder cells of the adult haematopoietic system, and thus knowledge of the molecular program directing their generation during development is important for regenerative haematopoietic strategies. Runx1 is a pivotal transcription factor required for HSC generation in the vascular regions of the mouse conceptus-the aorta, vitelline and umbilical arteries, yolk sac and placenta. It is thought that HSCs emerge from vascular endothelial cells through the formation of intra-arterial clusters and that Runx1 functions during the transition from 'haemogenic endothelium' to HSCs. Here we show by conditional deletion that Runx1 activity in vascular-endothelial-cadherin-positive endothelial cells is indeed essential for intra-arterial cluster, haematopoietic progenitor and HSC formation in mice. In contrast, Runx1 is not required in cells expressing Vav1, one of the first pan-haematopoietic genes expressed in HSCs. Collectively these data show that Runx1 function is essential in endothelial cells for haematopoietic progenitor and HSC formation from the vasculature, but its requirement ends once or before Vav is expressed.

The allantois and chorion, when isolated before circulation or chorio-allantoic fusion, have hematopoietic potential.

The chorio-allantoic placenta forms through the fusion of the allantois (progenitor tissue of the umbilical cord), with the chorionic plate. The murine placenta contains high levels of hematopoietic stem cells, and is therefore a stem cell niche. However, it is not known whether the placenta is a site of hematopoietic cell emergence, or whether hematopoietic cells originate from other sites in the conceptus and then colonize the placenta. Here, we show that the allantois and chorion, isolated prior to the establishment of circulation, have the potential to give rise to myeloid and definitive erythroid cells following explant culture. We further show that the hematopoietic potential of the allantois and chorion does not require their union, indicating that it is an intrinsic property of these tissues. These results suggest that the placenta is not only a niche for, but also a source of, hematopoietic cells.