Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2018 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 6 Articles
Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common progressive joint disease in dogs and cats. The goal of OA treatment\nis to reduce inflammation, minimize pain, and maintain joint function. Currently, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory\ndrugs (e.g., meloxicam) are the cornerstone of treatment for OA pain, but side effects with long-term use pose\nimportant challenges to veterinary practitioners when dealing with OA pain. Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a\nnaturally-occurring fatty acid amide, locally produced on demand by tissues in response to stress. PEA endogenous\nlevels change during inflammatory and painful conditions, including OA, i.e., they are typically increased during acute\nconditions and decreased in chronic inflammation. Systemic treatment with PEA has anti-inflammatory and\npain-relieving effects in several disorders, yet data are lacking in OA. Here we tested a new composite, i.e.,\nPEA co-ultramicronized with the natural antioxidant quercetin (PEA-Q), administered orally in two different rat\nmodels of inflammatory and OA pain, namely carrageenan paw oedema and sodium monoiodoacetate (MIA)-induced\nOA. Oral treatment with meloxicam was used as benchmark.\nResults: PEA-Q decreased inflammatory and hyperalgesic responses induced by carrageenan injection, as shown by: (i)\npaw oedema reduction, (ii) decreased severity in histological inflammatory score, (iii) reduced activity of myeloperoxidase,\ni.e., a marker of inflammatory cell infiltration, and (iv) decreased thermal hyperalgesia. Overall PEA-Q showed\nsuperior effects compared to meloxicam. In MIA-treated animals, PEA-Q exerted the following effects: (i) reduced\nmechanical allodynia and improved locomotor function, (ii) protected cartilage against MIA-induced histological\ndamage, and (iii) counteracted the increased serum concentration of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1\nbeta, metalloproteases 1, 3, 9 and nerve growth factor. The magnitude of these effects was comparable to, or\neven greater than, those of meloxicam Conclusion: The present findings shed new light on some of the inflammatory and nociceptive pathways and\nmediators targeted by PEA-Q and confirm its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects in rodent OA pain\nmodels. The translatability of these observations to canine and feline OA pain is currently under investigation....
Background: Many reports showed that grass-endophyte symbiosis induced livestock poisoned. Yet, there is no\nstudy evaluating clinical symptoms and physiological parameters in sheep fed Epichlo�« gansuensis endophyte-infected\ngrass. The objective of the present study was to investigate these indexes by feeding sheep with endophyte-infected\nA. inebrians (E+ Group) or endophyte-free A. inebrians (E- Group) drunken horse grass or alfalfa hay (Control Group).\nResults: The Epichlo�« endophyte caused obvious toxicity symptoms in the sheep fed E+ A. inebrians, with 1 of\nthe 5 sheep having died by the 35th day. The feed intake and body weight gain of the E+ Group were significantly\nless than the E- and control groups (P < 0.05). Serum concentrations of alanine aminotransferase (ALT, 45.5 mmol/L)\nand aspartate aminotransferase for the E+ group (AST, 139.3 mmol/L) were significantly (P < 0.05) greater than for\nthe E- (ALT, 31.2 mmol/L; AST, 78.6 mmol/L) and control (ALT, 32.6 mmol/L; AST, 56.6 mmol/L) groups at the fifth\nweek; serum concentration of creatinine for the E+ group (63.8 mmol/L) was also significantly (P < 0.05) greater than for\nE- (56.6 mmol/L) and control groups (58.5 mmol/L). Meanwhile, urine biochemical indices for the E+ group indicated that\nketone and occult blood were significantly (P < 0.05) elevated compared to the other groups while urine pH values were\nsignificantly (P < 0.05) acidic. The relative weight of heart, brain, liver, lung and kidney for Group E+ were almost two fold\nmore than the other groups, but uterus weight was about half that found for Group E- or Control.\nConclusions: We conclude that the Epichlo�« endophyte infection is the cause of A. inebrians toxicity to sheep. Interestingly,\nnone of the measured parameters differed significantly between E- and the control groups, which implied that drunken\nhorse grass could be utilized efficiently by sheep when not infected by the Epichlo�« endophyte....
Entry of the Ã?±-coronavirus porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) requires specific proteases to activate spike (S)\nprotein for the membrane fusion of the virion to the host cell following receptor binding. Herein, PEDV isolate 85-7\ncould proliferate and induce cellââ?¬â??cell fusion in a trypsin independent manner on Vero cells, and eight homologous\nmutation strains were screened by continuous proliferation in the absence of trypsin on Vero cells. According to the\nwhole genome sequence comparative analysis, we identified four major variations located in nonstructural protein 2,\nS, open reading frame 3, and envelope (E) genes, respectively. Comparative analyses of their genomic variations and\nproliferation characteristics identified a single mutation within the S2ââ?¬Â² cleavage site between C30 and C40 mutants:\nthe substitution of conserved arginine (R) by a glycine (G) (R895G). This change resulted in weaker cellââ?¬â??cell fusion,\nsmaller plaque morphology, higher virus titer and serious microfilament condensation. Further analysis confirmed\nthat this mutation was responsible for optimal cell-adaptation, but not the determinant for trypsin-dependent entry\nof PEDV. Otherwise, a novel variation (16ââ?¬â??20 aa deletion and an L25P mutation) in the transmembrane domain of the\nE protein affected multiple infection processes, including up-regulation of the production of the ER stress indicator\nGRP78, improving the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, and promoting apoptosis. The results of\nthis study provide a better understanding of the potential mechanisms of viral functional proteins in PEDV replication,\ninfection, and fitness....
Adiponectin is the most abundant plasma adipokine, and is well known for its role in\nenergy homeostasis and cardiac protection. In humans with dilated cardiomyopathy, myocardial\nadiponectin protein expression is reduced compared to normal hearts and has been implicated\nin the pathology of cardiomyopathy. Serum adiponectin levels are often conflicting, with higher\nlevels associated with poor survival in humans with congestive heart failure (CHF).We evaluated\nadiponectin serum concentrations and myocardial protein expression in dogs with naturally occurring\nmyxomatous mitral valve disease and CHF. We compared the findings to active and hibernating\nbrown bears as bears are adapted to endure an extreme period of low cardiac output during their\nannual hibernation. Bears exhibited largely the active high-molecular weight (HMW) versus the\nlow-molecular weight isoforms of myocardial adiponectin (HMW:LMW = 6.3) during both the active\nperiod and hibernation, while healthy dogs exhibited a more balanced mix of isoforms. Dogs with\nCHF expressed predominately HMW isoforms of adiponectin (HMW:LMW = 12.5), appearing more\nsimilar to bears. In contrast to humans, serum adiponectin was significantly lower in dogs with\nCHF and lowest levels in the severest CHF class. In both dogs and bears, myocardial adiponectin\nwas expressed independent of circulating adiponectin concentrations, suggesting a local regulatory\nmechanism within the heart....
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) preparations are used inhorseswith osteoarthritis (OA).However, some controversies remain regarding\nthe ideal concentration of platelets and leukocytes to produce an adequate anti-inflammatory and anabolic response in the synovial\nmembrane. The aims of this study were to study the influence of leukoconcentrated platelet-rich gel (Lc-PRG) and leukoreduced\nplatelet-rich gel (Lr-PRG) supernatants on the quantitative expression of some proinflammatory and anabolic genes in equine\nsynovial membrane explants (SMEs) challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). SMEs from six horses were cultured over 96 h.\nThen, SMEs were harvested for RNA extraction and quantitative gene expression analysis by RT-qPCR for nuclear factor kappa B\n(NF...
Background: Canine distemper, caused by Canine distemper virus (CDV), is a highly contagious and fatal systemic\ndisease in free-living and captive carnivores worldwide. Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), as an\nisothermal gene amplification technique, has been explored for the molecular detection of diverse pathogens.\nMethods: A real-time reverse transcription RPA (RT-RPA) assay for the detection of canine distemper virus\n(CDV) using primers and exo probe targeting the CDV nucleocapsid protein gene was developed. A series of\nother viruses were tested by the RT-RPA.Thirty-two field samples were further tested by RT-RPA, and the\nresuts were compared with those obtained by the real-time RT-PCR.\nResults: The RT-RPA assay was performed successfully at 40 Ã?°C, and the results were obtained within 3 minââ?¬â??\n12 min. The assay could detect CDV, but did not show cross-detection of canine parvovirus-2 (CPV-2), canine\ncoronavirus (CCoV), canine parainfluenza virus (CPIV), pseudorabies virus (PRV) or Newcastle disease virus\n(NDV), demonstrating high specificity. The analytical sensitivity of RT-RPA was 31.8 copies in vitro transcribed\nCDV RNA, which is 10 times lower than the real-time RT-PCR. The assay performance was validated by testing 32\nfield samples and compared to real-time RT-PCR. The results indicated an excellent correlation between RT-RPA\nand a reference real-time RT-PCR method. Both assays provided the same results, and R2 value of the positive\nresults was 0.947.\nConclusions: The results demonstrated that the RT-RPA assay offers an alternative tool for simple, rapid, and\nreliable detection of CDV both in the laboratory and point-of-care facility, especially in the resource-limited\nsettings...
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