Consumption of pasteurized human lysozyme transgenic goats’ milk alters serum metabolite profile in young pigs

Nutrition, bacterial composition of the gastrointestinal tract, and general health status can all influence the metabolic profile of an organism. We previously demonstrated that feeding pasteurized transgenic goats’ milk expressing human lysozyme (hLZ) can positively impact intestinal morphology and modulate intestinal microbiota composition in young pigs. The objective of this study was to further examine the effect of consuming hLZ-containing milk on young pigs by profiling serum metabolites. Pigs were placed into two groups and fed a diet of solid food and either control (non-transgenic) goats’ milk or milk from hLZ-transgenic goats for 6 weeks. Serum samples were collected at the end of the feeding period and global metabolite profiling was performed. For a total of 225 metabolites (160 known, 65 unknown) semi-quantitative data was obtained. Levels of 18 known and 4 unknown metabolites differed significantly between the two groups with the direction of change in 13 of the 18 known metabolites being almost entirely congruent with improved health status, particularly in terms of the gastrointestinal tract health and immune response, with the effects of the other five being neutral or unknown. These results further support our hypothesis that consumption of hLZ-containing milk is beneficial to health

Novel multifunctional nanovectors based on iron oxide nanoparticles and poly(amidomine)s

Concept In the last decade magnetic nanoparticles (NPs), had a large impact in many areas of biomedicine, including contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, drug targeting, diagnostics, molecular biology, cell separation and purification, and hyperthermia therapy. In this widespread scenario we started a project aimed to design new biocompatible materials based on magnetic NPs allowing a two-fold anticancer action, i.e. capable of combining the therapeutic effect based on targeted drug-delivery with hyperthermia for the treatment of widespread diseases. Moreover in designing these new systems, enhanced relaxometric properties will be also pursed, in order follow the biodistribution of the carriers inside human body and inside tumoral cells by MR imaging. Motivations and Objectives The main goal of the project is the development of a new class of innovative nanodevices based on iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNP), with multi-fold therapeutic and diagnostic applications. To this end, the first step is represented by the synthesis of novel biocompatible, biodegradable, poly(amidoamine) (PAA) nanovectors embedding a nanometric (10-20 nm) magnetite/maghemite core. PAA are a family of synthetic polymers with many relevant properties useful for biomedical applications[1]. Moreover, PAA can be easily functionalized by introducing multidentate ligands to act as chelating polymers for MNP. In order to improve the stability of the nanovectores, block copolymer of PAA and poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG) were prepared and tested. Results and Discussion PAA chelating ligands for MNP were prepared using N,N\u2019-ethylenediamine disuccinic acid (EDDS and PAA-PEG block copolymers were prepared by direct polymerization of PEG-NH2 and PEG-piperazine as aminic-comonomers in the synthesis of PAA-EDDS polymers. Monodisperse Fe3O4 NPs of different average size were prepared by thermal decomposition of a solution of Fe(oleate)3 precursor and oleic acid in octadecene. The morphological and structural characterization of the NPs confirmed that uniform spherical magnetite/maghemite NPs with average size 10.1\ub12 nm and 17.5\ub12.5 nm were formed. The obtained NPs were then embedded into PEG-piperazine-PAA-EDDS and PEG-NH2-PAA-EDDS copolymers by ligand exchange reaction carried out in a toluene:DMSO 4:1 solution. The synthesized nano-objects could be fully dispersed in water at physiological conditions, forming colloids that are stable over very long periods. The aqueous solutions were then deeply investigated for their static and dynamic magnetic properties which showed room temperature superparamagnetic behavior and high magnetic moment. AC susceptibility measurements showed the samples have non-zero out-of-phase susceptibility at 300 K. All these properties make our systems good candidates for the proposed clinical applications. The preliminary evaluation of the hyperthermic and relaxometric efficacies, performed by standard calorimetric and NMR-D measurements confirms this indication

Diagnóstico de miastenia gravis en perros

Miastenia Gravis is a neuromuscular disease caused by auto antibodies. Early Clinical and biochemical diagnosis and treatment is demanded in the assurementof quality and time of life in all dogs. In this study we describe the conventional diagnosis methods and therapy in 32 dogs with suspected myasthenia gravis and propose the administration of bromide of piridostigmin as another use full diagnosis method in dogs.La miastenia gravis (MG) es una enfermedad neuromuscular de causa autoinmune, en la que es importante realizar un diagnóstico clínico y bioquímico oportuno para instaurar la terapéutica adecuada que cambiará la calidad y expectativa de vida de los caninos. En el presente trabajo se describen los métodos diagnósticos habitualmente utilizados y el tratamiento de treinta y dos caninos con sospecha deMG, y se propone la administración de bromuro depiridostigmina como una herramienta más, útil en el diagnóstico de la MG canina

Miastenia gravis diagnostic in dogs

Miastenia Gravis is a neuromuscular disease caused by auto antibodies. Early Clinical and biochemical diagnosis and treatment is demanded in the assurementof quality and time of life in all dogs. In this study we describe the conventional diagnosis methods and therapy in 32 dogs with suspected myasthenia gravis and propose the administration of bromide of piridostigmin as another use full diagnosis method in dogs

Bio-inspired and microfabricated poly-amidoamine hydrogels : a novel smart material interfacing living systems

Recently available micro- and nanotechnologies applied to existing biomaterials may impart them novel properties and provide cutting-edge tools for the construction of clinically helpful micro- and nano devices. Poly(amidoamine)s (PAA) are highly hydrophilic synthetic polymers obtained by Michael-type poly-addition of amines to bisacrylamides. Crosslinked PAA in aqueous media form optically transparent hydrogels that in many cases proved to be fully biodegradable and biocompatible, warranting a definite potential for biomedical applications, such as for instance regenerative medicine. There is an increasing demand for new generation of biohydrogels to evolve from the present substrates to highly physiologic 3D environments adapted to live complexity. Accordingly, we report here the possibility of micro-designing and engineering a versatile PAA hydrogel named ISA23 to enhance and control major cell processes such as adhesion, proliferation, and tissue organization. In particular, we present the development of a direct-writing electron beam lithography method to pattern the surface of PAA hydrogels. The process is performed on the materials in the dry state before swelling them with water. The patterning is maintained after swelling. The computer assisted methodology enables to control physical and biochemical features, down to a lateral resolution of 500 nm. We demonstrated that the surfaces exposed to the e-beam could be coated with proteins or other biomolecules whose amount can be quantified by using fluorescent labels. The direct-writing approach on biohydrogels can be also used to manufacture larger microstructures, such as embedded microfluidic systems, or other miniaturized systems, easily integrated into cost-competitive biodevices. Finally we interfaced microfabricated hydrogels with cells lines such PC12, able to differentiate into neuronal cells. The cells and neurite recognized the electron beam modified area with strong preference (in terms of adhesion, proliferation and differentiation). The microfabrication allowed to precisely control the guidance of neurite outgrowth from single cell through microchannels (Fig. 1), thus eventually reconstituting neural networks. This technique applied to PAA hydrogels has the potential of creating low-cost biocompatible platforms accurately reproducing the physiological characteristics of cellular microenvironments or neuronal networks

Diagnóstico de miastenia gravis en perros

La miastenia gravis (MG) es una enfermedad neuromuscular de causa autoinmune, en la que es importante realizar un diagnóstico clínico y bioquímico oportuno para instaurar la terapéutica adecuada que cambiará la calidad y expectativa de vida de los caninos. En el presente trabajo se describen los métodos diagnósticos habitualmente utilizados y el tratamiento de treinta y dos caninos con sospecha deMG, y se propone la administración de bromuro depiridostigmina como una herramienta más, útil en el diagnóstico de la MG canina

Synthesis of polymers containing regularly distributed tetrathia-[7]-helicene units along the backbone

A tetrathia-[7]-helicene bearing in the 2 and 13 positions cyanovinyl groups was used as comonomer in the Michael-type polyaddition reaction with N,N'-bis(beta-mercaptoethyl)piperazine. This led to a new polymer bearing tetrathia-[7]helicene units regularly distributed along the polymer backbone, which may be regarded as the first example of a new family of potentially useful nonlinear optical materials. All products were structurally characterized by H-1 and C-13 NMR spectroscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry characterizations revealed the presence, in both monomeric and polymeric helicenes, of glass-transition like temperatures, associated to some conformational variation of the helicene units. The optical properties, the film formation and the morphology of the polymer-containing tetratia-[7]-helicenes were also investigated