Characterisation of the sarcomeric myosin heavy chain multigene family in the laboratory guinea pig

BACKGROUND:Several chronic conditions leading to skeletal muscle dysfunction are known to be associated with changes in the expression of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms at both the mRNA and protein level. Many of these conditions are modelled, pre-clinically, in the guinea pig due to similar disease onset and progression to the human condition, and their generally well-characterised anatomy. MHC composition is amenable to determination by protein and mRNA based methodologies, the latter quantifying the expression of MHC isoform-specific gene transcripts allowing the detection of earlier, and more subtle changes. As such, the MHC mRNAs, and specific oligonucleotide primers of all common laboratory species have been available for some time. However, due to incomplete genomic annotation, assessment of guinea pig MHC mRNA expression has not been previously possible, precluding the full characterisation of early changes in skeletal muscle in response to disease and disease modulation.The purpose of this study was to characterise the multigenic structure of the sarcomeric MHC family in the guinea pig, and to design and validate specific oligonucleotide primers to enable the assessment of the predominant adult-muscle associated MHC mRNAs in relevant disease models.RESULTS:Using a combination of ligase-mediated rapid amplification of 5' and 3' cDNA ends (RACE) and bioinformatics, mRNAs to the four main skeletal-muscle isoforms of MHC were determined. Specific oligonucleotide primers were designed, and following verification of their specificity, found to successfully determine the expression of each MHC mRNA independently.CONCLUSIONS:Because of their utilisation in the in vivo modelling of disease, there is a requirement to develop molecular methods that accurately differentiate the different MHC mRNAs in the guinea pig to enable rapid profiling of muscle composition in appropriate disease models. The methods developed here are suitable for the characterisation of muscle MHC expression at the molecular level from animal tissue samples and biopsy material. The publication of these specific oligonucleotide primers for the guinea pig MHC variants will enable researchers to rapidly and accurately quantify acute changes in MHC mRNA expression in either developmental or in guinea pig disease models where a marker of altered skeletal muscle function is required

Extracellular vesicles derived from umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells show enhanced anti-inflammatory properties via upregulation of miRNAs after pro-inflammatory priming

Autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are characterised by a loss of immune tolerance, whereby the immune cells attack self-antigens causing pain and inflammation. These conditions can be brought into remission using pharmaceutical treatments, but often have adverse side effects and some patients do not respond favourably to them. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells (UCMSCs) present a promising alternative therapeutic due to their innate anti-inflammatory properties which can be strengthened using pro-inflammatory conditions. Their therapeutic mechanism of action has been attributed to paracrine signalling, by which nanosized acellular particles called 'extracellular vesicles' (EVs) are one of the essential components. Therefore, this research analysed the anti-inflammatory properties of UCMSC-EVs 'primed' with pro-inflammatory cytokines and at baseline with no inflammatory cytokines (control). Both control and primed EVs were co-cultured with un-pooled peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs; n = 6) from healthy donors. Neither control nor primed EVs exerted a pro-inflammatory effect on PBMCs. Instead, the primed EVs showed the immunosuppressive potential by increasing the expression of the anti-inflammatory protein FoxP3 in PBMCs. This may be attributed to the upregulated miRNAs identified in primed EVs in comparison to control EVs (miR-139-5p, miR-140-5p, miR-214-5p). These findings aid in understanding how UCMSC-EVs mediate immunosuppression and support their potential use in treating autoimmune conditions. [Abstract copyright: © 2023. The Author(s).]Orthopaedic Institute Limited; Grant(s): RPG171 RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital Charity; Grant(s): G08028 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Grant(s): EP/F5000491/

A transcriptomics-based drug repositioning approach to identify drugs with similar activities for the treatment of muscle pathologies in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) models

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic neuromuscular disorder caused by the reduction of survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein levels. Although three SMN-augmentation therapies are clinically approved that significantly slow down disease progression, they are unfortunately not cures. Thus, complementary SMN-independent therapies that can target key SMA pathologies and that can support the clinically approved SMN-dependent drugs are the forefront of therapeutic development. We have previously demonstrated that prednisolone, a synthetic glucocorticoid (GC) improved muscle health and survival in severe Smn-/-;SMN2 and intermediate Smn2B/- SMA mice. However, long-term administration of prednisolone can promote myopathy. We thus wanted to identify genes and pathways targeted by prednisolone in skeletal muscle to discover clinically approved drugs that are predicted to emulate prednisolone's activities. Using an RNA-sequencing, bioinformatics, and drug repositioning pipeline on skeletal muscle from symptomatic prednisolone-treated and untreated Smn-/-; SMN2 SMA and Smn+/-; SMN2 healthy mice, we identified molecular targets linked to prednisolone's ameliorative effects and a list of 580 drug candidates with similar predicted activities. Two of these candidates, metformin and oxandrolone, were further investigated in SMA cellular and animal models, which highlighted that these compounds do not have the same ameliorative effects on SMA phenotypes as prednisolone; however, a number of other important drug targets remain. Overall, our work further supports the usefulness of prednisolone's potential as a second-generation therapy for SMA, identifies a list of potential SMA drug treatments and highlights improvements for future transcriptomic-based drug repositioning studies in SMA.Peer reviewe

Controlling Tungiasis in an Impoverished Community: An Intervention Study

Tungiasis is a disease caused by the sand flea Tunga penetrans, a parasite prevalent in many impoverished communities in developing countries. The female sand flea penetrates into the skin of animals and humans where it grows rapidly in size, feeds on the host's blood, produces eggs which are expelled into the environment, and eventually dies in situ. The lesions become frequently superinfected and the infestation is associated with considerable morbidity. Clearly, tungiasis is a neglected disease of neglected populations. We investigated the impact of a package of intervention measures targeted against on-host and off-host stages of T. penetrans in a fishing community in Northeast Brazil. These measures decreased disease occurrence only temporarily, but had a sustained effect on the intensity of the infestation. Since infestation intensity and morbidity are correlated, presumably the intervention also lowered tungiasis-associated morbidity. Control measures similar to the ones used in this study may help to effectively control tungiasis in impoverished communities

Details of the two mock fungal populations.

<p>Concentration refers to the number of spores used for DNA extraction. ATCC - American Type Culture Collection, CABI - CAB International fungal culture collection, EGS - E.G. Simmons Culture Collection, FRR - Culture collection of CSIRO Sydney Australia, NCPF - National Collection of Pathogenic Fungi, NCYC - National Collection of Yeast Cultures, NRRL - Northern Regional Research Laboratory, UAMH - University of Alberta Microfungus Collection and Herbarium</p

Next generation sequencing read statistics.

<p>Raw Reads - the total number of reads generated by each sequencing run; Full Length Reads - the total number of reads representing a full length amplicon; Dereplicated Reads - the number of unique read clusters once all identical reads were collapsed; Denoised Reads - the number of unique read clusters once reads within 1% sequence identity were combined; Total Reads Available - the total number of reads (the sum of all clusters) available for further analysis.</p

Fusion oligonucleotide primers containing target specific sequences (White, Bruns et al., 1990, Issakainen, Jalava et al., 1999; emboldened), sequencing adapters (plain text) and the Ion Torrent key sequence (underlined).

<p>Fusion oligonucleotide primers containing target specific sequences (White, Bruns et al., 1990, Issakainen, Jalava et al., 1999; emboldened), sequencing adapters (plain text) and the Ion Torrent key sequence (underlined).</p

Characteristics of OTUs formed by the USEARCH algorithm at an identity of 0.97. Only OTUs with a minimum of 25 reads were retained.

<p>Characteristics of OTUs formed by the USEARCH algorithm at an identity of 0.97. Only OTUs with a minimum of 25 reads were retained.</p