Animal models

The African giant rat, AGR (Cricetomys gambianus) is a unique rodent known for its keen sense of smell which has enabled its use in the diagnosis of tuberculosis and demining activities in war torn countries. This keen sense of smell and the ability to navigate tight spaces are skills modulated by the olfactory bulb and cerebellum. While the brain is generally susceptible to environmental pollutants such as heavy metals, vanadium has predilection for these two brain regions. This work was thus designed to investigate the probable neurotoxic effect of vanadium on the neuronal cytoarchitecture of the cerebellum and olfactory bulb in this rodent...

Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain characterized by seizures. The currently available anticonvulsants only treat symptoms with serious adverse drug reactions. Therefore, there is need for new therapeutic intervention that will prevent epileptogenesis with greater therapeutic success. Quercetin (QT) is a flavonoid with known neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties. The study aimed to investigate its effects against pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures. Animals were divided into four groups (n = 10)...

Gastric ulcer healing is impaired in both hypothyroid and hyperthyroid conditions.  Thyroid hormones regulate growth, energy metabolism and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism. Xenobiotics have been documented to negatively impact the thyroid gland at high doses but the redox and cellular interactions at low doses during wound healing process remains unclear. Potassium bromate has been documented to be toxic at high doses but there is dearth of information on its activities at a low dose in varied thyroid states which was evaluated in this study...

Depression is a mental disorder characterized by depressive episodes, such as low mood, low self-esteem, feeling of guilt, and poor concentration. Depression has a high comorbidity with cognitive impairments. Studies have shown that cinnamon has anti-inflammatory antiviral, antihypertensive, antioxidant and anti-diabetic potentials. Therefore, the aim of the research was to assess the antidepressant effect of cinnamon on open-space forced swim-induced depression in mice. Twenty-five (25) Swiss albino mice were grouped into five groups (n=5)...

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disability that includes sensory disturbances. Hearing is frequently affected and ranges from deafness to hypersensitivity. In utero exposure to the antiepileptic valproic acid is associated with increased risk of autism spectrum disorder in humans and timed valproic acid exposure is a biologically relevant and validated animal model of autism spectrum disorder. Valproic acid-exposed rats have fewer neurons in their auditory brainstem and thalamus, fewer calbindin-positive neurons, reduced ascending projections to the midbrain and thalamus, elevated thresholds, and delayed auditory brainstem responses...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer worldwide and no pharmacological treatment is available that can achieve complete remission of HCC. Phospholysine phosphohistidine inorganic pyrophosphate phosphatase (LHPP) is a recently identified HCC tumor suppressor gene which plays an important role in the development of HCC and its inactivation and reactivation has been shown to result in respectively HCC tumorigenesis and suppression. Small activating RNAs (saRNAs) have been used to achieve targeted activation of therapeutic genes for the restoration of their encoded protein through the RNAa mechanism...

Aging is associated with a wide range of physiological and behavioral changes in many species. Zebrafish, like humans, rodents, and birds, exhibits gradual senescence, and thus may be a useful model organism for identifying evolutionarily conserved mechanisms related to aging. Here, we compared behavior in the novel tank test of young (6-month-old) and middle aged (12-month-old) zebrafish from two strains (TL and TU) and both sexes. We find that this modest age difference results in a reduction in locomotor activity in male fish...

Off-the-shelf immunotherapeutics that suppress tumor growth and provide durable protection against relapse could enhance cancer treatment. We report preclinical studies on a CD33 x CD3 bivalent bispecific diabody, AMV564, that not only suppresses tumor growth, but also facilitates memory responses in a mouse model of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Mechanistically, a single 5-day treatment with AMV564 seems to reduce tumor burden by redirection of T cells, providing a time window for allogeneic or other T cells that innately recognize tumor antigens to become activated and proliferate...

BACKGROUND: Human genetic studies have identified several mitochondrial amidoxime-reducing component 1 (MTARC1) variants as protective against metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. The MTARC1 variants are associated with decreased plasma lipids and liver enzymes and reduced liver-related mortality. However, the role of mARC1 in fatty liver disease is still unclear. METHODS: Given that mARC1 is mainly expressed in hepatocytes, we developed an N-acetylgalactosamine-conjugated mouse Mtarc1 siRNA, applying it in multiple in vivo models to investigate the role of mARC1 using multiomic techniques...

Cholesterol is an essential lipid molecule in mammalian cells. It is not only involved in the formation of cell membranes but also serves as a raw material for the synthesis of bile acids, vitamin D, and steroid hormones. Additionally, it acts as a covalent modifier of proteins and plays a crucial role in numerous life processes. Generally, the metabolic processes of cholesterol absorption, synthesis, conversion, and efflux are strictly regulated. Excessive accumulation of cholesterol in the body is a risk factor for metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)...

The widespread dissemination of bacterial resistance has led to great attention being paid to finding substitutes for traditionally used antibiotics. Plants are rich in various phytochemicals that could be used as antibacterial therapies. Here, we elucidate the phytochemical profile of Euphorbia canariensis ethanol extract (EMEE) and then elucidate the antibacterial potential of ECEE against Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates. ECEE showed minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from 128 to 512 µg/mL...

Si Ni San combined with Astragalus (SNSQ) has demonstrated significant efficacy in the treatment of hepatic fibrosis (HF), as confirmed by clinical practice. However, its pharmacological mechanism remains unclear. This study employs network pharmacology to identify key targets and proteins for molecular docking. Additionally, animal experiments were conducted to validate the network pharmacology results, providing further insights into the mechanism of SNSQ in treating HF. Effective compounds of SNSQ were screened from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) and Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ETCM) databases...

Improved screening and treatment have decreased breast cancer mortality, although incidence continues to rise. Women at increased risk of breast cancer can be offered risk reducing treatments, such as tamoxifen, but this has not been shown to reduce breast cancer mortality. New, more efficacious, risk-reducing agents are needed. The identification of novel candidates for prevention is hampered by a lack of good preclinical models. Current patient derived in vitro and in vivo models cannot fully recapitulate the complexities of the human tissue, lacking human extracellular matrix, stroma, and immune cells, all of which are known to influence therapy response...

BACKGROUND: In recent years, fibroblast activating protein (FAP), a biomarker overexpressed by cancer-associated fibroblasts, has emerged as one of the most promising biomarkers in oncology. Similarly, FAP overexpression has been detected in various fibroblast-mediated inflammatory conditions such as liver cirrhosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Along this trajectory, FAP-targeted positron emission tomography (PET), utilizing FAP inhibitors (FAPi) labeled with positron emitters, has gained traction as a powerful imaging approach in both cancer and inflammation...

Lignans are biologically active compounds widely distributed, recognized, and identified in seeds, fruits, and vegetables. Lignans have several intriguing bioactivities, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer activities. Nrf2 controls the expression of many cytoprotective genes. Activation of Nrf2 is a promising therapeutic approach for treating and preventing diseases resulting from oxidative injury and inflammation. Lignans have been demonstrated to stimulate Nrf2 signaling in a variety of in vitro and experimental animal models...

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for the majority of skin and soft tissue infections, which are often diagnosed at a late stage, thereby impacting treatment efficacy. Our study was designed to reveal the physiological changes at different stages of infection by S. aureus through the combined analysis of variations in the skin microenvironment, providing insights for the diagnosis and treatment of S. aureus infections. METHODS: We established a murine model of skin and soft tissue infection with S...

Inhalation of fine particulate matter PM2.5 -bound arsenic (PM2.5 -As) may cause significant cardiovascular damage, due to its high concentration, long transmission range, and good absorption efficiency in organisms. However, both the contribution and the effect of the arsenic exposure pathway, with PM2.5 as the medium, on cardiovascular system damage in nonferrous smelting sites remain to be studied. In this work, a one-year site sample collection and analysis work showed that the annual concentration of PM2...

OBJECTIVES: The eradication of leukemia cells while sparing hematopoietic stem cells in the graft before autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant is critical to prevention of leukemia relapse. Proliferating cells have been shown to be more prone to apoptosis than differentiated cells in response to ultraviolet radiation; however, whether leukemia cells are more sensitive to ultraviolet LED radiation than hematopoietic stem cells remains unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compared the in vitro responses between murine leukemia L1210 cells and murine hematopoietic stem cells to 280-nm ultraviolet LED radiation...

Vibrio ( Aliivibrio ) fischeri 's initial rise to fame derived from its alluring production of blue-green light. Subsequent studies to probe the mechanisms underlying this bioluminescence helped the field discover the phenomenon now known as quorum sensing. Orthologs of quorum-sensing regulators (i.e., LuxR and LuxI) originally identified in V. fischeri were subsequently uncovered in a plethora of bacterial species, and analogous pathways were found in yet others. Over the past three decades, the study of this microbe has greatly expanded to probe the unique role of V...

Artiodactyls exhibit a striking diversity of the cervical vertebral column in terms of length and overall mobility. Using finite element analysis, this study explores the morphology at the cervico-thoracic boundary and its performance under loads in artiodactyls with different habitual neck postures and body sizes. The first thoracic vertebra of 36 species was loaded with (i) a compressive load on the vertebral body to model the weight of the head and neck exerted onto the trunk; and (ii) a tensile load at the spinous process to model the pull via the nuchal ligament...