In News

Veterinary mycoplasmas: updates and knowledge gaps

We are so excited to present this latest research report, commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and STAR-IDAZ International Research Consortium on Animal Health and authored by our own Daniel Ackerman, Laura Roden and Lucy Robinson.

Our team was given the challenge of reviewing all the literature on veterinary mycoplasmas of interest (3500 papers!), selecting those studies that presented important findings, and collating the data from the field into a coherent and engaging summary document that can be used by researchers and policy-makers to help identify important knowledge gaps.

We are super-proud of this work, and have high hopes that it will be a significant help in guiding resources to those areas most in need of further research.

Thanks again to the commissioning team at STAR-IDAZ International Research Consortium on Animal Health for your support during the writing, and to all the researchers who reviewed and made suggestions to improve the report along the way: Georgina Grell, Madeline Newman, Alex Morrow, Nicholas Juleff, Roxann Brooks Motroni DVM, PhD, Rachel Wood, Mark Ackerman, Jeff Caswell, Rohana Dassanayake, Jeff Evans, Patrice Gaurivaud, Bryan Kaplan, Dominiek Maes, Musa Mulongo, Robin Nicholas, Jose Perez-Casal, Sacchini Flavio, Massimo Scacchia and Dan Tucker.

You can read the full report here:
https://lnkd.in/eJzsu4gC

This is not the first time the IEL team have been involved in compiling literature reviews – in fact, it is becoming quite a specialty! We really enjoy digging deep into a subject area and teasing out the ongoing issues and areas for future research. Get in touch if you would like support on a literature review for your topic of interest!

In Client successes

Publication success!

Chao Liu and colleagues have yet another reason to celebrate! Earlier this year, Liu et al. published the results of their single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of paired pre- and post- radiochemotherapy (RCT) tumor biopsies from patients with cervical cancer.

Their findings, published in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, showed that compared to pre-RCT, post-RCT samples exhibited residual epithelial cells expressing MHC class II genes. Here, they also saw accumulated monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells with pro-inflammatory features, and cytotoxic CD16+ natural killer cells. These findings implicate innate immune system activation in cervical cancer after RCT.

This paper serves as an excellent resource, detailing the complexity of the tumor ecosystem and its response to RCT. We are sure that numerous lines of research into new and improved treatments for affected patients will stem from the important findings detailed in this study.

Take a deeper look: https://lnkd.in/du4nxfwq

Well done to everyone involved in this excellent work!

In Client successes

New research article!

Now available to read online: Data from a new study by Lukas Flatz and colleagues show that patients with severe COVID-19 harbor IgA autoantibodies against pulmonary surfactant proteins B and C. These autoantibodies block the function of lung surfactant, potentially contributing to alveolar collapse and poor oxygenation.

These highly relevant findings, published this month in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, will no doubt help clinicians and researchers understand why some patients develop severe symptoms following infection and perhaps even shed light on potential therapeutic interventions for those affected. Check out the full paper, here:https://lnkd.in/dDgKwXdj

Congratulations to all those involved in this study – it was a pleasure to work with you again!

In Client successes

Publication success!

Did you know that the kinase MST1 is involved in endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis following disturbed blood flow in arterial regions?

Ai Ding and colleagues at Tianjin Medical University delved into this role of MST1 in their latest study published in Circulation Research (American Heart Association).

They showed that preserving MST1 kinase activity has an athero-protective effect that is achieved, in part, via MST1-mediated connexin Cx43 phosphorylation in endothelial cells.

The researchers speculate that as MST1 phosphorylation is restrained in response to the stress induced by disturbed blood flow, therapeutics designed around this new axis might prevent atherosclerotic plaques!

Find out more for yourself, here: https://lnkd.in/dX-zi6bp

Well done to all those who contributed to this research – Insight Editing London’s Ilya Demchenko really enjoyed working on this paper with you!

In Client successes

Mesenchymal stromal cells secrete immunosuppressive factors that could have great therapeutic potential. For this reason, they are being tested as a supportive treatment for graft versus host disease (GvHD). But how do these cells respond during fungal infection – a major cause of mortality in patients with GvHD? The latest paper from the Jan Fric lab at St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno, has some answers!

In their study – “NFAT signalling in human mesenchymal stromal cells affects extracellular matrix remodelling and anti-fungal immune responses”  – Tidu et al. show that mesenchymal stromal cells engage the NFAT pathway in response to fungal infection, thus impacting extracellular matrix composition and immune cell functions.

To find out more, download the full text article from iScience today: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102683.

Many congratulations to all the researchers involved in this interesting story!

In Client successes

Congratulations to Sudhanshu Bhushan and colleagues on the publication of their latest manuscript in the PNAS. In this paper the authors identify ontogenic and functional heterogeneity in the macrophage population of murine testis and epididymis under steady-state and infection conditions, leading to important insights into the potential mechanisms underlying inflammation-related male infertility.

Find the full article here: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/1/e2013686117