Search Results (6)

Background: Equine milk, including its whey proteins, is a source of nutrients and functional components in the human diet, and is especially beneficial for people with weakened immune systems, newborns, and athletes. Objectives Whey proteins in equine milk constitute approximately 20% of the total protein content and include various fractions such as albumin, globulin, and lactoferrin. Lactoferrin is one of the most extensively studied whey proteins in equine milk. Methods: HPLC-Mass analysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, modeling of 3D structure and biological activity in silico. Results: It has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties, making it a promising candidate for influencing the various aspects of cardiovascular disease pathogenesis. The products of Lactoferrin hydrolysis by trypsin were confirmed using HPLC. The half-lives of the hydrolysate in the bloodstream and in an intestine-like environment were predicted in silico. Various biological activities (antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, and antiangiogenic) were also estimated in silico and compared with the corresponding activities of lactoferrin hydrolysate amino acid sequences from camel and dromedary milk. Conclusions: The three-dimensional modeling of lactoferrin hydrolysate peptides was performed to support the development of computational models or simulations, as well as to investigate their potential antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, or immune-modulating functions in clinical or nutritional applications. Full article

Obesity has become a serious health problem with frequent occurrence both in human and animal populations. It is estimated that it may affect over 85% of the human population and 70–80% of horses and cows by 2030. Fat cow syndrome (FCS) is a combination of metabolic, digestive, infectious, and reproductive disorders that affects obese periparturient dairy cows, and occurs most frequently in loose-housing systems, where periparturient and dry cows are fed and managed in one group disregarding the lactation stages. Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) was named after human metabolic syndrome (MetS) and has insulin dysregulation as a central and consistent feature. It is often associated with obesity, although EMS may occur in a lean phenotype as well. Other inconsistent features of EMS are cardiovascular changes and adipose dysregulation. Laminitis is the main clinical consequence of EMS. MetS holds a 30-years old lead in research and represents a clustering of risk factors that comprise abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and hyperglycemia (impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes mellitus—T2DM), which are associated with doubled atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk, and a 5-fold increased risk for T2DM. The main aim of this review is to provide critical information for better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of obesity-related metabolic dysfunction in animals, especially in cows and horses, in comparison with MetS. Human medicine studies can offer suitable candidate mechanisms to fill the existing gap in the literature, which might be indispensable for owners to tackle FCS, EMS, and their consequences. Full article

Individuals with atrial fibrillation (AF), especially women, have an increased risk of stroke and death. Although hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is widely used in postmenopausal women, the association between HRT use and AF risk is unclear. We aimed to investigate the association between various types of HRT and AF. This was a population-based retrospective cohort study from The Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (2004–2015). Participants were aged 45–60 years and were free from cardiovascular disease and AF at baseline. Overall, 13,452 (64.03%) women had never received HRT, 5671 (26.99%) had received HRT, and 1885 (8.98%) were currently receiving HRT. In multivariable analysis, the relative hazards for AF were significantly higher among current users (p < 0.001) and lower among past users (p = 0.069). Current users—except those using estradiol-only HRT—had significantly elevated AF risk. Among past users, only estradiol plus progestin HRT users had a reduced AF risk after adjusting for covariates (p = 0.027). Ongoing HRT posed an increased risk of AF. The degree of risk varied based on the specific type of estrogen and progestins co-administration. These findings indicate that, with respect to AF risk, oral estradiol-containing HRT is superior to HRT containing oral conjugated equine estrogen or tibolone. Full article

Proper diagnosis and management of equine cardiac diseases require a broad experience and a specialization in the field, but acquisition of specific knowledge is difficult, due, among other reasons, to the limited literature in this field. Therefore, we have designed, developed, and implemented (on a computer algebra system) a Decision Support System (DSS) for equine cardiovascular diseases diagnosis and management based on clinical practise. At this step it is appropriate for equine science teaching, but this work paves the way for a clinical decision support system that facilitated equine clinicians the management of horses with cardiac diseases, allowing improving health care in this species. The latter would require extensive testing prior to its use. The novelty of this work relies on the organization of the equine cardiology workflow in mathematical logic form, that allowed designing, develop and implement a DSS in this new field. An innovation of this work is the part of the DSS devoted to data completion (motivated by the possible lack of specialization of the users—the veterinarians). Full article

Increasing antimicrobial resistance due to misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, as well as a lack of new and innovative antibiotics in development has become an alarming global threat. Preventative therapeutics, like vaccines, are combative measures that aim to stop infections at the source, thereby decreasing the overall use of antibiotics. Infections due to Gram-negative pathogens pose a significant treatment challenge because of substantial multidrug resistance that is acquired and spread throughout the bacterial population. Burkholderia spp. are Gram-negative intrinsically resistant bacteria that are responsible for environmental and nosocomial infections. The Burkholderia cepacia complex are respiratory pathogens that primarily infect immunocompromised and cystic fibrosis patients, and are acquired through contaminated products and equipment, or via patient-to-patient transmission. The Burkholderia pseudomallei complex causes percutaneous wound, cardiovascular, and respiratory infections. Transmission occurs through direct exposure to contaminated water, water-vapors, or soil, leading to the human disease melioidosis, or the equine disease glanders. Currently there is no licensed vaccine against any Burkholderia pathogen. This review will discuss Burkholderia vaccine candidates derived from outer membrane proteins, OmpA, OmpW, Omp85, and Bucl8, encompassing their structures, conservation, and vaccine formulation. Full article

Cell therapy with a variety of stem populations is increasingly being investigated as a promising regenerative strategy for cardiovascular (CV) diseases. Their combination with adequate scaffolds represents an improved therapeutic approach. Recently, several biomaterials were investigated as scaffolds for CV tissue repair, with decellularized extracellular matrices (dECMs) arousing increasing interest for cardiac tissue engineering applications. The aim of this study was to analyze whether dECMs support the cardiac differentiation of ^{Cardiopoietic}AF stem cells. These perinatal stem cells, which can be easily isolated without ethical or safety limitations, display a high cardiac differentiative potential. Differentiation was previously achieved by culturing them on Matrigel, but this 3D scaffold is not transplantable. The identification of a new transplantable scaffold able to support ^{Cardiopoietic}AF stem cell cardiac differentiation is pivotal prior to encouraging translation of in vitro studies in animal model preclinical investigations. Our data demonstrated that decellularized extracellular matrices already used in cardiac surgery (the porcine Cor^TMPATCH and the equine MatrixPatch^TM) can efficiently support the proliferation and cardiac differentiation of ^{Cardiopoietic}AF stem cells and represent a useful cellular scaffold to be transplanted with stem cells in animal hosts. Full article