Designing Relevant Preclinical Rodent Models for Studying Links Between Nutrition, Obesity, Metabolism, and Cancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine M. Glenny ◽  
Michael F. Coleman ◽  
Erin D. Giles ◽  
Elizabeth A. Wellberg ◽  
Stephen D. Hursting

Diet and nutrition are intricately related to cancer prevention, growth, and treatment response. Preclinical rodent models are a cornerstone to biomedical research and remain instrumental in our understanding of the relationship between cancer and diet and in the development of effective therapeutics. However, the success rate of translating promising findings from the bench to the bedside is suboptimal. Well-designed rodent models will be crucial to improving the impact basic science has on clinical treatment options. This review discusses essential experimental factors to consider when designing a preclinical cancer model with an emphasis on incorporating these models into studies interrogating diet, nutrition, and metabolism. The aims of this review are to ( a) provide insight into relevant considerations when designing cancer models for obesity, nutrition, and metabolism research; ( b) identify common pitfalls when selecting a rodent model; and ( c) discuss strengths and limitations of available preclinical models. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Nutrition, Volume 41 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Author(s):  
Elliott S. Chiu ◽  
Sue VandeWoude

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) serve as markers of ancient viral infections and provide invaluable insight into host and viral evolution. ERVs have been exapted to assist in performing basic biological functions, including placentation, immune modulation, and oncogenesis. A subset of ERVs share high nucleotide similarity to circulating horizontally transmitted exogenous retrovirus (XRV) progenitors. In these cases, ERV–XRV interactions have been documented and include ( a) recombination to result in ERV–XRV chimeras, ( b) ERV induction of immune self-tolerance to XRV antigens, ( c) ERV antigen interference with XRV receptor binding, and ( d) interactions resulting in both enhancement and restriction of XRV infections. Whereas the mechanisms governing recombination and immune self-tolerance have been partially determined, enhancement and restriction of XRV infection are virus specific and only partially understood. This review summarizes interactions between six unique ERV–XRV pairs, highlighting important ERV biological functions and potential evolutionary histories in vertebrate hosts. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, Volume 9 is February 16, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Degeest ◽  
P Corthals ◽  
I Dhooge ◽  
H Keppler

AbstractObjective:This study aimed to determine the characteristics of tinnitus and tinnitus-related variables and explore their possible relationship with tinnitus-related handicap.Methods:Eighty-one patients with chronic tinnitus were included. The study protocol measured hearing status, tinnitus pitch, loudness, maskability and loudness discomfort levels. All patients filled in the Tinnitus Sample Case History Questionnaire, the Hyperacusis Questionnaire and the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory. The relationship of each variable with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses.Results:Five univariables were associated with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score: loudness discomfort level, subjective tinnitus loudness, tinnitus awareness, noise intolerance and Hyperacusis Questionnaire score. Multiple regression analysis showed that the Hyperacusis Questionnaire score and tinnitus awareness were independently associated with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score.Conclusion:Hyperacusis and tinnitus awareness were independently associated with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory score. Questionnaires on tinnitus and hyperacusis are especially suited to providing additional insight into tinnitus-related handicap and are therefore useful for evaluating tinnitus patients.


2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. E8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Womeldorff ◽  
David Gillespie ◽  
Randy L. Jensen

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumor with an exceptionally poor patient outcome despite aggressive therapy including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. This aggressive phenotype may be associated with intratumoral hypoxia, which probably plays a key role in GBM tumor growth, development, and angiogenesis. A key regulator of cellular response to hypoxia is the protein hypoxia-inducible factor–1 (HIF-1). An examination of upstream hypoxic and nonhypoxic regulation of HIF-1 as well as a review of the downstream HIF-1–regulated proteins may provide further insight into the role of this transcription factor in GBM pathophysiology. Recent insights into upstream regulators that intimately interact with HIF-1 could provide potential therapeutic targets for treatment of this tumor. The same is potentially true for HIF-1–mediated pathways of glycolysis-, angiogenesis-, and invasion-promoting proteins. Thus, an understanding of the relationship between HIF-1, its upstream protein regulators, and its downstream transcribed genes in GBM pathogenesis could provide future treatment options for the care of patients with these tumors.


Author(s):  
Lennart Fries

For many years, food engineers have attempted to describe physical phenomena such as heat and mass transfer in food via mathematical models. Still, the impact and benefits of computer-aided engineering are less established in food than in most other industries today. Complexity in the structure and composition of food matrices are largely responsible for this gap. During processing of food, its temperature, moisture, and structure can change continuously, along with its physical properties. We summarize the knowledge foundation, recent progress, and remaining limitations in modeling food particle systems in four relevant areas: flowability, size reduction, drying, and granulation and agglomeration. Our goal is to enable researchers in academia and industry dealing with food powders to identify approaches to address their challenges with adequate model systems or through structural and compositional simplifications. With advances in computer simulation capacity, detailed particle-scale models are now available for many applications. Here, we discuss aspects that require further attention, especially related to physics-based contact models for discrete-element models of food particle systems. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Volume 12 is June 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Schreyer

Constructed languages, also known as conlangs, are languages that have been purposefully created for either real-world or fictional speakers. Within this article, I provide a summary of the language creation process and how the community of conlangers, people who make languages, come to know each other's work, as well as how language creation assignments are being adopted within university classrooms. I also explore the role of the language creator in bringing a community of speakers into existence through the invention of a language. I discuss whether speakers of a constructed language are part of a community of practice or a speech community and the implications for this distinction within anthropology. I also describe conscripts, or constructed orthographies, as well as the relationship between endangered languages and constructed languages, how invented worlds can create real-world shifts in worldview, and suggestions for new directions in research linking anthropology and constructed languages. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 50 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Walker

The Department of Justice's pattern-or-practice police reform program has been an unprecedented event in American policing, intervening in local and state law enforcement agencies as never before and requiring a sweeping package of reforms. The program has reached reform settlements with forty agencies, including twenty with judicially enforced consent decrees. Academic research on the program, however, has been fairly modest. Social scientists have largely focused on a few selected issues. There is no study of the full impact of the program on one agency, and there is no comprehensive study of the impact of the program as a whole. Evaluations of individual agencies have been generally favorable, although with backsliding in some agencies. This review argues that the combination of several major goals and the various elements of specific consent decree reforms have created a web of accountability that is unmatched by any previous police reform effort. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Fisher ◽  
Frank Pasmans ◽  
An Martel

Ancient enzootic associations between wildlife and their infections allow evolution to innovate mechanisms of pathogenicity that are counterbalanced by host responses. However, erosion of barriers to pathogen dispersal by globalization leads to the infection of hosts that have not evolved effective resistance and the emergence of highly virulent infections. Global amphibian declines driven by the rise of chytrid fungi and chytridiomycosis are emblematic of emerging infections. Here, we review how modern biological methods have been used to understand the adaptations and counteradaptations that these fungi and their amphibian hosts have evolved. We explore the interplay of biotic and abiotic factors that modify the virulence of these infections and dissect the complexity of this disease system. We highlight progress that has led to insights into how we might in the future lessen the impact of these emerging infections. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Microbiology, Volume 75 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Schlick ◽  
Stephanie Portillo-Ledesma ◽  
Christopher G. Myers ◽  
Lauren Beljak ◽  
Justin Chen ◽  
...  

We reassess progress in the field of biomolecular modeling and simulation, following up on our perspective published in 2011. By reviewing metrics for the field's productivity and providing examples of success, we underscore the productive phase of the field, whose short-term expectations were overestimated and long-term effects underestimated. Such successes include prediction of structures and mechanisms; generation of new insights into biomolecular activity; and thriving collaborations between modeling and experimentation, including experiments driven by modeling. We also discuss the impact of field exercises and web games on the field's progress. Overall, we note tremendous success by the biomolecular modeling community in utilization of computer power; improvement in force fields; and development and application of new algorithms, notably machine learning and artificial intelligence. The combined advances are enhancing the accuracy and scope of modeling and simulation, establishing an exemplary discipline where experiment and theory or simulations are full partners. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Biophysics, Volume 50 is May 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Author(s):  
Ioanna Papasolomou

This chapter reveals that the term ‘consumerism' encompasses a number of meanings which create confusion regarding the term. The discussion that follows, attempts to distinguish the different perspectives regarding the term by presenting its historical development and discussing the three definitions that have marked it. It explores the relationship between consumerism, marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The growth of consumerism has led to the over-use of marketing which provided a flourishing ground for compulsive buying and consumption. There is evidence in the literature to suggest that in an era of increasing social problems and environmental challenges, there is a need for CSR and sustainable marketing. In fact, the second definition of consumerism is inextricably linked with CSR and societal marketing. The chapter is conceptual in nature and provides an in-depth review and discussion of some fundamental dimensions associated to consumerism based on the existent literature. The overarching aim is to provide an insight into the evolution and growth of consumerism based on the existent literature related to the topic. The discussion also focuses on exploring the relationship between marketing and consumerism shedding light onto compulsive buying, consumer attitudes and concerns on the micro consumerism issues, sustainable consumption and sustainable marketing. The chapter proceeds to raise some concerns related to the impact of the global economic crisis on consumerism by using as an example Cyprus based on the author's observations and thoughts. The chapter concludes with a list of suggestions to practitioners and directions for future research.


Author(s):  
Alicia M. McConnell ◽  
Haley R. Noonan ◽  
Leonard I. Zon

Zebrafish are rapidly becoming a leading model organism for cancer research. The genetic pathways driving cancer are highly conserved between zebrafish and humans, and the ability to easily manipulate the zebrafish genome to rapidly generate transgenic animals makes zebrafish an excellent model organism. Transgenic zebrafish containing complex, patient-relevant genotypes have been used to model many cancer types. Here we present a comprehensive review of transgenic zebrafish cancer models as a resource to the field and highlight important areas of cancer biology that have yet to be studied in the fish. The ability to image cancer cells and niche biology in an endogenous tumor make zebrafish an indispensable model organism in which we can further understand the mechanisms that drive tumorigenesis and screen for potential new cancer therapies. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Cancer Biology, Volume 5 is March 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


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