Introgression of chromosomal segments conferring early heading date from wheat diploid progenitor, Aegilops tauschii Coss., into Japanese elite wheat cultivars

The breeding of agriculturally useful genes from wild crop relatives must take into account recent and future climate change. In Japan, the development of early heading wheat cultivars without the use of any major gene controlling the heading date is desired to avoid overlap of the harvesting time before the rainy season. Here, we backcrossed two early heading lines of a synthetic hexaploid wheat, derived from a crossing between durum wheat and the wild wheat progenitor Aegilops tauschii, with four Japanese elite cultivars to develop early heading lines of bread wheat. In total, nine early heading lines that showed a heading date two to eight days earlier than their parental cultivars in field conditions were selected and established from the selfed progenies of the two- or three-times backcrossed populations. The whole appearance and spike shape of the selected early heading lines looked like their parental wheat cultivars. The mature grains of the selected lines had the parental cultivars’ characteristics, although the grains exhibited longer and narrower shapes. RNA sequencing-based genotyping was performed to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms between the selected lines and their parental wheat cultivars, which revealed the chromosomal regions transmitted from the parental synthetic wheat to the selected lines. The introgression regions could shorten wheat heading date, and their chromosomal positions were dependent on the backcrossed wheat cultivars. Therefore, early heading synthetic hexaploid wheat is useful for fine-tuning of the heading date through introgression of Ae. tauschii chromosomal regions.

Evaluation of the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetic profile of oral recombinant human parathyroid hormone [rhPTH(1-31)NH(2)] in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis

CONTEXT

Treatment of osteoporosis with subcutaneous (SC) injections of rhPTH(1-34) or rhPTH(1-84) is associated with significant improvements in BMD and reductions in osteoporotic fractures. However, subcutaneous injections can be associated with discomfort and thus deteriorating compliance.

OBJECTIVE

The UGL-OR1001 trial aimed to establish the efficacy and safety parameters of a novel oral tablet formulation of rhPTH(1-31)NH(2) and matching placebo tablets and open-label teriparatide positive control in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.

DESIGN

24 weeks of randomized, double-blind treatment with once daily doses of 5mg oral treatment or corresponding placebo, or open-label subcutaneous teriparatide.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Women diagnosed with postmenopausal osteoporosis as detected by lumbar spine DXA, with an exclusion of those with prior treatment with bone active agents.

INTERVENTION(S)

Orally formulated recombinant human PTH(1-31)NH(2) and placebo, or open-label subcutaneous teriparatide as a positive control.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

The primary endpoint was to characterize the percent change from baseline in bone mineral density (BMD) at L1-L4 axial lumbar spine after 24 weeks in the rhPTH(1-31)NH(2) arm. Secondary and exploratory endpoints included safety and tolerability of the oral formulation, measurement of biochemical markers of bone turnover, and evaluation of the PK profile at first and last dose. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the identifier: NCT01321723.

RESULTS

The oral tablet formulation of rhPTH(1-31)NH(2) resulted in similar PK profiles at both timepoints with mean C(max) values similar to subcutaneous administration. In the rhPTH(1-31)NH(2) arm, a 2.2% increase in lumbar spine BMD was observed compared to baseline (p<0.001), while no change was observed in the placebo arm. Open-label teriparatide resulted in a 5.1% increase in LS BMD (p<0.001). In the oral PTH study arm, the bone formation marker osteocalcin was increased by 32%, 21% and 23% at Weeks 4, 12 and 24, respectively. There was no significant increase in the level of the bone resorption marker CTx-1.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, these data demonstrate that enteric-coated oral tablet formulation technology consistently generated robust levels of exposure of rhPTH(1-31)NH(2) leading to induction of bone formation without inducing bone resorption resulting in significantly increased levels of LS BMD. Few adverse events were observed, recommending this orally delivered drug candidate for further development.