Safety evaluation and treatment affect of LY2190416, a CB-1 antagonist/inverse agonist in growing beagle dogs

The objective of this study was to assess the safe use of LY2190416, a cannabinoid receptor 1 receptor antagonist/inverse agonist, for obesity management in dogs. Twenty-four clinically normal young beagle dogs were administered LY2190416 at doses of 3, 9, or 18 mg/kg or placebo, orally, once daily for 13 weeks. Food consumption and body weight were determined, and dogs were evaluated for changes in hematology, clinical chemistry, urinalysis, and serum cortisol. LY2190416 had no significant effect on hematology, clinical chemistry, urinalysis, and serum cortisol. All dogs consumed 100% of their entire daily allowance throughout the study. All dogs gained weight during the study, but treated dogs gained less than control dogs by the end of the study. During the first month, dogs exhibited a dose-dependent decrease in rate of weight gain (19.7 g/day for control dogs vs. 10.6 g/day for the 18 mg/kg dose group). LY2190416 was found to be safe at doses up to 18 mg/kg administered daily for 3 months. Results suggest that LY2190416 decreases rate of weight gain without affecting appetite or causing significant adverse health effects in normal growing dogs. Possible mechanisms for a proposed metabolic effect are discussed.

Identification of potential CSF biomarkers in ALS

BACKGROUND

The clinical diagnosis of ALS is based entirely on clinical features. Identification of biomarkers for ALS would be important for diagnosis and might also provide clues to pathogenesis.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if there is a specific protein profile in the CSF that distinguishes patients with ALS from those with purely motor peripheral neuropathy (PN) and healthy control subjects.

METHODS

CSF obtained from patients with ALS, disease controls (patients with other neurologic disorders), and normal controls were analyzed using the surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry proteomics technique. Biomarker sensitivity and specificity was calculated with receiver operating characteristic curve methodology. ALS biomarkers were purified and sequence identified by mass spectrometry-directed peptide sequencing.

RESULTS

In initial proteomic discovery studies, three protein species (4.8-, 6.7-, and 13.4-kDa) that were significantly lower in concentration in the CSF from patients with ALS (n = 36) than in normal controls (n = 21) were identified. A combination of three protein species (the "three-protein" model) correctly identified patients with ALS with 95% accuracy, 91% sensitivity, and 97% specificity from the controls. Independent validation studies using separate cohorts of ALS (n = 13), healthy control (n = 25), and PN (n = 7) subjects confirmed the ability of the three CSF protein species to separate patients with ALS from other diseases. Protein sequence analysis identified the 13.4-kDa protein species as cystatin C and the 4.8-kDa protein species as a peptic fragment of the neurosecretory protein VGF.

CONCLUSION

Additional application of a "three-protein" biomarker model to current diagnostic criteria may provide an objective biomarker pattern to help identify patients with ALS.

Tolerance of high-dose (3,000 mg/day) coenzyme Q10 in ALS

An open-label dose-escalation trial was performed to assess the safety and tolerability of high doses of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) in ALS. CoQ10, a cofactor in mitochondrial electron transfer, may improve the mitochondrial dysfunction in ALS. In this study, CoQ10 was safe and well tolerated in 31 subjects treated with doses as high as 3,000 mg/day for 8 months.

Upregulation of prostate-specific membrane antigen after androgen-deprivation therapy

OBJECTIVES

To determine the expression of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) before and after androgen-deprivation therapy and to compare PSMA expression with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) expression.

METHODS

We studied specimens from 20 patients with prostate cancer undergoing medical or surgical castration or combination androgen-deprivation therapy in whom matched pretreatment and post-treatment tissue specimens were available and 16 patients in whom only a post-treatment specimen was available. The expression of PSMA and PSA in the tissue specimens was determined by immunoperoxidase staining. The extent of staining was calculated by multiplying the percent of antigen-positive tumor cells by the staining intensity to arrive at a stain index for each biomarker. An in vitro study assessed the concentration of PSMA and PSA in extracts of LNCaP cells cultured in the presence or absence of androgen as determined by immunoassays and Western blot analysis.

RESULTS

PSMA reactivity was found to be increased in 55% (11 of 20) of post-treatment primary tissues and 100% (4 of 4) of post-treatment metastatic specimens. In contrast, PSA expression was found to be decreased in 70% (14 of 20) of post-treatment primary and 100% (4 of 4) of post-treatment metastatic specimens. Neither type of androgen-deprivation treatment nor tissue sensitivity to androgen deprivation appeared to influence degree of biomarker expression. PSMA was found to be downregulated and PSA upregulated when LNCaP cells were cultured in the presence of testosterone or dihydrotestosterone.

CONCLUSIONS

The enhanced expression of PSMA in tissues and LNCaP cells after androgen deprivation suggests that PSMA is upregulated in the majority of prostate carcinomas after androgen treatment. The high expression in metastatic tissues strongly suggests that PSMA may be a clinically useful target for antibody-and genetic-directed therapy of prostate cancer that recurs after androgen deprivation. The mechanism whereby androgens suppress the expression of PSMA, and the association of PSMA with the development of hormone-independent prostate cancers, will require further study.

Lack of magainin-like activity in human cervical tissue

PROBLEM

The cervix plays an integral role in innate immunity of the human reproductive tract. Magainins are antimicrobial and spermicidal peptides recently described in human submandibular glands. We investigated the human cervix for magainin-like peptides.

METHOD

Histologic sections of frozen and paraffin embedded cervical tissue from nine subjects were separately incubated with two rabbit, polyclonal, anti-magainin antibodies (CB-2 and CB-7) to investigate for magainin-like activity in the human cervix.

RESULTS

There was no specific staining of cervical columnar cells within the endocervical canal or in the endocervical crypts. Magainin-like immunoreactivity in the human submandibular gland confirmed previous observations.

CONCLUSION

Antigen related to magainin-like peptides were not discovered in the human cervix.

Two-Site Monoclonal Antibody-Based Immunoradiometric Assay for Measuring Prostate Secretory Protein in Serum

We developed a double-determinant immunoradiometric assay for measuring serum prostate secretory protein (PSP), using monoclonal antibodies (MAb) against two different epitopes: MAb PSP-19 was the capture antibody and MAb PSP-6 was the tracer antibody. Assay sensitivity was 0.1 microgram/L. Analytical recovery of PSP was 93.5-104.6%, whereas the intra- and interassay mean CVs were 4.2% and 6.9%, respectively. In 92 normal men, ages greater than 50 years, the mean PSP concentration was 5.7 micrograms/L, with 10 (10.9%) men having concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/L. In contrast, 20 of 49 (40.8%) patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH; mean PSP concentration 9.4 micrograms/L) and 46 of 100 (46%) patients with prostate cancer (mean PSP concentration 22.2 micrograms/L) had PSP concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/L. Mean serum PSP concentrations of the BPH (P less than 0.05) and prostate cancer (P less than 0.01) groups were significantly different from those of age-matched normal men. In a small group of patients, serial PSP concentrations correlated with the clinical course during therapy. Thus, PSP may be a useful marker for evaluating patients with prostate cancer.

Two-site monoclonal antibody-based immunoradiometric assay for measuring prostate secretory protein in serum

We developed a double-determinant immunoradiometric assay for measuring serum prostate secretory protein (PSP), using monoclonal antibodies (MAb) against two different epitopes: MAb PSP-19 was the capture antibody and MAb PSP-6 was the tracer antibody. Assay sensitivity was 0.1 microgram/L. Analytical recovery of PSP was 93.5-104.6%, whereas the intra- and interassay mean CVs were 4.2% and 6.9%, respectively. In 92 normal men, ages greater than 50 years, the mean PSP concentration was 5.7 micrograms/L, with 10 (10.9%) men having concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/L. In contrast, 20 of 49 (40.8%) patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH; mean PSP concentration 9.4 micrograms/L) and 46 of 100 (46%) patients with prostate cancer (mean PSP concentration 22.2 micrograms/L) had PSP concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/L. Mean serum PSP concentrations of the BPH (P less than 0.05) and prostate cancer (P less than 0.01) groups were significantly different from those of age-matched normal men. In a small group of patients, serial PSP concentrations correlated with the clinical course during therapy. Thus, PSP may be a useful marker for evaluating patients with prostate cancer.

Effects of conjugated estrogen on the calcitriol response to parathyroid hormone in postmenopausal women

We evaluated the effects of estrogen on the calcitriol response to the active peptide, human PTH(1-34), in postmenopausal women. Fifteen women were studied before and again after at least 1 month of treatment with conjugated equine estrogens, 1.25 mg/day. Six women received two series of four graded peptide infusions, each with the sequence 200, 400, 800, and 1600 USP U hPTH(1-34). Nine women received only one dose of peptide, either 200 or 800 U, before and while taking estrogen. Baseline values and the incremental and percent changes in circulating calcitriol 24 h after the 20-min infusions were evaluated. Estrogen treatment resulted in significant reductions in blood levels of calcium (2.26 +/- 0.03 mmol/L vs. 2.16 +/- 0.02, P less than 0.05) and phosphorus (1.23 +/- .05 mmol/L vs. 1.14 +/- 0.03, P less than 0.005), a rise in serum calcitriol concentrations (42.2 +/- 3.9 pg/mL vs. 28.6 +/- 3.1, P less than 0.005), and no change in circulating PTH. The rise in calcitriol after 200 U hPTH(1-34) was significantly greater on estrogen (17.6 +/- 2.0 pg/mL vs. 9.5 +/- 1.8, P less than 0.01), but estrogen did not alter incremental responses to larger doses. When results were normalized for differences in baseline values, the estrogen-related change in response to 200 U was no longer significant. hPTH(1-34) acutely increased urinary clearance of cAMP and phosphorus, but estrogen did not affect this response. We conclude that exogenous estrogen does not increase renal sensitivity to PTH in postmenopausal women.

Effects of estrogen on daylong circulating calcium, phosphorus, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, and parathyroid hormone in postmenopausal women

We studied the effects of estrogen on daylong circulating levels of calcium, inorganic phosphorus, parathyroid hormone (PTH), and 1,25-(OH)2D3 (calcitriol) in a group of 10 postmenopausal women (68.5 +/- 1.4 years, mean +/- SEM). The study was conducted under strict dietary control, with mean calcium and phosphorus intakes of 845 and 970 mg. After treatment with conjugated equine estrogens, 1.25 mg/day, for 1 month, significant decreases in fasting (0800 h) serum levels were observed for calcium (9.09 +/- 0.08 versus 9.46 +/- 0.10 mg/dl, p less than 0.01) and phosphorus (3.38 +/- 0.10 versus 3.73 +/- 0.08 mg/dl, p less than 0.01). On the 0800 h fasting specimen, midmolecule PTH concentrations were higher (44.0 +/- 7.9 versus 34 +/- 8.2 pg/ml, p less than 0.05), but intact PTH was unchanged (28.6 +/- 2.7 versus 29.1 +/- 1.7 pg/ml) and a rise in circulating calcitriol (39.8 +/- 4.3 versus 31.6 +/- 2.1 pg/ml) was marginally significant (p = 0.07). When data represented multiple samples averaged over 7 and 15 h, significant estrogen-related reductions in serum calcium and phosphorus concentrations were observed. In addition, estrogen was associated with a significant rise in the daylong (15 h) level of calcitriol (39.4 +/- 4 versus 30.5 +/- 2.4 pg/ml, p less than 0.01). Daylong mid- and intact PTH concentrations were unchanged on estrogen compared to baseline values. No significant correlations were observed between changes in fasting calcitriol level and changes in fasting concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, or PTH. Further, the rise in daylong calcitriol concentration did not correlate significantly with changes in fasting or integrated values of calcium or PTH.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Generation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to prostate secretory protein

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were produced against a highly purified preparation of prostate secretory protein (PSP) isolated from normal seminal plasma. Fifteen antibodies were selected for further evaluation based on their strong reactivity and specificity for PSP. All the MAbs had a specificity for prostate epithelial cells and none reacted to any of a variety of normal tissues as determined by immunoperoxidase staining. Six of the MAbs were selected for further immunohistochemical evaluation based on their ability to recognize different antigenic determinants. Using competitive binding immunoassays, a variety of overlapping specificities were observed with at least 2 distinct epitopes identified. Although some staining variability was noted, the 6 antibodies, in general, gave the same pattern of tissue reactivity. Both the normal prostate and the benign prostate hyperplastic ductal epithelial cells stained intensely, with 78 to 100% and 50-100% of the cells staining, respectively. The number and often the staining intensity of the tumor cells decreased as the tumor became more undifferentiated. Approximately 40 to 100% and 15 to 70% of the tumor cells stained in the moderately-differentiated and well-differentiated carcinoma tissues, respectively, whereas either no staining was observed or less than 20% of the tumor cells stained in the poorly-differentiated and undifferentiated tumors. Most of the metastatic prostate tumors showed either no staining or scattered staining in a few cells (i.e., less than 20%).