Salmonella spp. infection is a major cause of gastroenteritis, with many thousands of cases reported in the European Union every year. The use of probiotics offers the potential to improve this situation. Here, we investigate the effects of oral treatment of pigs with a defined lactic acid bacteria culture mixture on both clinical and microbiological signs of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium infection. Fifteen weaned pigs blocked by sex and weight were administered control milk or a mixture of five probiotic strains as either a milk fermentate or milk suspension for a total of 30 days. The mixture consisted of two strains of Lactobacillus murinus and one strain each of Lactobacillus salivarius subsp. salivarius, Lactobacillus pentosus, and Pediococcus pentosaceous. Following probiotic administration for 6 days, animals were challenged orally with serovar Typhimurium; the health of the animals and the microbiological composition of their feces were monitored for 23 days postinfection. Animals treated with probiotic showed reduced incidence, severity, and duration of diarrhea. These animals also gained weight at a greater rate than control pigs administered skim milk. Mean fecal numbers of Salmonella were significantly reduced in probiotic-treated animals at 15 days postinfection (P ‫؍‬ 0.01). The administered probiotic bacteria improved both the clinical and microbiological outcome of Salmonella infection. These strains offer significant benefit for use in the food industry and may have potential in human applications.

Five porcine-derived Lactobacillus or Pediococcus isolates administered to pigs (n ‫؍‬ 4), either singly or as a combination at ϳ10 10 CFU per day varied with respect to intestinal survival and persistence. Two Lactobacillus murinus strains survived best and were excreted at ϳ10 7 to 10 8 CFU/g of feces. In contrast, Pediococcus pentosaceus DPC6006 had the lowest fecal count at ϳ10 5 CFU/g and was excreted at a significantly lower level than both L. murinus strains. Fecal L. murinus DPC6003 counts were also significantly higher than both Lactobacillus salivarius DPC6005 and Lactobacillus pentosus DPC6004 (ϳ10 6 CFU/g). The L. murinus strains persisted for at least 9 days postadministration in both the feces and the cecum. Animals fed a combination of all five strains excreted ϳ10 7 CFU of the administered strains/g, with L. murinus predominating, as determined by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR. Postadministration, variation was observed between animals fed the strain combination, but in general, L. murinus DPC6002 and DPC6003 and L. pentosus DPC6004 predominated in the feces and the cecum while P. pentosaceus DPC6006 was detected only in the cecum. Fifteen days after the start of culture administration, mean fecal Enterobacteriaceae counts were significantly lower in some of the treatment groups. In addition, when mean preadministration counts were compared with those obtained after 21 days of culture administration, Enterobacteriaceae counts were reduced by ϳ87 to 98% in pigs fed L. salivarius DPC6005, P. pentosaceus DPC6006, L. pentosus DPC6004, and the culture mix. In conclusion, the porcine intestinal isolates have potential as probiotic feed additives for pigs, with differences in strain performance highlighting the advantages of using culture combinations.

Aims: To identify lactic acid bacteria (LAB) of porcine intestinal origin with anti-Salmonella activity. Methods and Results: Samples were obtained from pig faeces and caeca and screened for the presence of antiSalmonella LAB. The 11 most promising isolates were identified as belonging to the genera Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. The LAB exhibited large variation in their ability to survive in simulated gastric juice at pH 1AE85. While Lactobacillus johnsonii species survived at levels of 80% for up to 30 min, Lactobacillus pentosus species declined to <0AE001% in that time. All isolates tolerated porcine bile at a concentration of 0AE3% (w/v), with some isolates capable of growth in the presence of up to 5% (w/v) bile. The ability of the LAB isolates to prevent Salmonella invasion of intestinal epithelial HT-29 cells varied, with reductions of between 30% (Lact. pentosus) and 80% (Lactobacillus murinus spp.) observed. Conclusions: LAB of porcine origin were observed to survive simulated passage through the GIT and inhibit growth of Salmonella and its invasion of the intestinal epithelium. Significance and Impact of the Study: The data demonstrate that some porcine intestinal LAB isolates may offer potential as probiotics for the reduction of Salmonella carriage in pigs.

Gene therapy-induced expression of immunostimulatory molecules at tumor cell level may evoke antitumor immune mechanisms by recruiting and enhancing viability of antigen-processing cells and specific tumoricidal lymphocytes. The antitumor efficacy of a plasmid, coding for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and the B7-1 costimulatory immune molecule, delivered into growing solid tumors by electroporation was investigated. Murine fibrosarcomas (JBS) growing in Balb/C mice (p100 mm 3 ) were transfected with GM-CSF/B7-1-expressing plasmid. Complete tumor regression occurred in greater than 60% of treated animals. This response was systemic, durable and tumor specific, with all responding animals resistant to repeat tumor challenge. Using a liver metastatic model, effective cure of distal metastases was achieved following treatment of the primary subcutaneous tumor. This treatment strategy could be applicable in the clinical setting for effective elimination of both primary tumors and associated metastatic disease.

Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) is a cell surface antigen expressed in normal human prostate and over expressed in prostate cancer. Elevated levels of PSCA protein in prostate cancer correlate with increased tumor stage/grade, with androgen independence and have higher expression in bone metastases. In this study, the PSCA gene was isolated from the transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate cell line (TRAMPC1), and a vaccine plasmid construct was generated. This plasmid PSCA (pmPSCA) was delivered by intramuscular electroporation (EP) and induced effective antitumor immune responses against subcutaneous TRAMPC1 tumors in male C57 BL/6 mice. The pmPSCA vaccination inhibited tumor growth, resulting in cure or prolongation in survival. Similarly, the vaccine inhibited metastases in PSCA expressing B16 F10 tumors. There was activation of Th-1 type immunity against PSCA, indicating the breaking of tolerance to a self-antigen. This immunity was tumor specific and was transferable by adoptive transfer of splenocytes. The mice remained healthy and there was no evidence of collateral autoimmune responses in normal tissues. EP-assisted delivery of the pmPSCA evoked strong specific responses and could, in neoadjuvant or adjuvant settings, provide a safe and effective immune control of prostate cancer, given that there is significant homology between human and mouse PSCA.

The p21-activated kinase 1 (Pak1) is a serine/threonine kinase whose activity is regulated by both Rho GTPases and AGC kinase family members. It plays a role in cytoskeletal remodeling and cell motility as well as cell proliferation, angiogenesis, tumorigenesis and metastasis. An involvement of Pak1 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which remains highly refractory to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, remains to be investigated. Pak1 expression, phosphorylation and kinase activity were examined in RCC cell lines and human tissue from normal and renal carcinoma. We report increased Pak1 expression and constitutive activity in the membrane and nucleus but not the cytoplasm of resected human RCC. To study a role for Pak1 in RCC, we developed 786-0 clones that expressed either a kinase-active Pak1 L83,L86 2 different Pak1 dominant negative mutants, Pak1 R299 and Pak1 L83,L86,R299 or Pak1 siRNA. The expression of Pak1 L83,L86 increased 786-0 proliferation, motility and anchorage independent growth, while the dominant negative mutants and Pak1 siRNA abrogated these effects. In addition, Pak1 L83,L86 conferred resistance to 5-fluorouracil with a 40% 6 10% increase in cell viability. Conversely, Pak1 L83,L86,R299 , Pak1 R299 and Pak1 siRNA conferred sensitivity with a 65.2% 6 5.5%, 69.2% 6 3.3% and 73.0% 6 8.4% loss in viability, respectively. Finally, Pak1 plays a role in renal tumor growth in vivo. Only 33% of mice developed tumors in the Pak1 L83,L86,R299 group and no tumors developed from Pak1 R299 cell challenge. Together these findings point to Pak1 as an exciting target for therapy of renal cancer, which remains highly refractory to existing treatments. ' 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

No abstract

Obstacles to effective immunotherapeutic anti-cancer approaches include poor immunogenicity of the tumour cells and the presence of tolerogenic mechanisms in the tumour microenvironment. We report an effective immune-based treatment of weakly immunogenic, growing solid tumours using a locally delivered immunogene therapy to promote development of immune effector responses in the tumour microenvironment and a systemic based T regulatory cell (Treg) inactivation strategy to potentiate these responses by elimination of tolerogenic or immune suppressor influences. As the JBS fibrosarcoma is weakly immunogenic and accumulates Treg in its microenvironment with progressive growth, we used this tumour model to test our combined immunotherapies. Plasmids encoding GM-CSF and B7-1 were electrically delivered into 100 mm 3 tumours; Treg inactivation was accomplished by systemic administration of anti-CD25 antibody (Ab). Using this approach, we found that complete elimination of tumours was achieved at a level of 60% by immunogene therapy, 25% for Treg inactivation and 90% for combined therapies. Moreover, we found that these responses were immune transferable, systemic, tumour specific and durable. Combined gene-based immune effector therapy and Treg inactivation represents an effective treatment for weakly antigenic solid growing tumours and that could be considered for clinical development.