Results suggest that tumor stage, tumor size, and OHE status were significant prognostic factors associated with survival 2 years after surgery in dogs with malignant mammary tumors. Further, either dogs with tumors > or = 5 cm in diameter or dogs with tumors present for > 6 months prior to surgery had a higher risk of having lymph node metastases.

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Purpose To define the dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and pharmacokinetics (PK) of PEP02, a novel liposome-encapsulated irinotecan, in patients with advanced refractory solid tumors.MethodsPatients were enrolled in cohorts of one to three to receive escalating dose of PEP02 in a phase I trial. PEP02, from 60 to 180 mg/m2, was given as a 90-min intravenous infusion, every 3 weeks.ResultsA total of 11 patients were enrolled into three dose levels: 60 (one patient), 120 (six patients) and 180 mg/m2 (four patients). DLT was observed in three patients, one at 120 mg/m2 (grade 3 catheter-related infection) and two at 180 mg/m2 (grade 4 neutropenia lasting for >3 days in one, grade 4 hematological toxicities and grade 4 diarrhea in the other). MTD was determined as 120 mg/m2. Comparing with those after free-form irinotecan in the literature, the dose-normalized PK of SN-38 (the active metabolite) after PEP02 was characterized by lower Cmax, prolonged terminal half-life and higher AUC but with significant inter-individual variation. One patient who died of treatment-related toxicity had significantly higher Cmax and AUC levels of SN-38 than those of the other three patients at 180 mg/m2. Post hoc pharmacogenetic study showed that the patient had a combined heterozygosity genotype of UGT1A1*6/*28. Two patients had objective tumor response.ConclusionsPEP02 apparently modified the PK parameters of irinotecan and SN-38 by liposome encapsulation. The MTD of PEP02 monotherapy at 3-week interval is 120 mg/m2, which will be the recommended dose for future studies.

The germarium, oocytes and embryos of the parthenogenetic viviparous pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum are contained within a single ovariole. This species provides an excellent model for studying how maternally-inherited germ plasm is specified and how it is transferred to primordial germ cells. Previous studies have shown that germ cells are first segregated at the embryonic posterior after formation of the blastoderm. We used two cross-reacting antibodies against the conserved germline markers Vasa and Nanos, which specifically identified these presumptive germ cells, to investigate whether germ cells were determined during early development. We observed randomly-distributed weak expression of Vasa signals in the developing oocyte but no localization in the oocyte segregated from the germarium. Localized Vasa was not apparent until it was detected at the posterior in the embryo undergoing the second nuclear division. Nanos, on the other hand, was localized to a nuage-like structure surrounding the nucleus in the developing and segregated oocytes. At the beginning of the oocyte maturation division, Nanos localization shifted to the posterior and could be identified in successive stages until it was incorporated into the germ cells. Taken together, our results suggest that germ plasm is specified in the developing oocyte and that Nanos is an earlier germline marker than Vasa. Presumptive germ cells stained for Vasa remained at a dorsal location in the egg during middevelopment and then were guided into abdominal segments A1 to A6 during germ-band retraction. We infer that germ cells coalesce with segmented gonadal mesoderm during this period.

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase involved in integrin-

Peanut witches'-broom (PnWB) phytoplasma are obligate bacteria that cause leafy flower symptoms in Catharanthus roseus. The PnWB-mediated leafy flower transitions were studied to understand the mechanisms underlying the pathogen-host interaction; however, our understanding is limited because of the lack of information on the C. roseus genome. In this study, the whole-transcriptome profiles from healthy flowers (HFs) and stage 4 (S4) PnWB-infected leafy flowers of C. roseus were investigated using next-generation sequencing (NGS). More than 60,000 contigs were generated using a de novo assembly approach, and 34.2% of the contigs (20,711 genes) were annotated as putative genes through name-calling, open reading frame determination and gene ontology analyses. Furthermore, a customized microarray based on this sequence information was designed and used to analyze samples further at various stages of PnWB infection. In the NGS profile, 87.8% of the genes showed expression levels that were consistent with those in the microarray profiles, suggesting that accurate gene expression levels can be detected using NGS. The data revealed that defense-related and flowering gene expression levels were altered in S4 PnWB-infected leafy flowers, indicating that the immunity and reproductive stages of C. roseus were compromised. The network analysis suggested that the expression levels of >1,000 candidate genes were highly associated with CrSVP1/2 and CrFT expression, which might be crucial in the leafy flower transition. In conclusion, this study provides a new perspective for understanding plant pathology and the mechanisms underlying the leafy flowering transition caused by host-pathogen interactions through analyzing bioinformatics data obtained using a powerful, rapid high-throughput technique.

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