Health is Gold
I have added this new page in hopes of helping you keep up with the latest research as well as well known research and ideas that will benefit our goldens and keep them as healthy and happy as we can. Anything you read and decide to try is at your own risk. I am not responsible for any failures that the remedies/research on this page suggest. All remedies/research have been used successfully but either myself or other breeders/owners over the years around the world, but as in all things nothing is 100% proof.
GILBERTS’ K-9 SEMINARS NEWS & REVIEW
VOLUME 8 ISSUE 8, Part 1 August 2011
Copyright © 2011 by Gilberts’ K-9 Seminars
PROTEIN MAY HELP DIAGNOSE AND TREAT LYMPHOMA IN PEOPLE AND DOGS – UC Davis Vet. School
July 14, 2011 A protein that appears to play a key role in the formation of lymphoma and other tumors by inhibiting a tumor-suppressing gene has been identified by a team of veterinary and human medicine researchers at the University of California, Davis.
The researchers suggest that the newly identified protein may be a potential target for diagnosing and treating lymphoma in humans and animals. They reported their findings July 15 in the journal Genes & Development.
“Results from this study suggest that a gene known as RNPC1 may play a key role in the development of lymphoma,” said Xinbin Chen, a veterinary oncologist with appointments in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the UC Davis School of Medicine. Chen led the study.
About lymphoma
Lymphoma refers to a group of blood cancers that start in the lymphatic system, a network of lymph vessels and lymph nodes that play a vital role in the body’s immune system.
Lymphoma occurs when a type of white cell, known as a lymphocyte, undergoes a malignant change and begins to multiply out of control. As the lymphocytes multiply rapidly, they eventually crowd out normal, healthy cells. In time, the cancerous lymphocytes accumulate in the lymph nodes, liver, spleen and other locations in the body.
Lymphoma occurs spontaneously in dogs, representing 6 percent of all canine cancers. It is remarkably similar to lymphoma in humans.
Cancer and the P53 gene
For three decades, researchers have known that a gene referred to as p53 plays an important role in suppressing cancer. This tumor suppressor gene checks cells’ DNA for mutations that might cause cancer and then stops cell growth until the mutations can be repaired. If the mutations can’t be repaired, p53 triggers cell death to prevent cancer from developing.
But if something goes awry, p53 itself can mutate and produce undesirable proteins. Earlier studies have shown that mutated proteins produced by p53 are present in 60 percent of all cancerous human tumors. More recent studies have also shown that p53 can be inactivated in human cancers by means other than mutation. In short, when p53 and the process it controls are damaged, cancer often occurs.
In recent years, scientists, including Chen and his colleagues at UC Davis, have found that p53 mutations also are active in the formation or cancerous tumors in other mammals, including dogs, cats and horses.
About the RNPC1 gene
Because defects in p53 are so common in human and animal cancers, researchers have been extremely interested in how the activity of the gene is regulated. This led the UC Davis team to examine the RNPC1 gene.
RNPC1 is known to be an RNA-binding protein, regulating how other genes produce proteins. The UC Davis researchers suspected that RNPC1 might play a role in causing lymphomas by inactivating the p53 gene.
Findings from the UC Davis study
In their new study, the researchers examined several types of human cancer cells as well as cells isolated from a mouse embryo, known as embryonic mouse fibroblasts.
The team showed that the RNPC1 gene inhibited the activity of the p53 gene and reduced levels of the p53 protein in these cells. Conversely, p53 protein levels increased when RNPC1 was out of the picture.
Because the RNPC1 gene is located at a chromosome that is frequently overexpressed in human cancers, including lymphomas, the researchers examined the expression of RNPC1 in spontaneously occurring dog lymphomas and in noncancerous canine lymph node tissue. (The dog lymph node samples were provided with the permission of the owners; all of the dogs in the study were patients at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.)
Data from the dog lymphoma tests showed that the RNPC1 gene is frequently overactive in dog lymphomas and may, as suspected, play a role in the formation of lymphomas by inactivating the p53 gene.
Implications for human medicine
“Our findings are consistent with data from other cancer studies, which showed that RNPC1 is highly expressed in human cancers,” Chen said. “This suggests that further studies are needed to analyze the expression of patterns of both RNPC1 and p53 in human tumor tissues.”
He noted that because dogs and humans alike are vulnerable to lymphoma, and similar gene processes may be at work in each species, the dog may serve both as a valuable sentinel for environmental causes of the disease and as a model for exploring its causes and treatments.
UC Davis is at the forefront of efforts to coordinate animal and human cancer research to improve cancer treatment for people as well as pets. The UC Davis Cancer Center’s Integrated Cancer Research Program, a collaboration of more than 200 investigators from more than a dozen scientific disciplines, includes 19 veterinary oncologists and basic scientists at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
The study was funded in part by the National Institutes for Health.
In addition to Chen, the UC Davis research team included Jin Zhang, project scientist; Seong-Jun Cho, postdoctoral fellow; Limin Shu, postdoctoral fellow; Wensheng Yan, project scientist; Teri Guerrero, clinical trials coordinator; Associate Professor Michael Kent; and Assistant Professor Katherine Skorupski; all of the Comparative Cancer Center, UC Davis Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; and Professor Hongwu Chen of the UC Davis Cancer Center.
This news release was distributed July 14 by UC Davis News Service.PROTEIN MAY HELP DIAGNOSE AND TREAT LYMPHOMA IN PEOPLE AND DOGS
Written by:
Laurinda Morris, DVM
Danville Veterinary Clinic
Danville, OH
This week I had the first case in history of raisin
toxicity ever seen at MedVet. My patient was
a 56-pound, 5 yr old male neutered lab mix
that ate half a canister of raisins sometime
between 7:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Tuesday. He
started with vomiting, diarrhea and shaking
about 1 AM on Wednesday but the owner didn’t
call my emergency service until 7 AM.
I had heard somewhere about raisins AND
grapes causing acute Renal failure but hadn’t
seen any formal paper on the subject. We
had her bring the dog in immediately. In the
meantime, I called the ER service at MedVet,
and the doctor there was like me – had heard
something about it, but… Anyway, we
contacted the ASPCA National Animal Poison
Control Center and they said to give IV fluids
at 1 & 1/2 times maintenance and watch the
kidney values for the next 48-72 hours.
The dog’s BUN (blood urea nitrogen level) was
already at 32 (normal less than 27) and
creatinine over 5 (1.9 is the high end of normal).
Both are monitors of kidney function in the
bloodstream. We placed an IV catheter and
started the fluids. Rechecked the renal values
at 5 PM and the BUN was over 40 and creatinine
over 7 with no urine production after a liter of
fluids. At that point I felt the dog was in acute
renal failure and sent him on to MedVet for a
urinary catheter to monitor urine output overnight
as well as overnight care.
He started vomiting again overnight at MedVet
and his renal values continued to increase
daily. He produced urine when given lasix as a
diuretic. He was on 3 different anti-vomiting
medications and they still couldn’t control his
vomiting. Today his urine output decreased
again, his BUN was over 120, his creatinine was
at 10, his phosphorus was very elevated and his
blood pressure, which had been staying around
150, skyrocketed to 220 … He continued to vomit
and the owners elected to Euthanize.
This is a very sad case – great dog, great owners
who had no idea raisins could be a toxin. Please
alert everyone you know who has a dog of this
very serious risk.
Poison control said as few as 7 raisins or grapes could
be toxic. Many people I know give their dogs grapes
or raisins as treats including our ex-handler’s. Any
exposure should give rise to immediate concern.
Onions, chocolate, cocoa, avocados
and macadamia nuts can be fatal, too.
Even if you don’t have a dog, you might have friends
who do. This is worth passing on to them.
Bone Broth is Excellent Nourishment for Older Pets or Sick Pets