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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

A Most Unusual Tail: Scoliosis In A Wild Australian Skink, And Reported Incidences And Suggested Causes Of Similar Malformations Amongst Squamates, Philip W. Bateman, Robyn Benken, Ryan Glowacki, Robert A. Davis May 2022

A Most Unusual Tail: Scoliosis In A Wild Australian Skink, And Reported Incidences And Suggested Causes Of Similar Malformations Amongst Squamates, Philip W. Bateman, Robyn Benken, Ryan Glowacki, Robert A. Davis

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Malformations of vertebrae potentially occur across many taxa, particularly in Testudines, which are susceptible to kyphosis (dorsoventral curvature of the spine). Such malformations may stem from either genetic or environmental origins, and their prevalence and associated impacts on survival remain poorly understood. However, scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) is rarely reported and especially so in wild lizards. We report here on the first known case of scoliosis in a wild Australian lizard, the skink Ctenotus fallens, from Perth, Western Australia. This occurrence is the first of 805 individuals captured in a natural population monitored annually for the past 11 …


Geotemporospatial And Causal Inferential Epidemiological Overview And Survey Of Usa Cannabis, Cannabidiol And Cannabinoid Genotoxicity Expressed In Cancer Incidence 2003–2017: Part 3 – Spatiotemporal, Multivariable And Causal Inferential Pathfinding And Exploratory Analyses Of Prostate And Ovarian Cancers, Albert Stuart Reece, Gary Kenneth Hulse Mar 2022

Geotemporospatial And Causal Inferential Epidemiological Overview And Survey Of Usa Cannabis, Cannabidiol And Cannabinoid Genotoxicity Expressed In Cancer Incidence 2003–2017: Part 3 – Spatiotemporal, Multivariable And Causal Inferential Pathfinding And Exploratory Analyses Of Prostate And Ovarian Cancers, Albert Stuart Reece, Gary Kenneth Hulse

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The epidemiology of cannabinoid-related cancerogenesis has not been studied with cutting edge epidemiological techniques. Building on earlier bivariate papers in this series we aimed to conduct pathfinding studies to address this gap in two tumours of the reproductive tract, prostate and ovarian cancer. Methods: Age-standardized cancer incidence data for 28 tumour types (including “All (non-skin) Cancer”) was sourced from Centres for Disease Control and National Cancer Institute using SEER*Stat software across US states 2001–2017. Drug exposure was sourced from the nationally representative household survey National Survey of Drug Use and Health conducted annually by the Substance Abuse and Mental …


Geotemporospatial And Causal Inferential Epidemiological Overview And Survey Of Usa Cannabis, Cannabidiol And Cannabinoid Genotoxicity Expressed In Cancer Incidence 2003–2017: Part 2 – Categorical Bivariate Analysis And Attributable Fractions, Albert Stuart Reece, Gary Kenneth Hulse Mar 2022

Geotemporospatial And Causal Inferential Epidemiological Overview And Survey Of Usa Cannabis, Cannabidiol And Cannabinoid Genotoxicity Expressed In Cancer Incidence 2003–2017: Part 2 – Categorical Bivariate Analysis And Attributable Fractions, Albert Stuart Reece, Gary Kenneth Hulse

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: As the cannabis-cancer relationship remains an important open question epidemiological investigation is warranted to calculate key metrics including Rate Ratios (RR), Attributable Fractions in the Exposed (AFE) and Population Attributable Risks (PAR) to directly compare the implicated case burden between emerging cannabinoids and the established carcinogen tobacco. Methods: SEER*Stat software from Centres for Disease Control was used to access age-standardized state census incidence of 28 cancer types (including “All (non-skin) Cancer”) from National Cancer Institute in US states 2001–2017. Drug exposures taken from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health 2003–2017, response rate 74.1%. Federal seizure data provided …


Conventional Therapies Deplete Brain-Infiltrating Adaptive Immune Cells In A Mouse Model Of Group 3 Medulloblastoma Implicating Myeloid Cells As Favorable Immunotherapy Targets, Zahra Abbas, Courtney George, Mathew Ancliffe, Meegan Howlett, Anya C. Jones, Mani Kuchibhotla, Robert J. Wechsler-Reya, Nicholas G. Gottardo, Raelene Endersby Mar 2022

Conventional Therapies Deplete Brain-Infiltrating Adaptive Immune Cells In A Mouse Model Of Group 3 Medulloblastoma Implicating Myeloid Cells As Favorable Immunotherapy Targets, Zahra Abbas, Courtney George, Mathew Ancliffe, Meegan Howlett, Anya C. Jones, Mani Kuchibhotla, Robert J. Wechsler-Reya, Nicholas G. Gottardo, Raelene Endersby

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Medulloblastoma is the most common childhood brain cancer. Mainstay treatments of radiation and chemotherapy have not changed in decades and new treatment approaches are crucial for the improvement of clinical outcomes. To date, immunotherapies for medulloblastoma have been unsuccessful, and studies investigating the immune microenvironment of the disease and the impact of current therapies are limited. Preclinical models that recapitulate both the disease and immune environment are essential for understanding immune-tumor interactions and to aid the identification of new and effective immunotherapies. Using an immune-competent mouse model of aggressive Myc-driven medulloblastoma, we characterized the brain immune microenvironment and changes induced …


Evaluation Of Pd-L1 Expression On Circulating Tumour Cells In Small-Cell Lung Cancer, Emmanuel Acheampong, Afaf Abed, Michael Morici, Isaacs Spencer, Aaron B. Beasley, Samantha Bowyer, Du Bois Asante, Chris Lomma, Weitao Lin, Michael Millward, Elin S. Gray Mar 2022

Evaluation Of Pd-L1 Expression On Circulating Tumour Cells In Small-Cell Lung Cancer, Emmanuel Acheampong, Afaf Abed, Michael Morici, Isaacs Spencer, Aaron B. Beasley, Samantha Bowyer, Du Bois Asante, Chris Lomma, Weitao Lin, Michael Millward, Elin S. Gray

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Antibodies against the programmed death-1 (PD-1) receptor and its ligand (PD-L1) have been recently approved for small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) treatment. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) have emerged as an appealing liquid biopsy candidate that could enhance treatment decision-making in systemic therapy for SCLC patients. Several current technologies enrich CTCs using specific surface epitopes, size, rigidity, or dielectric properties. However, they are hampered by the heterogeneity of the enriched cells from blood samples. Methods: We evaluated two CTC enrichment systems: EpCAM conjugated to magnetic beads and a microfluidic device (Parsortix, Angle plc). PD-L1 expression was evaluated on the isolated CTCs. …


Pparα And Pparγ Activation Is Associated With Pleural Mesothelioma Invasion But Therapeutic Inhibition Is Ineffective, M. Lizeth Orozco Morales, Catherine A. Rinaldi, Emma De Jong, Sally M. Lansley, Joel P. A. Gummer, Bence Olasz, Shabarinath Nambiar, Danika E. Hope, Thomas H. Casey, Y. C. Gary Lee, Connull Leslie, Gareth Nealon, David M. Shackleford, Andrew K. Powell, Marina Grimaldi, Patrick Balaguer, Rachael M. Zemek, Anthony Bosco, Matthew J. Piggott, Alice Vrielink, Richard A. Lake, W. Joost Lesterhuis Jan 2022

Pparα And Pparγ Activation Is Associated With Pleural Mesothelioma Invasion But Therapeutic Inhibition Is Ineffective, M. Lizeth Orozco Morales, Catherine A. Rinaldi, Emma De Jong, Sally M. Lansley, Joel P. A. Gummer, Bence Olasz, Shabarinath Nambiar, Danika E. Hope, Thomas H. Casey, Y. C. Gary Lee, Connull Leslie, Gareth Nealon, David M. Shackleford, Andrew K. Powell, Marina Grimaldi, Patrick Balaguer, Rachael M. Zemek, Anthony Bosco, Matthew J. Piggott, Alice Vrielink, Richard A. Lake, W. Joost Lesterhuis

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Mesothelioma is a cancer that typically originates in the pleura of the lungs. It rapidly invades the surrounding tissues, causing pain and shortness of breath. We compared cell lines injected either subcutaneously or intrapleurally and found that only the latter resulted in invasive and rapid growth. Pleural tumors displayed a transcriptional signature consistent with increased activity of nuclear receptors PPARα and PPARγ and with an increased abundance of endogenous PPAR-activating ligands. We found that chemical probe GW6471 is a potent, dual PPARα/γ antagonist with anti-invasive and anti-proliferative activity in vitro. However, administration of GW6471 at doses that provided sustained plasma …


Evaluation Of Virtual Screening Strategies For The Identification Of Γ-Secretase Inhibitors And Modulators, Alicia Ioppolo, Melissa Eccles, David Groth, Giuseppe Verdile, Mark Agostino Jan 2022

Evaluation Of Virtual Screening Strategies For The Identification Of Γ-Secretase Inhibitors And Modulators, Alicia Ioppolo, Melissa Eccles, David Groth, Giuseppe Verdile, Mark Agostino

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

γ-Secretase is an intramembrane aspartyl protease that is important in regulating normal cell physiology via cleavage of over 100 transmembrane proteins, including Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) and Notch family receptors. However, aberrant proteolysis of substrates has implications in the progression of disease pathologies, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cancers, and skin disorders. While several γ-secretase inhibitors have been identified, there has been toxicity observed in clinical trials associated with non-selective enzyme inhibition. To address this, γ-secretase modulators have been identified and pursued as more selective agents. Recent structural evidence has provided an insight into how γ-secretase inhibitors and modulators are recognized …