Effect of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation of the air on the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections in kittens in a nursery.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of UV germicidal irradiation of the air on the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) in kittens in a nursery.

Animals: 4- to 8-week-old kittens admitted to a kitten nursery in 2016 and 2018.

Procedures: 2 UV germicidal irradiation systems (1 within the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system and 1 attached to the ceiling) were installed in a kitten nursery.

Anti-CD30 diabody-drug conjugates with potent antitumor activity.

Anti-CD30 diabodies were engineered with two cysteine mutations for site-specific drug conjugation in each chain of these homodimeric antibody fragments. Diabodies were conjugated with approximately 4 equivalents of the anti-tubulin drugs, monomethyl auristatin E or F, via a protease-cleavable dipeptide linker, to create the conjugates, diabody-vcE4 and diabody-vcF4, respectively. Diabody conjugation had only minor (<3-fold) effects on antigen binding.

MUC1 overexpression results in mammary gland tumorigenesis and prolonged alveolar differentiation.

MUC1 is a transmembrane mucin that was initially cloned from malignant mammary epithelial cells as a tumor antigen. More than 90% of human breast carcinomas overexpress MUC1. Numerous studies have demonstrated an interaction between MUC1 and other oncogenic proteins such as beta-catenin, erbB receptors and c-Src, but a functional role for MUC1 in transformation has not been identified.

MUC1 alters beta-catenin-dependent tumor formation and promotes cellular invasion.

MUC1 is aberrantly expressed in greater than 90% of all breast carcinomas, yet its function as a tumor antigen is not fully understood. Recently, studies have shown that MUC1 interacts with beta-catenin, erbB receptors, src, GSK-3beta and protein kinase Cdelta, possibly in a complex that promotes the disassembly of adherens junctions and the invasion of cells. Here we show that the deletion of Muc1 expression from MMTV-Wnt-1 transgenic mice results in a significant increase in the time to mammary gland tumor onset.

ErbB-beta-catenin complexes are associated with human infiltrating ductal breast and murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-Wnt-1 and MMTV-c-Neu transgenic carcinomas.

Simultaneous deregulation of both Wnt and ErbB growth factors has previously been shown to result in the cooperative induction of mammary gland tumors. Using the murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-Wnt-1 transgenic model of mammary carcinoma, we have identified an unvarying association between beta-catenin and epidermal growth factor receptor/c-Neu (ErbB1/ErbB2) heterodimers in mammary gland tumors, indicating a requirement for ErbB signaling in Wnt-mediated tumorigenesis. Expansion of these observations to a second transgenic model, MMTV-c-Neu, demonstrated similar tumor-specific interactions, including an ErbB1 ligand-inducible phosphorylation of both beta-catenin and c-Neu.