Pereira, L. E. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2021

Simultaneous in vivo Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of TDF Intravaginal Ring during High-dose Vaginal SHIV Challenge in Pigtail Macaques

The demonstration of complete protection of macaques in a repeated low dose virus challenge by a tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) intravaginal ring (IVR) and the success of the dapivirine IVR in clinical trials highlighted the potential of IVRs as pre- exposure prophylaxis against HIV. Efficacy of TDF ring was not investigated in sexually active women. Our understanding of the mechanisms of protection is limited. To address this knowledge gap, we performed simultaneous pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analysis of a TDF-IVR at the site of SIV challenge in pigtail macaques at the anatomical and cellular level. Specifically, we challenged TDF-IVR administered pigtail macaques with a single high dose of a non-replicative SIV-based vector containing a dual reporter system that helped us to identify the earliest targets of SIV infection within the mucosa. Two and three days after challenge, the macaques were euthanized and tenofovir (TFV) concentrations were measured in the female reproductive tract (FRT) by HPLC-MS/MS to correlate drug concentrations and SIV-vector transduction efficiency. TFV formed a gradient through the mucosal tissue, with the highest concentrations near the ring, in the upper vagina and endocervix. Despite this, several transduction events were identified with the most common sites being in the ovaries. Moreover, proviral DNA was detected in the cervix and vagina. Thus, our studies demonstrate an uneven distribution of TFV in the FRT of macaques after release from a TDF-IVR that leads to incomplete FRT protection from high viral dose challenge.

pharmacology and toxicology↗

bioRxiv2018

OMEGA: a software tool for the management, analysis, and dissemination of intracellular trafficking data that incorporates motion type classification and quality control

MOTIVATIONParticle tracking coupled with time-lapse microscopy is critical for understanding the dynamics of intracellular processes of clinical importance. Spurred on by advances in the spatiotemporal resolution of microscopy and automated computational methods, this field is increasingly amenable to multi-dimensional high-throughput data collection schemes (Snijder et al., 2012). Typically, complex particle tracking datasets generated by individual laboratories are produced with incompatible methodologies that preclude comparison to each other. There is therefore an unmet need for data management systems that facilitate data standardization, meta-analysis, and structured data dissemination. The integration of analysis, visualization, and quality control capabilities into such systems would eliminate the need for manual transfer of data to diverse downstream analysis tools. At the same time, it would lay the foundation for shared trajectory data, particle tracking, and motion analysis standards. RESULTSHere, we present Open Microscopy Environment inteGrated Analysis (OMEGA), a cross-platform data management, analysis, and visualization system, for particle tracking data, with particular emphasis on results from viral and vesicular trafficking experiments. OMEGA provides intuitive graphical interfaces to implement integrated particle tracking and motion analysis workflows while providing easy to use facilities to automatically keep track of error propagation, harvest data provenance and ensure the persistence of analysis results and metadata. Specifically, OMEGA: 1) imports image data and metadata from data management tools such as the Open Microscopy Environment Remote Objects (OMERO; Allan et al., 2012); 2) tracks intracellular particles movement; 3) facilitates parameter optimization and trajectory results inspection and validation; 4) performs downstream trajectory analysis and motion type classification; 5) estimates the uncertainty propagating through the motion analysis pipeline; and, 6) facilitates storage and dissemination of analysis results, and analysis definition metadata, on the basis of our newly proposed FAIRsharing.org complainant Minimum Information About Particle Tracking Experiments (MIAPTE; Rigano and Strambio-De-Castillia, 2016; 2017) guidelines in combination with the OME-XML data model (Goldberg et al., 2005). In so doing, OMEGA maintains a persistent link between raw image data, intermediate analysis steps, the overall analysis output, and all necessary metadata to repeat the analysis process and reproduce its results. Availability and implementationOMEGA is a cross-platform, open-source software developed in Java. Source code and cross-platform binaries are freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/OmegaProject/Omega (doi: 10.5281/zenodo.2535523), under the GNU General Public License v.3. Contactcaterina.strambio@umassmed.edu and alex.rigano@umassmed.edu Supplementary informationSupplementary Material is available at BioRxiv.org

bioinformatics↗