Tiwari, H. A. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2022

Evaluation of the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of a new live-attenuated lumpy skin disease vaccine in India

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) was reported for the first time in India in 2019 and since then, it has become endemic. Since a homologous (LSD-virus based) vaccine was not available in the country, goatpox virus (GPV)-based heterologous vaccine was authorized for mass immunization against LSD in cattle. This study describes the evaluation of safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of a new live-attenuated LSD vaccine developed using an Indian field strain (LSDV/India/2019/Ranchi). The virus was attenuated by continuous passage (P=50) in Vero cells. The vaccine (50th LSDV passage in Vero cells, named as Lumpi-ProVacInd) did not induce any local or systemic reaction upon its experimental inoculation in calves (n=10). At day 30 post-vaccination (pv), the vaccinated animals were shown to develop antibody- and cell-mediated immune response and exhibited complete protection upon virulent LSDV challenge. We observed a minimum Neethling response (0.018% animals; 5 out of 26940 animals) of the vaccine in field trials among 26940 animals. There was no significant reduction in the milk yield in lactating animals (n=10108), besides there was no abortion or any other reproductive disorder in the pregnant animals (n=2889). Sero-conversion was observed in 85.18% animals in the field by day 30 pv.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

A 6-CpG Validated Methylation Risk Score Model for Metabolic Syndrome: The HyperGEN and GOLDN Studies

There has been great interest in genetic risk prediction using risk scores in recent years, however, the utility of scores developed in European populations and later applied to non-European populations has not been successful. In this study, we used cross-sectional data from the Hypertension Genetic Epidemiology Network (HyperGEN, N=614 African Americans (AA)) and the Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN, N=995 European Americans (EA)), to create a methylation risk score (MRS) for metabolic syndrome (MetS), demonstrating the utility of MRS across race groups. To demonstrate this, we first selected cytosine-guanine dinucleotides (CpG) sites measured on Illumina Methyl450 arrays previously reported to be significantly associated with MetS and/or component conditions (CPT1A cg00574958, PHOSPHO1 cg02650017, ABCG1 cg06500161, SREBF1 cg11024682, SOCS3 cg18181703, TXNIP cg19693031). Second, we calculated the parameter estimates for the 6 CpGs in the HyperGEN data and used the beta estimates as weights to construct a MRS in HyperGEN, which was validated in GOLDN. We performed association analyses using a logistic mixed model to test the association between the MRS and MetS adjusting for covariates. Results showed the MRS was significantly associated with MetS in both populations. In summary, a MRS for MetS was a strong predictor for the condition across two ethnic groups suggesting MRS may be useful to examine metabolic disease risk or related complications across ethnic groups.

genetics↗