Abstract:
The One Health Initiative integrates the interactions between the environment, animal and human health, which opened the doors to work in a multidisciplinary way and address problems from a more comprehensive perspective. The translational or comparative medicine contemplates the study of cancer in animals and humans. We have the opportunity as animal and human health researchers to provide solutions to problems that impact the One Health triad. Comparative oncology looks for a positive impact for animals and humans with cancer. Here, the dogs are a potential model for cancer study for many reasons, for example, both humans and dogs, have a natural development of neoplasms, also they have a similar immune system, and share a high percentage of genetics similarity and a common environment. Actually, there are prognostic molecular markers for tumors in human medicine, which have gradually been integrated into veterinary medicine. One of the genes studied in humans is Wilm's Tumor or WT1 gene, which is related with the development of the genitourinary system during embryonic development. At the beginning it was classified as a tumor suppressor gene, however, it has been found to be overexpressed in leukemia and different solid tumors in humans, being recognized as an oncogene and biomarker associated with malignancy, chemoresistance, and poor prognosis. However, there are few reports on its possible biological role in different animal species. Our researching group has focused on research on melanoma in horses, lung cancer using murine models, and cancer in dogs. Cancer in companion animals is an important disease and there are few records in veterinary medicine and specifically in canines, unlike human medicine. A study was carried out with the objective of analyzing the expression of WT1 in different neoplasias in canines to evaluate its potential as a possible biomarker. We made the histopathological diagnosis of 50 samples of macroscopic lesions with a tumor-like appearance in dogs collected at the Small Species Veterinary Hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Samples were collected from the mammary gland, vulva, scrotum, spleen, prepuce, head and neck region. 82% of the samples corresponded to neoplastic processes and 18% to pre-neoplastic processes. The neoplasms were classified by their histological behavior as benign or malignant, where benign neoplasms developed more frequently in 54% and malignant ones in 28%. In the malignant tumors, we find the following histopathological subtypes: anaplastic carcinoma, inverse squamous cell carcinoma and mixed lymphoma. RNA extraction from tumors and complementary. DNA synthesis were performed, and WT1 gene expression was analyzed by RT-PCR, finding expression in all the malignant spleen tumors and in a high percentage of breast cancer samples. When we analyzed the correlation of WT1 expression with histopathological diagnosis, we observed higher expression in malignant tumors in regions of the spleen, mammary gland, and neck.
Also, within the line of research, we are working on the evaluation of a canine training protocol using cell lines for cancer detection.
Audience Take Away Notes:
- The audience will be able to visualize the relevance of addressing the topic of oncology from the point of view of One Health
- The audience, more specifically, will be able to analyze the role of the WT1 gene in cancer in animals and its comparison in humans
- The research projects that will be shown to be being developed, opened the doors to work in a multidisciplinary way and address problems from a more comprehensive perspective
- The different health professionals, can observe the opportunity as human and animal health researchers to provide solutions to problems that impact the One Health triad
- The audience will be able to observe how, through comparative oncology, it is possible to achieve a positive impact for animals and humans with cancer
