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Background and Aim: Cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) develop spontaneous infection of Papillomavirus (PV); thus, potentially beneficial for modeling human PV (HPV) infection study. Contrary to human origin, infection in cynomolgus monkeys does not always show evident clinical symptoms of cervical cancer. The absence of cervical cancer clinical symptoms leads us to investigate the molecular mechanism of the HPV infection in cynomolgus monkeys. This study aimed to investigate the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression levels of KI67 and P53 genes, majorly known as biomarker oncogenesis of PV infection. Materials and Methods: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used with MY11/MY09 primer to screen PV in cynomolgus monkey, further grouped as positive-PV and negative-PV infection groups. Real-time quantitative PCR was also applied to quantify the mRNA expression levels of KI67 and P53 genes in animals. Results: Increased expression of mRNA level of KI67 genes was significantly higher in Positive- PV group than negative-PV group. In contrast, the P53 mRNA expression level increased markedly higher in the negative-PV group than in the positive-PV group. Conclusion: Our study describes the potential of cynomolgus monkeys as a spontaneous oncogenesis model of PV infection-type. However, we used a limited number of cancer genetic markers. So, further study of other genetic markers is required to prove that cervical cancer could be developed naturally in cynomolgus monkeys.

The pigtailed monkey (Macaca nemestrina) is one of the species that have potency like the cynomolgus monkey that is widely used as an animal model for asthma study. The CCL7 gene has potential as a genetic marker because of the secreted chemokine that plays a role in asthma. The aims of this research are to characterise the CCL7 gene of pigtailed monkey, compare the structure of their CCL7 gene with other primate species and determine model 3D structure protein prediction of CCL7 protein. The amplicons were sequenced, and the results were analysed by the bioinformatics technique. The 3D CCL7 protein structure was predicted using I-TASSER. We have isolated 2221 bp sequences CCL7 gene and 109 amino acids from pigtailed monkey. Variation of CCL7 gene sequence between pigtailed monkey and other primate species (Macaca fascicularis, M. mulatta and Homo sapiens) was found in exon 1, exon 2 and exon 3 as CDS (Coding DNA Sequence) region. The analysis homology of nucleotides and amino acid sequences of the CCL7 gene indicated that the pigtailed monkey and three other primate species have a high homology rate with an identity score above 90%. Meanwhile, a comparative analysis of CDS and amino acid regions showed that the pigtailed monkey also has the highest similarity with the three other primate species with more than 90% identity score. The 3D structure protein prediction model of the CCL7 pigtailed monkey revealed the highest similarity with H. sapiens with an identity value of about 95%. Therefore, the pigtailed monkey CCL7 gene has high similarity with H. sapiens, which means that based on molecular similarity, the pigtailed monkey has the potential to be an animal model for asthma study, especially the study of molecular and the role of CCL7 in asthma pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation cover in dry regions is a key variable in determining desertification. Soils exposed to rainfall by desertification can form physical crusts that reduce infiltration, exacerbating water stress on the remaining vegetation. Paradoxically, field studies show that crust removal is associated with plant mortality in desert systems, while artificial biological crusts can improve plant regeneration. Here it is shown how physical crusts can act as either drivers of or buffers against desertification depending on their environmental context. The behavior of crusts is first explored using a simplified theory for water movement on a uniform, partly vegetated slope subject to stationary hydrologic conditions. Numerical model runs supplemented with field data from a semiarid Long-Term Ecological Research site are then applied to represent more realistic environmental conditions. When vegetation cover is significant, crusts can drive desertification, but this process is potentially self-limiting. For low vegetation cover, crusts mitigate against desertification by providing water subsidy to plant communities through a runoff-runon mechanism.

Cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) are an established animal model of asthma, which exhibit different responses to allergen exposure that are clinically relevant. The chemokine ligand gene (CCL7) encodes Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-3, which has an important role in asthma pathogenesis. While CCL7 polymorphism in humans is associated with asthma phenotype, very little is known about CCL7 in nonhuman primate models of respiratory disease. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize CCL7 gene in cynomolgus macaques of Indonesian origin. In this study, we used sequencing and bioinformatics technique for gene isolation, characterization, and protein 3D structure prediction. We isolated a 2253 base-pair (bp) sequence of CCL7 in cynomolgus macaques, which exhibited 95% similarity in coding sequence to human CCL7. The amino acid sequence was more closely clustered with human CCL7 than with that of rodents. Importantly, the predictive protein structure of CCL7 was similar to that in humans. These similarities in CCL7 suggests the potential of cynomolgus macaque as a translational model to study asthma, particularly in the context of genetics and role of chemokines such as CCL7.

Background: Cell culture is the proliferation of a cell population in vitro by isolating from the original tissue or growing from existing ones. One essential source is the monkey kidney cell cultures which have an essential role in biomedical study. This is due to the significant homology between the human and macaque genomes making these useful for cultivating human viruses, especially enteroviruses, and growing vaccines. Methods: This study developed cell cultures derived from the kidney of Macaca fascicularis (Mf) and validated its gene expression. Results: The primary cultures were successfully subcultured up to six passages, grew as monolayers, and exhibited epithelial‐like morphology. The cultured cells remained heterogeneous in phenotype and they expressed CD155 and CD46 as viral receptors, cell morphology (CD24, endosialin, and vWF), proliferation, also apoptosis markers (Ki67 and p53). Conclusions: These results indicated that the cell cultures can be used as in vitro model cells for vaccine development and bioactive compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]