Project description:IntroductionBreast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer deaths; however, recent improvements in treatment have improved survivorship. As a result of this improvement, more individuals are living with the long-term side effects of cancer treatment. Therefore, methods that incorporate lifestyle and mind-body approaches are becoming increasingly used in the patient treatment pathway.MethodsIn this study, PranaScience Institute will develop and test a group video mobile application for Yogic Breathing (YB). YB is shown to reduce symptomatic conditions associated with several conditions including breast cancer. For this initial feasibility study, PranaScience will collaborate with the Medical University of South Carolina to implement the study app-based program in breast cancer survivors. This research is aimed to understand if the YB could be delivered via an app, if participants are able to practice it satisfactorily, and if there is any symptom relief by the YB practice. In the control group, participants will be directed to the Attention Control (AC) feature of the app, which guides users to focus on a mindfulness activity not involving YB. Participants will be randomly assigned to the YB or AC study plan (N = 20 per group). Breast cancer survivors who have completed radiation therapy within last 2 months will be recruited for this study and provided access to the app for a 12-weeks program. The study app will record total practice times. Virtual visits by a study yoga instructor during group video sessions will measure participant compliance with proper technique. Feasibility will be examined by evaluating intervention delivery factors and resource needs. Acceptability of using the mobile study app to support symptom management will be evaluated using a satisfaction and system usability scale. Behavioral survey measures will help guide effect sizes and power calculations for the next larger-scale study. Biomarkers in the saliva (tumor suppressors, cytokines), and fingernails (cortisol, differential proteomics) will be measured at baseline and end of study at 12 weeks.DiscussionAll findings from this pilot study will be synthesized to refine the mobile study app in preparation for large-scale evaluation in Phase II involving all-study site participants with cancer. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT05161260.

Project description:Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a clear fluid bathing the central nervous system (CNS), undergoes pulsatile movements. Together with interstitial fluid, CSF plays a critical role for the removal of waste products from the brain, and maintenance of the CNS health. As such, understanding the mechanisms driving CSF movement is of high scientific and clinical impact. Since pulsatile CSF dynamics is sensitive and synchronous to respiratory movements, we are interested in identifying potential integrative therapies such as yogic breathing to regulate CSF dynamics, which has not been reported before. Here, we investigated the pre-intervention baseline data from our ongoing randomized controlled trial, and examined the impact of four yogic breathing patterns: (i) slow, (ii) deep abdominal, (iii) deep diaphragmatic, and (iv) deep chest breathing with the last three together forming a yogic breathing called three-part breath. We utilized our previously established non-invasive real-time phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging approach using a 3T MRI instrument, computed and tested differences in single voxel CSF velocities (instantaneous, respiratory, cardiac 1st and 2nd harmonics) at the level of foramen magnum during spontaneous versus yogic breathing. In examinations of 18 healthy participants (eight females, ten males; mean age 34.9 ± 14 (SD) years; age range: 18-61 years), we observed immediate increase in cranially-directed velocities of instantaneous-CSF 16-28% and respiratory-CSF 60-118% during four breathing patterns compared to spontaneous breathing, with the greatest changes during deep abdominal breathing (28%, p = 0.0008, and 118%, p = 0.0001, respectively). Cardiac pulsation was the primary source of pulsatile CSF motion except during deep abdominal breathing, when there was a comparable contribution of respiratory and cardiac 1st harmonic power [0.59 ± 0.78], suggesting respiration can be the primary regulator of CSF depending on the individual differences in breathing techniques. Further work is needed to investigate the impact of sustained training yogic breathing on pulsatile CSF dynamics for CNS health.

Project description:This is a pilot study. We are trying to detect potential salivary biomarkers in mice with a pancreatic tumor. Global gene expression profiling has shown great promise in high-throughput biomarker discovery for early disease detection in body fluids such as saliva, which is accessible, cost-effective, and non-invasive. However, this goal has not been fully realized because saliva, like many clinical samples, contains partially fragmented and degraded RNAs that are difficult to amplify and detect with prevailing technologies. Here, using nanogram scale salivary RNA as a proof-of-principle example, we describe our progress with a novel poly-A tail independent mRNA amplification strategy combined with the Affymetrix GeneChip Exon arrays. We defined a Salivary Exon Core Transcriptome (SECT) with highly similar expression profiles in healthy individuals verified by quantitative PCR. Informatics analysis of SECT provided important mechanistic insight to their potential origin and function. Finally we demonstrated the diagnostic potential of true exon level expression profiling approach with salivary exon biomarkers that accurately discriminated gender in healthy individuals. Recent studies have demonstrated that discriminatory salivary biomarkers can be readily detected upon the development of systemic diseases such as pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer. However, the utility of salivary biomarkers for the detection of systemic diseases has been undermined due to the absence of biological and mechanistic rationale why distal diseases from the oral cavity would lead to the development of discriminatory biomarkers in saliva. Here, we examine the hypothesis that pancreatic tumor-derived exosomes are mechanistically involved in the development of pancreatic cancer-discriminatory salivary transcriptomic biomarkers. We first developed a pancreatic cancer mouse model that yielded discriminatory salivary biomarkers by implanting the mouse pancreatic cancer cell line Pan02 into the pancreas of the syngeneic host C57BL/6. The role of pancreatic cancer-derived exosomes in the development of discriminatory salivary biomarkers was then tested by engineered a Pan02 cell line that is suppressed for exosome biogenesis, implanted into the C56BL/6 mouse and examine if the discriminatory salivary biomarker profile was ablated or disrupted. Suppression of exosome biogenesis results in the ablation of discriminatory salivary biomarker development. This study supports that tumor-derived exosomes provide a mechanism in the development of discriminatory biomarkers in saliva and distal systemic diseases. We analyzed saliva from 6 healthy mice and 6 mice with a pancreatic tumor using the Affymetrix Mouse Exon Genome 430 2.0 platform. Array data was processed by dChip. No techinical replicates were performed.

Project description:Studies in humans and animal models with spinal cord injury (SCI) have demonstrated that medications targeting serotonin receptors may decrease the susceptibility to central sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). We hypothesized that mirtazapine would decrease the propensity to develop hypocapnic central sleep apnea (CSA) during sleep. We performed a single-blind pilot study on a total of 10 men with SDB (7 with chronic SCI and 3 noninjured) aged 52.0 ± 11.2 yr. Participants were randomly assigned to either mirtazapine (15 mg at bedtime) or a placebo for at least 1 wk, followed by a 7-day washout period before crossing over to the other intervention. Split-night studies included polysomnography and induction of hypocapnic CSA using a noninvasive ventilation (NIV) protocol. The primary outcome was CO2 reserve, defined as the difference between eupneic and end of NIV end-tidal CO2 ([Formula: see text]) preceding induced hypocapneic CSA. Secondary outcomes included controller gain (CG), other ventilatory parameters, and SDB severity. CG was defined as the ratio of change in minute ventilation (V̇e) between control and hypopnea to the change in CO2 during sleep. CO2 reserve was significantly widened on mirtazapine than placebo (-3.8 ± 1.2 vs. -2.0 ± 1.5 mmHg; P = 0.015). CG was significantly decreased on mirtazapine compared with placebo [2.2 ± 0.7 vs. 3.5 ± 1.9 L/(mmHg × min); P = 0.023]. There were no significant differences for other ventilatory parameters assessed or SDB severity between mirtazapine and placebo trials. These findings suggest that the administration of mirtazapine can decrease the susceptibility to central apnea by reducing chemosensitivity and increasing CO2 reserve; however, considering the lack of changes in apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), further research is required to understand the significance of this finding.NEW & NOTEWORTHY To our knowledge, this research study is novel as it is the first study in humans assessing the effect of mirtazapine on CO2 reserve and chemosensitivity in individuals with severe sleep-disordered breathing. This is also the first study to determine the potential therapeutic effects of mirtazapine on sleep parameters in individuals with a spinal cord injury.

Project description:This is a pilot study. We are trying to detect potential salivary biomarkers in mice with a pancreatic tumor. Global gene expression profiling has shown great promise in high-throughput biomarker discovery for early disease detection in body fluids such as saliva, which is accessible, cost-effective, and non-invasive. However, this goal has not been fully realized because saliva, like many clinical samples, contains partially fragmented and degraded RNAs that are difficult to amplify and detect with prevailing technologies. Here, using nanogram scale salivary RNA as a proof-of-principle example, we describe our progress with a novel poly-A tail independent mRNA amplification strategy combined with the Affymetrix GeneChip Exon arrays. We defined a Salivary Exon Core Transcriptome (SECT) with highly similar expression profiles in healthy individuals verified by quantitative PCR. Informatics analysis of SECT provided important mechanistic insight to their potential origin and function. Finally we demonstrated the diagnostic potential of true exon level expression profiling approach with salivary exon biomarkers that accurately discriminated gender in healthy individuals. Recent studies have demonstrated that discriminatory salivary biomarkers can be readily detected upon the development of systemic diseases such as pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer. However, the utility of salivary biomarkers for the detection of systemic diseases has been undermined due to the absence of biological and mechanistic rationale why distal diseases from the oral cavity would lead to the development of discriminatory biomarkers in saliva. Here, we examine the hypothesis that pancreatic tumor-derived exosomes are mechanistically involved in the development of pancreatic cancer-discriminatory salivary transcriptomic biomarkers. We first developed a pancreatic cancer mouse model that yielded discriminatory salivary biomarkers by implanting the mouse pancreatic cancer cell line Pan02 into the pancreas of the syngeneic host C57BL/6. The role of pancreatic cancer-derived exosomes in the development of discriminatory salivary biomarkers was then tested by engineered a Pan02 cell line that is suppressed for exosome biogenesis, implanted into the C56BL/6 mouse and examine if the discriminatory salivary biomarker profile was ablated or disrupted. Suppression of exosome biogenesis results in the ablation of discriminatory salivary biomarker development. This study supports that tumor-derived exosomes provide a mechanism in the development of discriminatory biomarkers in saliva and distal systemic diseases.

Dataset Information

Yogic breathing when compared to attention control reduces the levels of pro-inflammatory biomarkers in saliva: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Publications

Yogic breathing when compared to attention control reduces the levels of pro-inflammatory biomarkers in saliva: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets