According to the WHO, the proportion of people over 60 years is increasing and expected to reach 22% of total world’s population in 2050. In parallel, recent animal demographic studies have shown that the life expectancy of pet dogs and cats is increasing. Brain aging is associated not only with molecular and morphological changes but also leads to different degrees of behavioral and cognitive dysfunction. Common age-related brain lesions in humans include brain atrophy, neuronal loss, amyloid plaques, cerebrovascular amyloid angiopathy, vascular mineralization, neurofibrillary tangles, meningeal osseous metaplasia, and accumulation of lipofuscin. In aging humans, the most common neurodegenerative disorder is Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which progressively impairs cognition, behavior, and quality of life. Pathologic changes comparable to the lesions of AD are described in several other animal species, although their clinical significance and effect on cognitive function are poorly documented. This review describes the commonly reported age-associated neurologic lesions in domestic and laboratory animals and the relationship of these lesions to cognitive dysfunction. Also described are the comparative interspecies similarities and differences to AD and other human neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy, and the spontaneous and transgenic animal models of these diseases.

Tumor grading is a method to quantify the putative clinical aggressiveness of a neoplasm based on specific histological features. A good grading system should be simple, easy to use, reproducible, and accurately segregate tumors into those with low versus high risk. The aim of this review is to summarize the histological and, when available, cytological grading systems applied in veterinary pathology, providing information regarding their prognostic impact, reproducibility, usefulness, and shortcomings. Most of the grading schemes used in veterinary medicine are developed for common tumor entities. Grading systems exist for soft tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, multilobular tumor of bone, mast cell tumor, lymphoma, mammary carcinoma, pulmonary carcinoma, urothelial carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, prostatic carcinoma, and central nervous system tumors. The prognostic relevance of many grading schemes has been demonstrated, but for some tumor types the usefulness of grading remains controversial. Furthermore, validation studies are available only for a minority of the grading systems. Contrasting data on the prognostic power of some grading systems, lack of detailed instructions in the materials and methods in some studies, and lack of data on reproducibility and validation studies are discussed for the relevant grading systems. Awareness of the limitations of grading is necessary for pathologists and oncologists to use these systems appropriately and to drive initiatives for their improvement.

Citation: Murakami, S., Endoh, M., Kobayashi, T., Takenaka-Uema, A., Chambers, J. K., Uchida, K., . . . Horimoto, T. (2016). Influenza d virus infection in herd of cattle, Japan. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 22(8), 1517-1519. doi:10.3201/eid2208.160362Although the provisionally named influenza D virus was first isolated as an influenza C–like virus from pigs with respiratory illness in Oklahoma in 2011 (1,2), epidemiologic analyses suggested that cattle are major reservoirs of this virus (3) and the virus is potentially involved in the bovine respiratory disease complex. The high rates of illness and death related to this disease in feedlot cattle are caused by multiple factors, including several viral and bacterial co-infections. Influenza D viruses were detected in cattle and pigs with respiratory diseases (and in some healthy cattle) in China (4), France (5), Italy (6), among other countries, indicating their wide global geographic distribution. Although the influenza D virus, like the human influenza C virus, is known to use 9-O-acetylated sialic acids as the cell receptor (2,7), its zoonotic potential is undefined because of limited research (1,8). We report influenza D virus infection in a herd of cattle in Japan

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most dominant neurodegenerative disorder that causes dementia, and no effective treatments are available. To study its pathogenesis and develop therapeutics, animal models representing its pathologies are needed. Although many animal species develop senile plaques (SP) composed of amyloid-β (Aβ) proteins that are identical to those found in humans, none of them exhibit neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and subsequent neurodegeneration, which are integral parts of the pathology of AD. The present study shows that Aβ accumulation, NFT formation, and significant neuronal loss all emerge naturally in the hippocampi of aged domestic cats. The NFT that form in the cat brain are identical to those seen in human AD in terms of their spatial distribution, the cells they affect, and the tau isoforms that comprise them. Interestingly, aged cats do not develop mature argyrophilic SP, but instead accumulate intraneuronal Aβ oligomers in their hippocampal pyramidal cells, which might be due to the amino acid sequence of felid Aβ. These results suggest that Aβ oligomers are more important than SP for NFT formation and the subsequent neurodegeneration. The domestic cat is a unique animal species that naturally replicates various AD pathologies, especially Aβ oligomer accumulation, NFT formation, and neuronal loss.

The binding of curcumin to senile plaques (SPs) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) was examined in the aged brain of various animal species and a human patient with Alzheimer's disease (AD), together with its binding to neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Brain sections were immunostained with anti-amyloid β protein 1-42 (Aβ42) and anti-amyloid β protein 1-40 (Aβ40) antibodies. These sections were also stained with alkaline Congo red, periodic acid-methenamine silver (PAM), and curcumin (0.009% curcumin solution) with or without formic acid pretreatment. The sections from the AD brain were also immunostained for anti-paired helical filament-tau (PHF-tau), and were stained with Gallyas silver for NFTs. Some SPs in the AD, monkey, dog, bear, and amyloid precursor protein transgenic mouse (APP Tg-mouse) brains contained congophilic materials, and were intensely positive for curcumin. In addition, curcumin labeled some diffuse SPs negative for Congo red in the AD, monkey, bear, and APP Tg-mouse brains. In all animals, CAA was intensely positive for both Congo red and curcumin. The specific curcumin staining activity was lost by formic acid pretreatment. In the AD brain, NFTs positive for PHF-tau and Gallyas silver were moderately stained with curcumin. These findings indicate that curcumin specifically binds to the aggregated Aβ molecules in various animals, and further to phosphorylated tau protein, probably according to its conformational nature.