In recent years, the use of in-feed antibiotics for growth and disease prevention in livestock production has been under severe scrutiny. The use and misuse of in-feed antibiotics has led to problems with drug residues in animal products and increased bacterial resistance. Chicken egg yolk antibodies (IgY) have attracted considerable attention as an alternative to antibiotics to maintain swine health and performance. Oral administration of IgY possesses many advantages over mammalian IgG such as cost-effectiveness, convenience and high yield. This review presents an overview of the potential to use IgY immunotherapy for the prevention and treatment of swine diarrhea diseases and speculates on the future of IgY technology. Included are a review of the potential applications of IgY in the control of enteric infections of either bacterial or viral origin such as enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., rotavirus, porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus, and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. Some potential obstacles to the adoption of IgY technology are also discussed.

Disorders of sexual development (DSD) are estimated to occur in 1 of 4500 births. Since the genetic etiology of DSD is highly heterogeneous, obtaining a definitive molecular diagnosis by single gene test is challenging. Utilizing a high-throughput sequencing upfront is proposed as an efficient approach to aid in the diagnosis. This study aimed to examine the diagnostic yield of next-generation sequencing in DSD. 32 DSD patients that previously received clinical examinations and single gene tests were selected, with or without a diagnosis. Prior single gene tests were masked, and then samples went through targeted next-generation sequencing of 80 genes from which the diagnostic yield was assessed. A likely diagnosis, with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants identified, was obtained from nine of the 32 patients (i.e., 28.1%, versus 10% by single gene tests). In another five patients (15.6%), variants of uncertain significance were found. Among 18 variants identified (i.e., 17 single nucleotide variants and one small deletion), eight had not been previously reported. This study supports the notion that next-generation sequencing can be an efficient tool in the clinical diagnosis and variant discovery in DSD.

In recent years, the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria has become a global concern which has prompted research into the development of alternative disease control strategies for the swine industry. Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) offer the prospect of a sustainable alternative approach against bacterial pathogens with the flexibility of being applied therapeutically or for biological control purposes. This paper reviews the use of phages as an antimicrobial strategy for controlling critical pathogens including Salmonella and Escherichia coli with an emphasis on the application of phages for improving performance and nutrient digestibility in swine operations as well as in controlling zoonotic human diseases by reducing the bacterial load spread from pork products to humans through the meat.

We have developed two linear-dendritic telodendrimers (TDs) with rational design using amphiphilic riboflavin (Rf) as building blocks for efficient doxorubicin (DOX) delivery. Micellar TD nanoparticles (NPs) are composed of a hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) shell and a Rf-containing affinitive core for DOX encapsulation. Strong DOX-Rf interactions and amphiphilic Rf structure render these nanocarriers with an ultra-high DOX loading capacity (>1/1, DOX/TD, w/w), ∼100% loading efficiency, the sustained drug release and the optimal particle sizes (20-40 nm) for efficient tumor-targeted drug delivery. These nanoformulations significantly prolonged DOX circulation time in the blood without the accelerated clearance observed after multiple injections. DOX-TDs target several types of tumors efficiently in vivo, e.g. Raji lymphoma, MDA-MB-231 breast cancer, and SKOV-3 ovarian cancer. In vivo maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of DOX was increased by 2-2.5 folds for the nanoformulations in mice relative to those of free DOX and Doxil^®. These nanoformulations significantly inhibited tumor growth and prolonged survival of mice bearing SKOV-3 ovarian cancer xenografts. In summary, Rf-containing nanoformulations with high DOX loading capacity, improved stability and efficient tumor targeting lead to superior antitumor efficacy, which merit the further development for clinical application.