HEAL ▶▶▶TH
funding from FFAR, a non-profit organisation that funds agri- cultural research through public–private partnerships. Be- cause funding applications require equal contributions from research partners, Elanco offered financial support. As part of the project, Huntimer, his colleague Dr Leane Oliveira and their team will be performing the in-cow experiments at Elanco facilities.
Current experiments Van de Walle notes that the secretome is a rich mixture of many different components that have different activities. “We will first start with the secretome as a whole and we can then work from there to identify which components are present, by using analyses such as proteomics, metabolomics, etc.,” she says, “and confirm which of these components have a bioactive effect in vitro in the lab first, and then eventually explore their effects in cows as well.” When ready, the team plans to treat cows with mastitis using the whole secretome and perhaps different components of the secretome; it’s not known yet how difficult it may be to isolate various components. This will eventually allow the sci- entists to pinpoint exactly which compounds are responsible, for example, for beneficial effects, at what concentrations and alone or in mixtures. Cows will be observed for beneficial effects such as signs of healing and regeneration of the mammary tissue, changes in the immune system that may help fight a mastitis infection and hopefully also higher milk production. However, even though she and others have done research with other spe- cies, Van de Walle cannot yet speculate on how strong the beneficial effects will be. In terms of the dairy cattle breeds being used in these trials, Van de Walle says, “We will focus on Holstein-Friesian first, but if we find encouraging results, we can expand to others.” Should the treatment prove effective and the development of a commercialised treatment product ensue, stem cells would need to be grown on a large scale. In addition, efficient meth- ods of obtaining the secretome will need to be created, along with a way to segregate individual components as required. “There are many options to explore,” says Van de Walle. “Iso- lating the secreted compounds from the stem cells directly or synthesising specific bioactive factors are definitely possibili- ties. The main factor when thinking about commercialisation is that we will have to deliver a product that is cost effective and economically affordable, comparable in price to what is currently available on the market.”
Looking to the future Looking forward, in their review of mastitis approaches, the scientists at the ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute call for further research into advanced therapeutic strategies to treat mastitis, like bacteriocins and nanoparticle technology. Furthermore, they stress that “diagnostic techniques and
Bovine stem cells in high resolution. “Isolating the secreted compounds from the stem cells directly or synthesising specific bioactive factors are definitely possibilities, “ says Dr Gerlinde Van de Walle.
treatment modalities should be developed hand-in-hand so that early farm-level diagnosis can be made accurately, which then can be combined with specific therapy.” In terms of diagnostic advances, a new approach is being in- vestigated by the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland, in partnership with AgriSearch and the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute. It will involve the use of mass spectrometry to develop a rapid diagnosis method using a suspected milk sample. The method could potentially be developed into an on-site test, which would allow faster treatment and cow recovery.
Rebecca Harman, research support specialist in the Van de Walle lab at the Baker Institute, Cornell University.
▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 3, 2021 17
PHOTO: RACHEL PHILIPSON
PHOTO: DR GERLINDE VAN DE WALLE, BAKER INSTITUTE
PHOTO: RACHEL PHILIPSON
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