Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

About: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a education organization based out in Leuven, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 61109 authors who have published 176584 publications receiving 6210872 citations.

Consensus molecular subtypes and the evolution of precision medicine in colorectal cancer

Abstract: Critical driver genomic events in colorectal cancer have been shown to affect the response to targeted agents that were initially developed under the 'one gene, one drug' paradigm of precision medicine. Our current knowledge of the complexity of the cancer genome, clonal evolution patterns under treatment pressure and pharmacodynamic effects of target inhibition support the transition from a one gene, one drug approach to a 'multi-gene, multi-drug' model when making therapeutic decisions. Better characterization of the transcriptomic subtypes of colorectal cancer, encompassing tumour, stromal and immune components, has revealed convergent pathway dependencies that mandate a 'multi-molecular' perspective for the development of therapies to treat this disease.

Interspecies differences in bone composition, density, and quality: potential implications for in vivo bone research

Abstract: This study compares bone composition, density, and quality in bone samples derived from seven vertebrates that are commonly used in bone research: human, dog, pig, cow, sheep, chicken, and rat. Cortical femoral bone samples were analyzed for their content of ash, collagen, extractable proteins, and insulin-like growth factor-I. These parameters were also measured in bone powder fractions that were obtained after separation of bone particles according to their density. Large interspecies differences were observed in all analyses. Of all species included in the biochemical analyses, rat bone was most different, whereas canine bone best resembled human bone. In addition, bone density and mechanical testing analyses were performed on cylindrical trabecular bone cores. Both analyses demonstrated large interspecies variations. The lowest bone density and fracture stress values were found in the human samples; porcine and canine bone best resembled these samples. The relative contribution of bone density to bone mechanical competence was largely species-dependent. Together, the data reported here suggest that interspecies differences are likely to be found in other clinical and experimental bone parameters and should therefore be considered when choosing an appropriate animal model for bone research.