Discoveries

Can Cats Teach Us About Long Covid?

Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, is a serious and historically fatal disease in cats caused by a coronavirus. It behaves in many ways like severe coronavirus infections in humans, causing widespread inflammation, T cell exhaustion and chronic immune dysfunction.

A team of veterinary medicine researchers at UC Davis found that mesenchymal stromal cells, or MSC therapy, in combination with antiviral drugs, helped cats’ immune systems recover and reduced systemic inflammation. The study was published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine.

“Our findings support the idea that FIP in cats is a useful model for studying long-term immune problems after a viral infection— something that also happens in some people after illnesses like COVID-19,” said corresponding author Amir Kol, associate professor in the school’s Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. “It shows that MSC therapy might not only reduce short-term inflammation but help bring the immune system back into lasting balance.”

He added that it’s important to understand that many pets suffer from diseases that are similar to human diseases, so veterinary medicine is a useful platform to conduct translational science that helps both pets and humans. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the school’s Center for Companion Animal Health.

Watch a video about finding a cure for FIP.

New Hope for Treating a Difficult Cancer

A collaborative team of scientists from UC Davis and UC San Francisco completed the first clinical trial of a new cancer drug in cats, offering hope for a disease that has long been nearly impossible to treat. The study, published in Cancer Cell, found 35 percent of the cats with squamous cell carcinoma who received treatment had their disease controlled with minimal side effects. Researchers say the drug will likely be effective for humans with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most aggressive cancers in feline patients. Most cats survive only two to three months after diagnosis, since surgery, chemotherapy and radiation usually do little to stop it. The drug, which was originally designed to treat human head and neck cancers, is the first of its kind to target a protein called STAT3. This protein acts like a faulty switch that tells cancer cells to keep growing. 

“What’s exciting is that this study shows it’s possible to shut down a protein that drives cancer,” said first author Daniel Johnson with the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. “That has been notoriously difficult in the past.”

He added that the study also shows that pets with cancer can be good models of human disease and they may yield more reliable results than mouse models. Researchers are currently working with a small biotech company to advance the new compound in clinical trials for both pets and humans.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the school’s Center for Companion Animal Health.

Childhood Adversity Impacts on Health Professional Students

Graduate health professions students from socially disadvantaged groups are more likely to have had encountered adversity in childhood. According to a UC Davis study recently published in the journal Academic Medicine, that reality also could lead to personal struggles during their education and careers.

The longitudinal research examined the wellbeing of UC Davis students in three of its professional schools: veterinary, medical and nursing. The study set out to determine the relationship between adverse childhood experiences— known as ACEs—with social disadvantage, psychological distress and resilience.

Among the findings:

• Childhood adverse experiences are common among UC Davis health professions students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as first-generation college graduates and students whose racial and ethnic backgrounds are underrepresented in health care.
• ACEs put students at risk of developing mental health issues during training and beyond. Experts fear this could further increase the growing rate of burnout in the U.S. health workforce, and compromise patient safety.
• ACEs exposures were not associated with lower resilience, in contrast to previous research, suggesting that students in this study are extraordinarily resilient despite childhood adversity and structural disadvantage.
   

The study’s researchers suggest that programs and services within the School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Medicine, and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, should be trauma-informed and consider social inequities to better support these students’ mental health and success.

“The awareness of our findings is essential to help plan program improvements to facilitate an environment fit for learning,” said co-author Karl Jandrey, associate dean of Admissions and Student Programs at the veterinary school. “This is foundational to a lifetime of caregiving where the practitioner will thrive.”

Read more about how UC Davis supports its veterinary, medical and nursing students.