01
2010228210
16:25
Page 1
The UK’s leading equine health & well-being magazine
November/December 10 £2.95
Protein changes could hold key to treatments By Louise Cordell NEW treatments could be developed for equine respiratory disease thanks to the result of a new study. A research project funded by The Horse Trust has discovered how proteins in horse’s mucus change as the disease develops and scientists are now investigating how these changes are regulated. Respiratory problems are common in horses, with various surveys reporting that respiratory airway inflammation occurs in between 10 and 50 per cent of animals. They are often associated with an accumulation of mucus in the horse's airways and with the mucus becoming more viscous and hard to clear – reducing quality of life and causing exercise intolerance. The research has revealed that particular genes that regulate mucus proteins, known as mucins, undergo various changes in equine respiratory disease. Professor Peter Clegg at the University of Liverpool led the study, in collaboration with Dr David Thornton from the University of Manchester. They found that horses with respiratory disease have high levels of a particular mucin, known as Muc5b and that a second mucin, Muc5AC was also increased in respiratory disease, but was
present in much lower levels. The team discovered the change by collecting and examining both the respiratory secretions, and cells that lined the airway from horses both with and without respiratory disease. Finally they concluded that alterations in both mucin genes, and their resultant proteins are likely to be a major cause of the increased viscosity of mucus in horses with respiratory disease. Professor Clegg said: “Understanding how mucins change in respiratory disease is the first step in developing new treatments for this condition. Once we are able to find how these changes are regulated, we may be able to develop better treatments.” They also found that horses which produced high levels of mucin genes have increased numbers of goblet cells in their airways, indicating that a key regulatory step may be the actual production and development of the glandular cells, rather than the absolute production of the mucin proteins. The next stage of The Horse Trust-funded research will look at how mucin levels are controlled and affected by treatment in vitro, as the ability to affect mucin production and its viscosity would hugely improve the veterinary management of horses with all forms of respiratory disease.
Over £33,000 has been raised at a charity auction in aid of the British Horse Society’s ‘Drawing the Line’ campaign. The funds will be used to help halt indiscriminate breeding and bring an end to the unnecessary suffering of horses. The star of the show was a walk on part in the TV series Doc Martin, which raised almost £3,000 for
the campaign. However, there was also fierce competition for other lots including Katy Sodeau’s ‘Mare and Foals’ painting and Debbie Gillingham’s ‘Tack a Jack’, which achieved more than twice its estimate. Picture: A rocking horse twin of superstar mare Headley Britannia was one of the many lots auctioned.