Title Participants "Molecular identification of Entamoeba spp. in captive nonhuman primates" "Bruno Levecke, Leentje Dreesen, Pierre Dorny, Jaco J Verweij, Francis Vercammen, Stijn Casaert, Peter Geldhof" "Flavivirus antibodies reactive to Zika virus detected in multiple species of nonhuman primates in Kenya, 2008-2017" "Albina Makio, Marc-Alain Widdowson, Peris Ambala, Hastings Ozwara, Peninah Munyua, Elizabeth Hunsperger" "Background: Zika virus (ZIKV), first described in 1947, is an arthropod-borne virus associated with sporadic outbreaks and interepidemic transmission. Recent studies have implicated nonhuman primates (NHPs) as the probable reservoir hosts. We tested archived serum samples of NHPs collected in Kenya for evidence of neutralizing ZIKV antibodies. Methods: We randomly selected 212 archived serum samples from Institute of Primate Research in Kenya collected between 1992 and 2017. These specimens were tested by microneutralization test. Results: The 212 serum samples were collected in 7 counties from 87 (41.0%) Olive baboons, 69 (32.5%) Vervet monkeys, and 49 (23.1%) Sykes monkeys. Half (50.9%) were male and 56.4% were adult. We detected ZIKV antibodies in 38 (17.9%; 95% confidence interval: 13.3-23.6) samples. Conclusions: These results suggest ZIKV transmission and potential maintenance in nature by NHPs in Kenya." "Molecular identification of Entamoeba spp. in captive nonhuman primates" "B Levecke, L Dreesen, Pierre Dorny, JJ Verweij, F Vercammen, S. Casaert, J. Vercruysse, P Geldhof" "This study describes the molecular identification of 520 Entamoeba positive faecal samples from a large and diverse population of captive nonhuman primates (NHP). The results revealed the presence of E. histolytica (NHP variant only), E. dispar, E. moshkovskii, E. hartmanni, E. coli and E. polecki-like organisms" "Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates" "E. Kavanagh, S.E. Street, F.O. Angwela, T.J. Bergman, M.B. Blaszczyk, L.M. Bolt, M. Briseño-Jaramillo, Ruth M. Brown, C. Chen-Kraus, Zanna Clay, C. Coye, Melissa Emery Thompson, A. Estrada, C. Fichtel, Barbara Fruth, M. Gamba, C. Giacoma, K.E. Graham, S. Green, C.C. Grueter, S. Gupta, M.L. Gustison, L. Hagberg, Daniela Hedwig, K.M. Jack, P.M. Kappeler, G. King-Bailey, B. Kuběnová, A. Lemasson, D.M. Inglis, Zarin Machanda, A. Macintosh, Bonaventura Majolo, S. Marshall, S. Mercier, J. Micheletta, Martin N. Muller, H. Notman, K. Ouattara, J. Ostner, M.S.M. Pavelka, L.R. Peckre, M. Petersdorf, F. Quintero, G. Ramos-Fernández, Martha M. Robbins, R. Salmi, I. Schamberg, V.A.M. Schoof, O. Schülke, S. Semple, J.B. Silk, J.R. Sosa-Lopéz, V. Torti, D. Valente, R. Ventura, E. Van De Waal, A.H. Weyher, C. Wilke, Richard W. Wrangham, C. Young, A. Zanoli, K. Zuberbühler, A.R. Lameira, K. Slocombe" "Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from 'despotic' to 'tolerant'). At the individual-level, we found that dominant individuals who were more tolerant vocalized at a higher rate than their despotic counterparts. This indicates that tolerance within a relationship may place pressure on the dominant partner to communicate more during social interactions. At the species-level, however, despotic species exhibited a larger repertoire of hierarchy-related vocalizations than their tolerant counterparts. Findings suggest primate signals are used and evolve in tandem with the nature of interactions that characterize individuals' social relationships. © 2021 The Authors." "Acceptability of Preclinical Research on Nonhuman Primates in Reproductive Medicine: The Patient Perspective" "Eline Dancet, Carl Spiessens, Jaak Billiet, Johan De Tavernier, Thomas D'Hooghe" "Abstract The attitude of patients with reproductive disorders regarding the use of Non-Human Primates (NHPs) in preclinical reproductive research and its determinants were examined. A survey was conducted with 299 patients with fertility problems and/or endometriosis in a European Fertility centre (RR= 80%). The main outcome measure was the attitude towards reproductive research on NHPs. In total, 70.6% accepts and 29.4% rejects NHP research. Factors significantly positively related to acceptance: confidence in researchers and previous pregnancy. Factors significantly negatively related to acceptance: having a pet, membership of a nature organization, vegetarian and having lived abroad. To the best of our knowledge this study is the first on the patients’ perspective on NHP research. The majority of the patients accept reproductive research on NHPs. Trust in researchers was the most important positively related factor, therefore, researchers are advised to actively try to gain the trust of patients and the public." "Population receptive fields in nonhuman primates from whole-brain fMRI and large-scale neurophysiology in visual cortex" "Wim Vanduffel" "Population receptive field (pRF) modeling is a popular fMRI method to map the retinotopic organization of the human brain. While fMRI-based pRF maps are qualitatively similar to invasively recorded single-cell receptive fields in animals, it remains unclear what neuronal signal they represent. We addressed this question in awake nonhuman primates comparing whole-brain fMRI and large-scale neurophysiological recordings in areas V1 and V4 of the visual cortex. We examined the fits of several pRF models based on the fMRI blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal, multi-unit spiking activity (MUA), and local field potential (LFP) power in different frequency bands. We found that pRFs derived from BOLD-fMRI were most similar to MUA-pRFs in V1 and V4, while pRFs based on LFP gamma power also gave a good approximation. fMRI-based pRFs thus reliably reflect neuronal receptive field properties in the primate brain. In addition to our results in V1 and V4, the whole-brain fMRI measurements revealed retinotopic tuning in many other cortical and subcortical areas with a consistent increase in pRF size with increasing eccentricity, as well as a retinotopically specific deactivation of default mode network nodes similar to previous observations in humans." "Fermented food consumption in wild nonhuman primates and its ecological drivers" "K.R. Amato, Ó.M. Chaves, E.K. Mallott, T.M. Eppley, F. Abreu, A.L. Baden, A.A. Barnett, J.C. Bicca-Marques, S.A. Boyle, C.J. Campbell, Colin A. Chapman, M.F. De la Fuente, P. Fan, P.J. Fashing, A. Felton, Barbara Fruth, V.B. Fortes, C.C. Grueter, G. Hohmann, M. Irwin, J.K. Matthews, A. Mekonnen, A.D. Melin, David B. Morgan, J. Ostner, Thu Ha Nguyen Thi, A.K. Piel, B. Pinacho-Guendulain, E.P. Quintino-Arêdes, P.T. Razanaparany, N. Schiel, Crickette M. Sanz, O. Schülke, S. Shanee, A. Souto, J.P. Souza-Alves, Fiona Stewart, K.M. Stewart, A. Stone, B. Sun, S. Tecot, K. Valenta, Erin R. Vogel, S. Wich, Xiang-Yu Zeng" "ObjectivesAlthough fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that climate, socioecological traits, and habitat patch size would influence the occurrence of this behavior due to effects on the environmental prevalence of late-stage fermented foods, the ability of primates to detect them, and potential nutritional benefits.Materials and methodsWe compiled data from field studies lasting at least 9 months to describe the contexts in which primates were observed consuming fruits in the late stages of fermentation. Using generalized linear mixed-effects models, we assessed the effects of 18 predictor variables on the occurrence of fermented food use in primates.ResultsLate-stage fermented foods were consumed by a wide taxonomic breadth of primates. However, they generally made up 0.01%–3% of the annual diet and were limited to a subset of fruit species, many of which are reported to have mechanical and chemical defenses against herbivores when not fermented. Additionally, late-stage fermented food consumption was best predicted by climate and habitat patch size. It was more likely to occur in larger habitat patches with lower annual mean rainfall and higher annual mean maximum temperatures.DiscussionWe posit that primates capitalize on the natural fermentation of some fruits as part of a nutritional strategy to maximize periods of fruit exploitation and/or access a wider range of plant species. We speculate that these factors contributed to the evolutionary emergence of the human propensity for fermented foods." "Detection of neutralizing antibodies against Zika virus in wild nonhuman primates in Rwanda" "Therese Umuhoza, Albina Makio, Elizabeth Hunsperger, Antoine Mudakikwa, Richard Muvunyi, Julius Nziza, Marc-Alain Widdowson" "The range of nonhuman primate (NHP) species involved in Zika virus (ZIKV) sylvatic transmission is not known. We tested 97 NHP archived sera, collected from 2006 to 2016 in Rwandan National Parks, for neutralizing antibodies to ZIKV. Serum from one olive baboon (Papio anubis) was positive for ZIKV antibodies." "Translation of HDAC6 PET Imaging Using [18F]EKZ-001-cGMP Production and Measurement of HDAC6 Target Occupancy in Nonhuman Primates" "Sofie Celen, Michel Koole, Tom Bleeser, Wim Vanduffel, Koen Van Laere, Guy Bormans, Christopher Cawthorne" "Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a multifunctional cytoplasmic enzyme involved in diverse cellular processes such as intracellular transport and protein quality control. Inhibition of HDAC6 can alleviate defects in cell and rodent models of certain diseases, particularly neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, while HDAC6 represents a potentially powerful therapeutic target, development of effective brain-penetrant HDAC6 inhibitors remains challenging. Recently, [18F]EKZ-001 ([18F]Bavarostat), a brain-penetrant positron emission tomography (PET) radioligand with high affinity and selectivity toward HDAC6, was developed and evaluated preclinically for its ability to bind HDAC6. Herein, we describe the efficient and robust fully automated current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) compliant production method. [18F]EKZ-001 quantification methods were validated in nonhuman primates (NHP) using full kinetic modeling, and [18F]EKZ-001 PET was applied to compare dose-occupancy relationships between two HDAC6 inhibitors, EKZ-317 and ACY-775. [18F]EKZ-001 is cGMP produced with an average decay-corrected radiochemical yield of 14% and an average molar activity of 204 GBq/μmol. We demonstrate that a two-tissue compartmental model and Logan graphical analysis are appropriate for [18F]EKZ-001 PET quantification in NHP brain. Blocking studies show that the novel compound EKZ-317 achieves higher target occupancy than ACY-775. This work supports the translation of [18F]EKZ-001 PET for first-in-human studies." "Localization of movable electrodes in a multi-electrode microdrive in nonhuman primates" "Elsie Premereur, Thomas Decramer, Tom Theys, Peter Janssen" "BACKGROUND: Recently, large-scale semi-chronic recording systems have been developed, unique in their capability to record simultaneously from multiple individually moveable electrodes. As these recording systems can cover a large area, knowledge of the exact location of each individual electrode is crucial. Currently, the only method of keeping track of electrode depth and thus location is through detailed notebook keeping on neural activity. NEW METHOD: We have improved the electrode localization by combining pre- and postoperative anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans with high resolution computed tomography (CT) scans throughout the experiment, and validated our method by comparing the resulting location estimates with traditional notebook-keeping. Finally, the actual location of a selection of electrodes was marked at the end of the experiment by creating small metallic depositions using electrical stimulation, and thereby made visible on MRI. RESULTS: Combining CT scans with a high resolution, artefact reducing sequence during the experiment with a preoperative MRI scan provides crucial information about the exact electrode location of multielectrode arrays with individually moveable electrodes. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: The information obtained from the hybrid CT-MR image and the notes on spiking activity showed a similar pattern, with the clear advantage of the visualization of the exact position of the electrodes using our method. CONCLUSIONS: The described technique allows for a precise anatomical identification of the recorded brain areas and thus to draw strong conclusions about the role of each targeted cortical area in the behavior under study."