Life Sciences Commons^™

An Investigation Of Chronic Pain As A Much-Neglected Symptom Of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Sydney Collins

Honors Theses

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is a group of heritable loose connective tissue disorders with 13 distinguished subtypes. The hypermobile type of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) is the most common subtype and is caused by a genetic mutation that leads to defective collagen fibrils. This leads to joint instability and hypermobility, skin elasticity, widespread pain, fatigue, and generalized tissue fragility. Chronic pain is reported to be a symptom in as high as 92% of the hEDS population (Voermans et al., 2010); despite this prevalence, there is a significant lack of research, awareness, and treatment standardization regarding pain in hEDS. This literature review …

Retinal Regeneration In A Genetic Mouse Model Of Glaucoma, Joshua Paris

Masters Theses

Glaucoma is a degenerative retinal disease characterized by progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Previous studies have shown that application of a specific α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist, PNU-282987 (PNU), onto the murine retina induces neurogenesis of numerous retinal cell types, including RGCs. The aim of this study is to characterize the short-term and long-term effects of PNU in a glaucoma model. The effects of PNU were analyzed in a DBA/2J mouse model that auto-induces a glaucoma-like condition in adulthood. These mice manifest an elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) starting at 6 months, followed by loss of RGCs. To assess …

Gdf-15 As A Biomarker For Glaucoma, Caylee Pattison

Honors Theses

Biomarkers are measurable substances in an organism that are indicative of some phenomenon. Examples of biomarkers in clinical settings are body temperature and blood pressure. Body temperature is indicative of a fever while blood pressure can be used to monitor someone’s risk of a stroke. Previous studies have investigated the possibility of there being a potential biomarker for glaucoma. One possible biomarker identified is growth differentiation factor 15 or GDF15. These studies prompted a study in our lab using a rat glaucoma model. The objective of this study was to show there is a biomarker present for the neurodegenerative disease, …

Symptoms, Infectious Pathway, Treatment, And History Of Rabies In The United States, Paul Beckman-Ellenwood

Honors Theses

Rabies is a virus of the Lyssavirus family that is endemic to almost all parts of the world and claims over 55,000 lives every year. The virus is capable of being vectored through any warm-blooded animal and has a variable incubation time in its hosts. Once the disease finishes incubating and symptoms appear in the host, the disease is always fatal to humans. To prevent this there are several treatments available, but they can be expensive or difficult to obtain in parts of the world that have the most problems with rabies. To solve this vaccines have been created to …

Vaccinia Virus Flll Mediated Expedition Of Tanapoxvirus Replication In Cell Culture, Yih Wen Goh

Masters Theses

Tanapoxvirus (TPV) produces large but slow-forming plaques as opposed to vaccinia virus (VACV) that forms similar large plaques but more rapidly. A number of genes were identified in VACV, inclucding FllL, A33R, A34R and A36R that contribute to the regulation of virus release and dissemination, and are particularly responsible for the induction of actin tails. Among them, TPV lacks homologs of the FllL and A36R genes. F11Lmediated inhibition of RhoA-mDia signaling was shown to enhance the microtubules dynamics and modulates the cortical actin that assisted in the release of progeny virus from infected cells. To understand the possible effects of …

Use Of A Specific Alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist Can Prevent Loss Of Retinal Ganglion Cells In An In Vivo Rat Glaucoma Model, David Mata

Masters Theses

Acetylcholine (ACh) has been shown to have a neuroprotective effect against glutamate-induced excitotoxicity in cultured retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) through activation of α7 nicotinic ACh receptors (nAChRs). In this study, the neuroprotective effects of the α7 nAChR agonist, PNU-282987, were investigated using an in vivo model of glaucoma in adult Long Evans rats. Hypertonic saline injections were used to induce a glaucoma model. After one month, retinas were removed, flat mounted, fixed and labeled with an antibody against Thy 1.1 to label RGCs and fluorescently tagged for visualization. Eye drop application of PNU-282987 resulted in neuroprotection against RGC loss in …

Expression Of The Chemokine Receptor, Cxcr4, And Its Ligand, Sdf-1, Are Increased In Purkinje Cells Of The Multiple System Atrophy Cerebellum, Megan Welter

Masters Theses

Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) is a sporadic, neurodegenerative disease that consists of three conditions: autonomic dysfunction, Parkinsonism and cerebellar ataxia. Our lab conducted an Affymetrix global gene expression analysis using pons tissue of MSA patients to determine genes that are differentially expressed when compared to non- MSA controls. This study identified upregulated genes, including the C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4, CXCR4, to which stromal cell-derived factor-I (SDF-1) is the natural ligand. The CXCR4/SDF-1 signaling pair has been sho.wn to play multiple roles in the brain, such as inducing neuronal apoptosis and promoting leukocyte recruitment during inflammation. The MSA cerebellum presents …

Discovery And Characterization Of A Tanapoxvirus Encoded Human Neuregulin Mimetic, David Jeng

Dissertations

Studies on large dsDNA viruses such as poxviruses have been helpful in identifying a number of viral and cellular growth factors that contribute to our broad understanding of virus-host interaction. Orthopoxviruses and leporipoxviruses are among the most studied viruses in this aspect. However, tanapoxvirus (TPV) a member of the genus Yatapoxvirus, still remains largely unexplored, as the only known hosts for this virus are humans and monkeys. Here, we describe the initial characterization of an EGF-like growth factor mimicking human neuregulin from TPV, expressed by the TPV-15L gene. Assays using a baculovirus expressed and tagged TPV-15L protein demonstrated the ability …

A Quantitative Study Of The Distinctive Proteins Of The Eosinophil: A Comparison Of Normals And Eosinophilic Patients, James M. Olson

Honors Theses

Eosinophils have long been associated with parasitic and allergic diseases. Methods of procurement and purification of eosinophils in the last ten years have allowed intensive investigation into their components, properties, functions, and mechanisms (Gleich et al, 1982). The goals of this project are to separate eosinophils in blood samples taken from patients with eosinophilia and from normals based on density over distontinuous Metrizamide gradients; to determine quantitatively the levels of the three distinctive proteins of the eosinophil, specifically MBP, EDN, and ECP; and to compare the levels of these proteins found in eosinophils of patients with eosinophilia to the amounts …

A Study Of The Environmental Aspects Of Schistosomiasis In Libya, Abubaker I. Swehli

Dissertations

Schistosomiasis is a serious disease in humans. Two species of schistosome, Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma haematobium, organisms that cause the disease, parasitize humans in Libya. Schistosomes require aquatic snails in their life cycle. The purpose of this study was to investigate the environmental and the host relationships of the disease in the three regions of Libya where the disease is found. These relationships include:

1) Analyses of the physical-chemical characteristics of the aquatic habitat.

2) Collection of snails to determine: a) the kind of snail species and th e ir abundance; and b) the cercarial infestation rates.

3) Infection rates …

The Great Potato Debate, James D. Hudson

Honors Theses

Anencephaly and spina bifida cystica are two of the most common severe congenital malformations consistently observed in human populations. Both represent defects in the neural tube and share a significant number of similar epidemiological associations among them, occupational class, geography, sex ratio, maternal age, year and season of the year. In anencephaly most of the brain and upper skull never form usually resulting in death within a few hours of birth. Spina bifida cystica is a malformation of the spinal cord often causing paralysis, vulnerability to infection, and early death. In 1972, Dr. J.H. Renwick presented a controversial hypothesis which …

Experimentation To Develop Procedures To Be Used In The Investigation Of The Effects Of Restriction On The Unmodified Dna Of The Bacteriophage Lamda, John Haynes

Honors Theses

The results of experimentation approximately twenty years ago with variuos bacteriophages by Ralston and Krueger¹⁶, Anderson and Felix¹, Luria and Human¹², and by Bertani and Weigle² have shown that the host range of a given phage depends directly on the bacterial strain on which the phage has last propagated. This event came to be known as host-induced modification or host-controlled variation. As this phage host range is controlled by the host environment and can be altered from one generation to another it has, according to Luria, made microbiology "the last stronghold of Lamarckism" …