Life Sciences Commons^™

Nutritional Status Of Children Living Within Institution-Based Care: A Retrospective Analysis With Funnel Plots And Control Charts For Programme Monitoring, Emily Delacey, Evan Hilberg, Elizabeth Allen, Michael Quiring, Cally J. Tann, Nora Ellen Groce, James Vilus, Ethan A. Bergman, Merzel Demasu-Ay, Hang T. Dam, Marko Kerac

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

Objectives The aim of this study is to fill a key information gap on the nutrition-related epidemiology of orphaned and vulnerable children living within institution-based care (IBC) across six countries.

Design A retrospective analysis with Shewhart control charts and funnel plots to explore intersite and over time variations in nutritional status.

Setting We conducted a retrospective analysis of records from Holt International’s Child Nutrition Programme from 35 sites in six countries; Mongolia, India, Ethiopia, Vietnam, China and the Philippines.

Participants Deidentified health records from Holt International’s online nutrition screening database included records from 2926 children, 0–18 years old. Data were …

Capsaicinoids From Capsicum Annuum As An Alternative Fabh Inhibitor Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis: In Silico Study, Gabriella Chandrakirana Krisnamurti, Dewi Ratih Tirto Sari, Yohanes Bare

Makara Journal of Science

The number of tuberculosis (TB) cases worldwide reached 1.5 million in 2018; thus, TB is considered a deadly disease. TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and involves lipid synthesis. Considering the importance of lipid metabolism in bacteria, FabH may be an essential protein target for repressing lipid synthesis. Capsaicinoids from Capsicum annuum demonstrate potent antibacterial activity. This study predicted the ability of capsaicinoid compounds to inhibit FabH. In silico analysis was performed by retrieving the structure of FabH from PDB and those of selected capsaicinoid derivatives from PubChem. The compounds were docked using AutoDock Vina in PyRx 0.8 software. The …

Retroviral Infection Dynamics In Maine's Wild Turkeys, Stephanie A. Shea

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Widespread wild turkey reintroductions in the late 1900s have led to increases in population density and geographic distribution across North America. This rapid population expansion has put them into proximity with closely-related wild and domestic avian species, increasing the risks of pathogen transmission. Lymphoproliferative disease virus (LPDV) is an avian oncogenic retrovirus detected in wild turkeys in 2009, and previously known to infect domestic turkeys. Following its initial detection, surveys reported variable LPDV prevalence across eastern North America with most wild turkeys being asymptomatic, however diagnostic cases revealed 10% mortality of LPDV-infected individuals. Given its recent detection, little is known …

Immunological Factors Associated With Siv/ Shiv Persistence In Diverse Tissue Niches, Omalla A. Olwenyi

Theses & Dissertations

The significant challenge towards a successful HIV cure lies in eradicating persistent viral reservoirs across diverse tissue niches. As a result, HIV-infected individuals have to resort to lifelong antiretroviral therapy. Recent news of supposed HIV eradication in a second patient has further re-invigorated the fields of HIV cure. However, a few barriers remain, such as the lack of currently available assays to accurately quantify viral reservoirs, limited information on cellular factors associated with persistence, and varied dynamics of the viral reservoir in various body compartments. Lastly, HIV-infected individuals live different lifestyles stemming from comorbid substance abuse including consumption of morphine, …

Intrinsically Disordered Protein Regions In Human Evolution And As Therapeutic Targets, Karen Paco Mendivil

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and IDP regions (IDPRs) fail to form stable structures but have important biological functions via interacting with various molecular partners (proteins, DNA, RNA, glycosaminoglycans). We hypothesized that IDPRs are potential targets for therapeutics development because they are reservoirs of evolutionary innovation, and they play crucial roles in adaptation to pathogens.

We first studied the evolution of IDPRs in the human proteome and compared it with the proteome of non-human primates. We have found that evolutionary young protein-coding genes have included low conserved regions in the N-terminal part of proteins, and such regions are linked to high …

Dicer Represses Antiviral Innate Immunity Pathways In Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells, Chandan Gurung

Dissertations

Recent studies have demonstrated that embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are deficient in expressing type I interferons (IFN), the cytokines that play key roles in antiviral responses. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms and biological implications of this finding are poorly understood. In this study, I used a synthetic RNA-based assay that can simultaneously assess multiple forms of antiviral responses in ESCs. Dicer is an enzyme essential for RNA interference (RNAi), which is used as a major antiviral mechanism in invertebrates but not clear in vertebrates. RNAi activity is detected in wild-type ESCs but is abolished in Dicer knockout ESCs (D−/−ESCs) as …

Gut Microbiota Composition And Predicted Microbial Metabolic Pathways Of Obesity Prone And Obesity Resistant Outbred Sprague-Dawley Cd Rats May Account For Differences In Their Phenotype, Diana N. Obanda, Michael J. Keenan, Ryan Page, Anne M. Raggio, Christopher Taylor, Brian D. Marx, Rhett W. Stout, Justin Guice, Meng Luo, David A. Welsh, Diana Coulon, Claudia Husseneder

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Like humans, outbred Sprague-Dawley CD rats exhibit a polygenic pattern of inheritance of the obese phenotype and not all individuals exposed to a high calorie intake develop obesity. We hypothesized that differences in gut microbiota composition account for phenotype differences between obese prone (OP) and obese resistant (OR) rats. We studied the gut microbiota composition of OPand OR rats after a high fat (HF) diet and how they respond to fermentation of resistant starch (RS). In phase 1 of the study 28 OP and 28 OR rats were fed a HF diet. In order to determine causal role of microbiota …

The Alzheimer’S Disease Drug Development Landscape, Pieter Van Bokhoven, Arno De Wilde, Lisa Vermunt, Prisca S. Leferink, Sasja Heetveld, Jeffrey Cummings, Philip Scheltens, Everard G.B. Vijverberg

Brain Health Faculty Publications

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia. The field has made significant progress over the last 15 years. AD diagnosis has shifted from syndromal, based on signs and symptoms, to a biomarker construct based on the pathological hallmarks of the disease: amyloid β deposition, pathologic tau, and neurodegeneration. Numerous genetic risk factors for sporadic AD have been identified, providing further insight into the molecular underpinnings of the disease. For the last two decades, however, drug development for AD has been proven to be particularly challenging. Here, we provide a unique overview of the drug development …

Comprehensive Study Of Human Pathogenic Trypanosomatids: From Chemotherapies To Disease Ecology, Felipe Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The vector-borne diseases Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, caused by the kinetoplastid parasites Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi respectively, are among the most important parasitic diseases in the group of neglected tropical diseases. Even though the two diseases are endemic to the Americas, they affect millions of people worldwide. Leishmaniasis and Chagas disease cause a great array of symptoms and some of them can be fatal if left undiagnosed and untreated. Current treatment regimens are becoming less effective, vaccines are still not available, and diagnosis needs to be improved. Vector control has been responsible for a decrease of diseases in endemic …

Osmr Signaling Induces Tamp-Specific Bbb Dysfunction Following Autoimmune-Mediated Neutrophil Recruitment, Travis Scott Wertz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Integrity of the brain microvessels that form the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is maintained through fine-tuned regulation of endothelial tight junction proteins, chiefly represented by claudin 5 and the tight junction-associated MARVEL protein (TAMP) occludin. Under proinflammatory conditions in autoimmune-mediated multiple sclerosis (MS), autoreactive effector T cells are activated in white matter regions of the brain and spinal cord and release cytokines to recruit circulating neutrophils that, in turn, release neurotoxic substances. Lack of tight junctions in peripheral blood vessels allows neutrophils to exit blood vessels unhindered, but BBB tight junctions must first be downregulated before neutrophils can transmigrate into the …

Q-Griffithsin Interactions And Utility For The Prevention And Treatment Of Mucosal Infections., Henry Nabeta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Griffithsin (GRFT) is a carbohydrate binding agent (lectin) that was originally identified in the red alga Griffithsia sp. Q-Griffithsin (Q-GRFT) is an oxidation stable analog of GRFT. GRFT has demonstrated inhibitory activity against HIV-1, Coronaviruses, Hepatitis C, influenza and Ebola viruses. The broad-spectrum activity suggests the potential utility of this lectin in a wide range of viral infections. However, the lectin’s activity in mucosal infections has not been extensively studied. Using in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo assays, we have demonstrated that Q-GRFT maintains the ability to bind glycosylated ligands following incubation in murine, macaque and human rectal …

Stat3 Inhibits Type I Interferon Signaling In Type I Conventional Dendritic Cells, Taylor Chrisikos

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are an essential immune population, responsible for controlling adaptive immunity and tolerance. Recently, type I cDCs (cDC1s) have been delineated as a distinct cDC subset, uniquely responsible for coordinating T cell-mediated immunity against pathogens and tumors. Although the importance of cDC1s is now well established, the mechanisms that regulate cDC1 function remain largely unknown. Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) mediates the intracellular signaling of interleukin 10 (IL-10), an immunosuppressive cytokine. Therefore, we hypothesized that STAT3 and IL-10 inhibit cDC1 function and induction of T cell-mediated immunity. Herein, we show that IL-10 inhibits polyinosinic:polycytidylic …

Kshv Susceptibility And Transmission Within Tonsillar Specimens, Farizeh Aalam

Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Despite nearly three decades of research, not much is known regarding the early stages of development for KSHV lymphoproliferative disorders, hindering our ability to develop prophylactic measures or effective treatments. This dissertation will focus on the host and viral factors influencing the magnitude and dynamics of KSHV infection in the human tonsil to pave the way for future interventions directed at limiting person-to-person transmission of KSHV.

To understand the contribution of host factors to KSHV susceptibility in B lymphocytes, we generated a library of 40 tonsillar specimens. Our results indicate that the immunological composition of tonsillar lymphocytes varies across our …

Trained Immunity Enhances The Immune Response And Maintains Microbiome Diversity In Aging And Sepsis, P. Spencer Gill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The global population is rapidly aging. It is estimated that over the next thirty years, the number of individuals >60 years of age will increase by over a billion, and the number of individuals over age 80 may increase by 300 million. As humans age, our immune system becomes progressively weaker through a process called immune senescence. This age-related decrease in immune function increases susceptibility to infection and chronic diseases. Sepsis is a leading cause of death worldwide. Over the past two decades, there has been an increased incidence of sepsis which is due, in part, to our aging population …

Impact Of Probiotics On Black Soldier Fly Larvae Transmission Of Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, Emily Marie Mclaughlin

Honors College

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an opportunistic pathogen which can cause a variety of infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. It has recently been found that black soldier flies can act as carriers for S. maltophilia (Callegari et al., 2020). I have investigated how probiotics impact their vector capabilities. Black soldier fly larvae have been fed substrate spiked with S. maltophilia. After several days of feeding, the larvae were investigated by PCR and plating (Sveensson-Stadler et al., 2011). Two groups of larvae were fed with potatoes infected with S. maltophilia. Persistence of S. maltophilia was determined using PCR by taking samples …

Genital Chlamydia Infection Is Influenced By The Female Sex Hormones Estrogen And Progesterone In Vivo, Amy Gail Gravitte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the United States and worldwide. It often goes unnoticed due to lack of symptoms and left untreated it can ascend the female genital tract to cause sequelae like pelvic inflammatory disease and irreversible tubal infertility. In reproductive-aged women, female sex hormones estrogen (E2) and progesterone (P4) concentrations fluctuate during the menstrual cycle and are influenced by hormonal contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. E2 and P4 influence genital Chlamydia infection in women and mice, but these multifactorial interactions are not entirely mapped out. The complex interplay of E2 and P4 with …

Structural Analysis And Vaccine Efficacy Of Hla Mutants, Kelly Tomaszewski

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus is a commensal of the human skin and also a major human pathogen. Currently, there has been no successful vaccine despite many approaches over the last two decades. S. aureus α-hemolysin (Hla), a potent cytotoxin, plays an important role in the pathogenesis of S. aureus diseases, through the activation of its receptor, ADAM10. We utilized three distinct Hla mutants with differing structural and ADAM10 binding properties to examine for vaccine efficacy. Our studies have demonstrated immunization with each vaccine candidate antigens provided significant protection against S. aureus skin infection yet elicited distinguishable immune responses. We have also generated …

Enhancing Adoptive Cell Therapy By Augmenting Fitness And Anti-Tumor Function Of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes, Parin Shah

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

The success of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has established the importance of cancer immunotherapy in solid cancers, where it has been adopted as one of the standards of care for advanced melanoma and lung cancer. It is currently being investigated to treat other solid cancers. However, a large fraction of patients do not respond to ICIs and relapse. ICI therapy offers an in vivo approach to activate tumor-specific T cells, albeit in some cases, this modality does not create a sufficiently robust anti-tumor response. Thus, ex vivo approaches employing manipulation of immune cells, such as Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) using …

Investigation Of Histomoniasis Prevention In Poultry, Lesleigh Beer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Histomonas meleagridis is the etiological agent of histomoniasis, also commonly known as blackhead disease. This protozoal disease of poultry is detrimental to turkeys with flock mortalities often reaching 80-100%, although other gallinaceous birds are susceptible. Since the voluntary removal of nitarsone in 2015, the poultry industry is suffering with no approved prophylactics, therapeutics, or vaccines for this disease. The objectives of this dissertation were to evaluate multiple methods for prevention or control of histomoniasis, including dietary chemoprophylaxis and vaccination. Specifically, this research evaluated quinine as a chemoprophylactic candidate (Chapter 3) or live-attenuated H. meleagridis as vaccine candidates (Chapter 4) in …

Moraxella Species Associated With Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis: Detection, Characterization, And Immunity, Matthew M. Hille

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) represents the most common ocular disease of cattle. Moraxella bovis (M. bovis) is the only bacteria proven to cause IBK under experimental conditions. A closely related bacteria, Moraxella bovoculi (M. bovoculi) is cultured from IBK lesions more frequently than M. bovis, and is suspected to cause IBK, although a causal relationship between M. bovoculi and IBK has not been confirmed experimentally. Two distinct genotypes were recently characterized in M. bovoculi based on whole genome sequencing. Genotype 1 M. bovoculi appears to represent a potential pathogen whereas genotype 2 M. bovoculi appears …

Moerv29 Promotes Apoplastic Effector Secretion Contributing To Virulence Of The Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe Oryzae, Bin Qian, Xiaotong Su, Ziyuan Ye, Xinyu Liu, Muxing Liu, Danyu Shen, Han Chen, Haifeng Zhang, Ping Wang, Zhengguang Zhang

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

During plant-pathogenic fungi and host plants interactions, numerous pathogen-derived proteins are secreted resulting in the activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway. For efficient trafficking of secretory proteins, including those important in disease progression, the cytoplasmic coat protein complex II (COPII) exhibits a multifunctional role whose elucidation remains limited. Here, we discovered that the COPII cargo receptor MoErv29 functions as a target of MoHac1, a previously identified transcription factor of the UPR pathway. In Magnaporthe oryzae, deletion of MoERV29 severely affected the vegetative growth, conidiation and biotrophic invasion of the fungus in susceptible rice hosts. We demonstrated that MoErv29 …

Chemical And Biological Characterization Of The Anticancer Potency Of Salvia Fruticosa In A Model Of Human Malignant Melanoma, Sotiris Kyriakou, Venetia Tragkola, Michael Plioukas, Ioannis Anestopoulos, Paschalina S. Chatzopoulou, Eirini Sarrou, Dimitrios T. Trafalis, Maria V. Deligiorgi, Rodrigo Franco, Aglaia Pappa, Mihalis I. Panayiotidi

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Malignant melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of skin cancer with an increasing incidence worldwide. Thus, the development of innovative therapeutic approaches is of great importance. Salvia fruticosa (SF) is known for its anticancer properties and in this context, we aimed to investigate its potential anti-melanoma activity in an in vitro model of human malignant melanoma. Cytotoxicity was assessed through a colorimetric-based sulforhodamine-B (SRB) assay in primary malignant melanoma (A375), non-malignant melanoma epidermoid carcinoma (A431) and non-tumorigenic melanocyte neighbouring keratinocyte (HaCaT) cells. Among eight (8) different fractions of S. fruticosa extracts (SF1-SF8) tested, SF3 was found to possess …

How Within-Host Priority Effects Between Specialist And Generalist Pathogens Affect Disease Risk, Jing Jiao, Michael H. Cortez

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Research In Mathematical Modeling, Glenn Ledder

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Sex And The Streets: The Open Secret Of Sexual Abuse Among Pakistan's Two Million Street Children, Amir Humza Sohail, Muhammad Hassaan Arif Maan, Sachal Sohail

Medical College Documents

Background: About two million children live on the streets in Pakistan. Their complicated past and dire living conditions make them susceptible to many psychological and physical problems, including sexual abuse.
Main body: With little research on the topic, the prevalence of sexual intercourse among street children is reported to be as high as 88% in Pakistan. With commercial sex a common practice among the street children, public places such as bus terminals and parks have become foci of prostitution and sexual exploitation. A growing concern is the spread of HIV/AIDS among the affected children due to a general lack of …

Poliomyelitis Virus Vs Smallpox: An Ordinary Differential Equation Model Comparison, Kate Mcgough

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Mt10-Cvb3 Vaccine Virus Protects Against Cvb4 Infection By Inducing Cross-Reactive, Antigen-Specific Immune Responses, Ninaad Lasrado, Rajkumar Arumugam, Mahima T. Rasquinha, Meghna Sur, David Steffen, Jay Reddy

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Group B coxsackieviruses (CVB) containing six serotypes, B1–B6, affect various organs, and multiple serotypes can induce similar diseases such as myocarditis and pancreatitis. Yet, no vaccines are currently available to prevent these infections. Translationally, the derivation of vaccines that offer protection against multiple serotypes is highly desired. In that direction, we recently reported the generation of an attenuated strain of CVB3, termed Mt10, which completely protects against both myocarditis and pancreatitis induced by the homologous wild-type CVB3 strain. Here, we report that the Mt10 vaccine can induce cross-protection against multiple CVB serotypes as demonstrated with CVB4. We note that the …

Energetic Cost And Physiological Trade-Offs, Heba A. Ali

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how organisms allocate limited resources across physiological systems is a major challenge in biology. This study revealed that high energetic demand of electric signals of male electric fish (Brachyhypopomus gauderio) is matched by a metabolic trade-off with other cellular functions. We used thyroxine (T4) to modulate the fish’s signal metabolism, partitioned the energy budget pharmacologically, and measured energy consumption using oxygen respirometry. In males, total energy consumption was unchanged pre- and post-T4 treatment, while signal metabolism rose and the standard metabolic rate fell in an even trade-off. Total metabolism in females did the opposite. Under T4, the …

Bisindolylmaleimide Ix: A Novel Anti-Sars-Cov2 Agent Targeting Viral Main Protease 3clpro Demonstrated By Virtual Screening Pipeline And In-Vitro Validation Assays, Yash Gupta, Dawid Maciorowski, Samantha E. Zak, Krysten A. Jones, Rahul S. Kathayat, Saara-Anne Azizi, Raman Mathur, Catherine M. Pearce, David J. Ilc, Hamza Husein, Andrew S. Herbert, Ajay Bharti, Brijesh Rathi, Ravi Durvasula, Daniel P. Becker, Bryan C. Dickinson, John M. Dye, Prakasha Kempaiah

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 consists of several enzymes with essential functions within its proteome. Here, we focused on repurposing approved and investigational drugs/compounds. We targeted seven proteins with enzymatic activities known to be essential at different stages of the viral cycle including PLpro, 3CLpro, RdRP, Helicase, ExoN, NendoU, and 2′-O-MT. For virtual screening, energy minimization of a crystal structure of the modeled protein was carried out using the Protein Preparation Wizard (Schrodinger LLC 2020-1). Following active site selection based on data mining and COACH predictions, we performed a high-throughput virtual screen of drugs and investigational molecules (n = …

Livestock Ticks In The Uae: Prevalence, Distribution, Population Dynamics, And Associated Microorganisms, Nighat Perveen

Dissertations

Ticks are important vectors of an array of viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens resulting in a wide range of animal and human diseases in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In this study, ticks were collected from camels, cows, sheep, and goats in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The objectives of the study were to (1) identify tick species of livestock through taxonomic keys and using molecular markers, and determine their prevalence and distribution in the UAE, (2) assess Hyalomma dromedarii seasonal population fluctuation over a year under common camel breeding and management …