Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Enhanced Physical Endurance And Improved Memory Performance Following Taurine Administration In Rats, Irfan Sajid, Saara Muddasir, Shaista Emad, Zehra Batool, Saima Khaliq, Lubna Anis, Saiqa Tabassum, Syeda Madiha, Laraib Liaquat, Sadia Sadir, Tahira Perveen, Saida Haider

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

Energy drinks enhance physical endurance and cognitive ability. The ingredients present in these drinks are considered as ergogenic and have memory boosting effects. In the present study effects of taurine administration for one week was monitored on physical exercise and memory performance in rats. Animals were divided into two groups namely control and test. Taurine was injected intraperitoneally to the test group at the dose of 100mg/kg. After one week of treatment rats were subjected to physical exercise and memory task. Results of this study revealed that rats injected with taurine for one week exhibited improved muscular strength as well …

Epigenetic Biomarkers For Mwcnt Exposure And Lung Disease, Yoon Hee Cho

University Grant Program Reports

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) are engineered nano-materials being developed and used in a wide variety of medical, engineering, and personal products with many potential benefits [1]. However, MWCNT have been shown to cause significant pathological changes in animal models, particularly in the airways, raising the concern that adverse human health effects will emerge with increasing use and exposure to these materials [2-4]. Potential bioactivity of MWCNT, including in vitro and in vivo toxicity and increased inflammation and pathology, has been attributed to their unique physical and chemical characteristics such as length, diameter, contaminants and rigidity [5]. However, MWNCT toxicity and/or …

Survey Of Prescription Medication Disposal Practices In Older Patients, Kimberly A. Madson

University Grant Program Reports

The purpose of the proposed study was to survey participants on current medication disposal practices, and to gather preliminary data on the types of medications found in the home environment.

Clostridium Tertium Peritonitis And Concurrent Bacteremia In A Patient With A History Of Alcoholic Cirrhosis, S. Scott Sutton, Mark Jumper, Ansal Shah, Babatunde Edun

Faculty Publications

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a recognized cause of morbidity and mortality in cirrhotic patients. Enterobacteriaceae have been isolated from the majority of peritonitis cases and the gram negative aerobe Escherichia coli is the most commonly isolated organism. Anaerobic organisms are rarely isolated because of the high oxygen tension in ascetic fluid. We report a patient with a history of alcoholic cirrhosis who developed SBP and concurrent bacteremia with the anaerobe Clostridium tertium. The patient was successfully treated with intravenous antibiotics and was discharged home on oral ciprofloxacin. This case report is unique in that it is the fourth …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Tetrahydroprotoberberines As Dopamine Receptor Ligands, Satishkumar V. Gadhiya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dopamine (DA) receptors belong to the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) family, divided in to two groups based on their high homology transmembrane domains; D1-like DA receptors (D1, D5) and D2-like DA receptors (D2-D4). DA receptor specific ligands have been exploited as a means for studying the prognosis and curing several CNS disorders. Though several efforts have been devoted to discover selective and potent DA receptor ligands, complete selectivity within the DA receptor subtypes remains a challenge.

Tetrahydroprotoberberines (THPBs) are a group of naturally occurring tetracyclic alkaloids that belong to the tetrahydroisoquinoline family. A wide range of biological activities are associated …

Research News. Grants, 2017. Volume 1, University Of Mississippi. School Of Pharmacy, Soumyajit Majumdar

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during January-June 2017

Interprofessional Grand Rounds: Student Hotspotting Team 2016-2017, Caroline Komanecky, Peter Sacci, Danielle Mcfadden, Nuriya Neumann, Michaela Scotten, Melissa Murphy

Department of Occupational Therapy Posters and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Delirium Reduction Strategies For The Critically Ill, June Chaves, Sam Canonico, Will Cheney, Tammy Corey, Gil Fraser, Alex Kowalewski, Jen Low, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Haley Pelletier, Cathy Palleschi, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman

Maine Medical Center

Delirium, an acute and fluctuating disturbance of consciousness and cognition, is a common manifestation of acute brain dysfunction in critically ill patients. Patients with delirium have longer hospital stays and a lower 6-month survival rate than do patients without delirium. Preliminary research suggests that delirium may be associated with cognitive impairment that persists months to years after discharge.

In a large acute care hospital, the cardiac intensive care staff became interested in mitigating their unit’s high delirium rate of ventilated patients. At baseline, many members of the healthcare team did not believe that delirium could be prevented and the predominant …

Aligning Opioid Prescribing Pathways, Andrea Lai, Outpatient Pharmacy, Haley Pelletier, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman

Maine Medical Center

There is a drug epidemic sweeping the State of Maine and it continues to worsen each passing year. In 2017, the Maine legislature passed Public Law Chapter 488 to strengthen the controlled substance prescription monitoring program. An outpatient pharmacy, located in a large acute care hospital, created a performance improvement project to clarify opioid prescription and resolve any non-compliance with Chapter 488.

After a root cause analysis, several KPIs were established to include tracking the number of phone calls made by pharmacists to non-compliant providers to clarify scripts, provide one on one education and ultimately resolve non-compliance. Repeat offenders were …

Strategies To Improve Control Of Blood A1c In Diabetics, Jennifer Aronson, Leanne Bellino, Elizabeth Eisenhardt, Diane Bryant, Haley Pelletier, Internal Medicine Team, Adult Outpatient Clinic

Maine Medical Center

A1c monitoring is an important aspect of controlling the health of a diabetic patient. An adult internal medicine clinic noted that the percentage of their diabetic patients who had an A1c higher than 9 or no reading within the past year exceeded the national average. As a result, operational excellence methods were implemented with the overall goal to reduce their percentage to 18% or less.

A root cause analysis identified several deficiencies to includelack of essential equipment, variations in

staff education and the absence of daily reminders.

Post KPI implementations, an overall decrease in the percentage of patients with poorly …

Communication Of Medication Side Effects In An Acute Care Hospital, Deb Bachand, Rachel Caiola, R6 Neurology Med-Surg Unit, Haley Pelletier, Brendan Lilley, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

Maine Medical Center

COMMUNICATION OF MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS IN AN ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL

Effective patient education of prescribed medication side effects improves patient safety and reduces overall risk. On an acute care hospital unit, nursing staff felt previous attempts at this education had been ineffective as demonstrated by their HCAHPs scores for communication about medications.

A root cause analysis demonstrated some flaws and several countermeasures were instituted. The goal of this KPI project was to attain a higher than national average for the specific HCAHPs score.

Post KPI inception, the unit’s HCAHPs data showed steady improvement. Within one month, the goal of an …

Whole Genome Sequence Analysis Of The Tallyho/Jng Mouse, James Denvir, Goran Boskovic, Jun Fan, Donald A. Primerano, Jacaline K. Parkman, Jung Han Kim

James Denvir

Background: The TALLYHO/Jng (TH) mouse is a polygenic model for obesity and type 2 diabetes first described in the literature in 2001. The origin of the TH strain is an outbred colony of the Theiler Original strain and mice derived from this source were selectively bred for male hyperglycemia establishing an inbred strain at The Jackson Laboratory. TH mice manifest many of the disease phenotypes observed in human obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Results: We sequenced the whole genome of TH mice maintained at Marshall University to a depth of approximately 64.8X coverage using data from three next generation sequencing …

Development Of C5ar-Targeted Nanoparticles For Delivery Of Vaccines, Shailendra Bharadwaj Tallapaka Venkata Sesha

Theses & Dissertations

Since the early attempts of Benjamin Jesty at inducing immunity against smallpox and the pioneering work of Edward Jenner, vaccination has been, and continues to remain, the principal method of protection from diseases. However, most of the successful vaccines have been against pathogens that do not have major mechanisms to evade the immune system. So far, many life-threatening diseases like hepatitis C, HIV infection, malaria etc., have been resistant to existing vaccination strategies. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new vaccination strategies that can generate long-lived protective immunity against such pathogens.

The purpose of this thesis is to …

Development Of Cxcr4 Inhibitors For Topical Treatment Of Psoriasis, Suthida Boonsith

Theses & Dissertations

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that is often associated with systemic comorbidities and impaired skin barrier function. There are several treatment options including topical treatment with immunosuppressants, phototherapy, and systemic therapies using small molecules and biological agents. However, none of them can be regarded as a perfect solution due to their toxicity during chronic use. Recently, the CXCR4/SDF-1 axis was found to play an important role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. AMD3100, a small molecule CXCR4 antagonist can selectively bind to CXCR4 and inhibit skin inflammation, reduce angiogenesis and infiltration of inflammatory cells. Unfortunately, AMD3100 can only be …

August 2017, Randy Curry, Cindy Brooks

RURAL ROCKS

Rural Rocks, the Rural Health Network newsletter by the SWOSU College of Pharmacy

Selective Inhibitors Of Human Mpges-1 From Structure-Based Computational Screening, Ziyuan Zhou, Yaxia Yuan, Shuo Zhou, Kai Ding, Fang Zheng, Chang-Guo Zhan

Molecular Modeling and Biopharmaceutical Center Faculty Publications

Human mPGES-1 is recognized as a promising target for next generation of anti-inflammatory drugs. Although various mPGES-1 inhibitors have been reported in literature, few have entered clinical trials and none has been proven clinically useful so far. It is highly desired for developing the next generation of therapeutics for inflammation-related diseases to design and discover novel inhibitors of mPGES-1 with new scaffolds. Here, we report the identification of a series of new, potent and selective inhibitors of human mPGES-1 with diverse scaffolds through combined computational and experimental studies. The computationally modeled binding structures of these new inhibitors with mPGES-1 provide …

Sertraline And Phenytoin Drug Interaction In A Geriatric Patient, Kobi T. Nathan, Heather A. Hopkins, Stefanie E. Diloreto, Nhon A. Ta, Thomas V. Caprio

Pharmacy Faculty/Staff Publications

This report presents the case of a 78-year-old man residing in a nursing home who presented with a 2-month history of increasing lethargy and confusion. These symptoms coincided with the initiation of sertraline in the patient. Among other medications, he was also taking phenytoin. The medical team concluded that the cause of the patient’s lethargy and confusion was a drug interaction between sertraline and phenytoin. Phenytoin was held, while the sertraline was slowly tapered to discontinuation. The patient’s symptoms resolved soon thereafter. Future research is needed to better guide clinicians in appropriate selection, dosing, and monitoring of selective serotonin reuptake …

Evaluation Of The Anticancer Activity Of Bioactive Fraction G Extracted From Pavetta Crassipes In Malignant Brain Tumor Cell Lines, Rachel M. Wilcox, Eric Huseman, Stacy Lin, Belinda O. Darkwah, M. O. Emeje, K. S. Gamaniel, A. Orisadipe, N. Enwerem, B. A. Kefas, Rebecca J. Gryka, Denise Simpson, Samson Amos

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Objective: Natural products have served as sources of lead compounds that are commonly used in the treatment of human diseases including cancer. Pavetta crassipes has been widely demonstrated to have ethnopharmacological potential in the management of malaria, gastrointestinal conditions, central nervous system behavioral disorders, hypertension, and cancer. The goal of our study was to evaluate the biological and molecular effects of Fraction G, obtained from the plant Pavetta crassipes, on glioblastoma invasive growth and survival.

Methodology: The antiproliferative effects of Fraction G, obtained from Pavetta crassipes, was evaluated using the trypan blue exclusion, (3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol- 2yl)-2, 5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide; MTT), and …

The Impact Of Free Health Screenings At Community Pharmacies On Diabetes, Anna M. Staudt, Nicholas C. Daniels, Jessica E. Amtower, Jeniffer George, Jacques N. Allou, Jeb Ballentine, Emily M. Laswell

Anna Staudt, Pharm.D.

Background: Health screenings can be beneficial when looking to detect diseases early on, thus making treatment easier. Free health screenings are typically performed in the community pharmacy setting. This makes it convenient because it is easily accessible and there is no appointment required. Diabetes is currently one of the most significant health issues faced today, with an estimated 7 million Americans going undiagnosed. Health screenings in community pharmacies are valuable to detect high blood glucose levels for patients to be referred for diagnosis and treatment. Previous studies related to health screenings have focused on hypertension and cholesterol, and few have …

Survey Of Community Pharmacy Customers’ Medication Storage And Disposal Methods, Ryan Biddinger, Laura K. Farleman, Alex Janssen, Mallory J. Martin, Anna M. Staudt, Chelsea Wamsley, Tracy R. Frame

Anna Staudt, Pharm.D.

Many people store medications in bathrooms, which provide a moist, humid environment that speeds up the breakdown process of medications. The proper way to store medicines is in a cool, dry place out of the reach of children. Every year medications are also disposed of improperly presenting a risk to both humans and the environment. About one-third of all sold medications are unused. The most common ways patients dispose of medications in the United States are flushing down the toilet or sink, and throwing them away. Because of this pharmaceuticals have been found in groundwater, and drinking water proving hazardous …

The Impact Of Free Health Screenings At Community Pharmacies On Diabetes, Jeb Ballentine, Emily M. Laswell, Anna M. Staudt, Jacques N. Allou, Jeniffer George, Jessica E. Amtower, Nicholas C. Daniels

Anna Staudt, Pharm.D.

Diabetes is a prevalent issue in the United States, with an estimated 8.1 million people un-diagnosed as of 2012. Health screenings have been proven to identify diseases earlier, thereby resulting in earlier and more satisfactory treatment. Community pharmacies can offer many of the same screenings as those in doctor offices. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of free health screenings in community pharmacies on patient follow-up, perceptions, and knowledge of diabetes through blood glucose screenings and patient education. The study design was a pre-post observational study using surveys, blood sugar screenings, and patient education on diabetes. …

A New Approach To Synthesize Of 4-Phenacylideneflavene Derivatives And To Evaluate Their Cytotoxic Effects On Hepg2 Cell Line, Hongbin Chen, Yang Xu, Yinan Zhang, Zongping Zheng

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this study, a convenient approach and green procedure for the synthesis of 4-phenacylideneflavenes has been developed from the reaction between 2,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde and substituted acetophenones using boric acid as a catalyst in polyethylene glycol 400. Seven 4-phenacylideneflavenes were synthetized and their structures were confirmed by NMR and mass spectral analyses. Meanwhile, their possible mechanism of formation was also discussed. These products were found to have potential cytotoxic effect on HepG2 cell line with IC₅₀ values from 12.5 to 50 µM.

Polymer Nanoassemblies With Hydrophobic Pendant Groups In The Core Induce False Positive Sirna Transfection In Luciferase Reporter Assays, Steven Rheiner, Derek Alexander Reichel, Piotr G. Rychahou, Tadahide Izumi, Hsin-Sheng Yang, Younsoo Bae

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated polyethylenimine (PEG-PEI) is a widely studied cationic polymer used to develop non-viral vectors for siRNA therapy of genetic disorders including cancer. Cell lines stably expressing luciferase reporter protein typically evaluate the transfection efficacy of siRNA/PEG-PEI complexes, however recent findings revealed that PEG-PEI can reduce luciferase expression independent of siRNA. This study elucidates a cause of the false positive effect in luciferase assays by using polymer nanoassemblies (PNAs) made from PEG, PEI, poly-(L-lysine) (PLL), palmitate (PAL), and deoxycholate (DOC): PEG-PEI (2P), PEG-PEI-PAL (3P), PEG-PLL (2P′), PEG-PLL-PAL (3P′), and PEG-PEI-DOC (2PD). In vitro transfection and western blot assays of luciferase …

Higher Midazolam Clearance In Obese Adolescents Compared With Morbidly Obese Adults., Anne Van Rongen, Margreke J E Brill, Janelle D Vaughns, Pyry A J Välitalo, Eric P A Van Dongen, Bert Van Ramshorst, Jeffrey S Barrett, Johannes N Van Den Anker, Catherijne A J Knibbe

Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Faculty Publications

Background

The clearance of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A substrates is reported to be reduced with lower age, inflammation and obesity. As it is unknown what the overall influence is of these factors in the case of obese adolescents vs. morbidly obese adults, we studied covariates influencing the clearance of the CYP3A substrate midazolam in a combined analysis of data from obese adolescents and morbidly obese adults.

Methods

Data from 19 obese adolescents [102.7 kg (62–149.5 kg)] and 20 morbidly obese adults [144 kg (112–186 kg)] receiving intravenous midazolam were analysed, using population pharmacokinetic modelling (NONMEM 7.2). In the covariate analysis, …

Traceable Peo-Poly(Ester) Micelles For Breast Cancer Targeting: The Effect Of Core Structure And Targeting Peptide On Micellar Tumor Accumulation, Shyam M. Garg, Igor M. Paiva, Mohammad R. Vakili, Rania Soudy, Kate Agopsowicz, Amir H. Soleimani, Mary Hitt, Kamaljit Kaur, Afsaneh Lavasanifar

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Traceable poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(ester) micelles were developed through chemical conjugation of a near-infrared (NIR) dye to the poly(ester) end by click chemistry. This strategy was tried for micelles with poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) or poly(α-benzyl carboxylate-ε-caprolactone) (PBCL) cores. The surface of both micelles was also modified with the breast cancer targeting peptide, P18-4. The results showed the positive contribution of PBCL over PCL core on micellar thermodynamic and kinetic stability as well as accumulation in primary orthotopic MDA-MB-231 tumors within 4–96 h following intravenous administration in mice. This was in contrast to in vitro studies where better uptake of PEO-PCL versus PEO-PBCL micelles …

Hiding Inside? Intracellular Expression Of Non-Glycosylated C-Kit Protein In Cardiac Progenitor Cells, Huilin Shi, Christopher A. Drummond, Xiaoming Fan, Steven T. Haller, Jiang Liu, Deepak Malhotra, Jiang Tian

Jiang Liu

Cardiac progenitor cells including c-kit(+) cells and cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) play important roles in cardiac repair and regeneration. CDCs were reported to contain only small subpopulations of c-kit(+) cells and recent publications suggested that depletion of the c-kit(+) subpopulation of cells has no effect on regenerative properties of CDCs. However, our current study showed that the vast majority of CDCs from murine heart actually express c-kit, albeit, in an intracellular and non-glycosylated form. Immunostaining and flow cytometry showed that the fluorescent signal indicative of c-kit immunostaining significantly increased when cell membranes were permeabilized. Western blots further demonstrated that glycosylation of …

Finding Human Proteins That Bind To A Lassa Virus Protein, Maria Alejandra Pardo Ruge, Veronica J. Heintz, Douglas J. Lacount

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Viral hemorrhagic fevers are severe illnesses caused by many different viruses. Lassa Virus is one of these important pathogens in Western Africa, causing hemorrhagic fever and eventually death without early medical treatment. There is no vaccine and there is little information on host-pathogen interactions. Therefore, the interaction between viral proteins and host targets is useful to understand Lassa virus’s lifecycle and pathology, and to develop ways to prevent infection. In this project, we study the nucleoprotein of Lassa virus (NP), which has been reported to have anti-interferon (IFN) activity through elimination of double stranded RNA (dsRNA). These features could be …

Increased Expression Of M1 And M2 Phenotypic Markers In Isolated Microglia After Four-Day Binge Alcohol Exposure In Male Rats, Hui Peng, Chelsea Rhea Geil Nickell, Kevin Y. Chen, Justin A. Mcclain, Kimberly Nixon

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Microglia activation and neuroinflammation are common features of neurodegenerative conditions, including alcohol use disorders (AUDs). When activated, microglia span a continuum of diverse phenotypes ranging from classically activated, pro-inflammatory (M1) microglia/macrophages to alternatively activated, growth-promoting (M2) microglia/macrophages. Identifying microglia phenotypes is critical for understanding the role of microglia in the pathogenesis of AUDs. Therefore, male rats were gavaged with 25% (w/v) ethanol or isocaloric control diet every 8 h for 4 days and sacrificed at 0, 2, 4, and 7 days after alcohol exposure (e.g., T0, T2, etc.). Microglia were isolated from hippocampus and entorhinal cortices by Percoll density gradient …

Blocking An N-Terminal Acetylation-Dependent Protein Interaction Inhibits An E3 Ligase, Daniel C. Scott, Jared T. Hammill, Jaeki Min, David Y. Rhee, Michele Connelly, Vladislav O. Sviderskiy, Deepak Bhasin, Yizhe Chen, Su-Sien Ong, Sergio C. Chai, Asli N. Goktug, Guochang Huang, Julie K. Monda, Jonathan Low, Ho Shin Kim, Joao A. Paulo, Joe R. Cannon, Anang A. Shelat, Taosheng Chen, Ian R. Kelsall, Arno F. Alpi, Vishwajeeth Pagala, Xusheng Wang, Junmin Peng, Bhuvanesh Singh, J. Wade Harper, Brenda A. Schulman, R. Kiplin Guy

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

N-terminal acetylation is an abundant modification influencing protein functions. Because ∼80% of mammalian cytosolic proteins are N-terminally acetylated, this modification is potentially an untapped target for chemical control of their functions. Structural studies have revealed that, like lysine acetylation, N-terminal acetylation converts a positively charged amine into a hydrophobic handle that mediates protein interactions; hence, this modification may be a druggable target. We report the development of chemical probes targeting the N-terminal acetylation–dependent interaction between an E2 conjugating enzyme (UBE2M or UBC12) and DCN1 (DCUN1D1), a subunit of a multiprotein E3 ligase for the ubiquitin-like protein NEDD8. The inhibitors are …

Discovery Of Novel Tubulin Inhibitors And Selective Survivin Inhibitors For Advanced Melanoma And Total Synthesis Of Bioactive 20s-Hydroxyvitamin D3, Qinghui Wang

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

According to the statistics from American Cancer Society, the 5-year survival rate for patients with advanced melanoma is as low as 5%. Treatment of advanced melanoma, therefore, represents an unmet medical need. In this dissertation, I will show the effort to develop new generations of bioavailable tubulin inhibitors targeting the colchicine binding site and selective small-molecule survivin inhibitors for treating advanced melanoma. Extensive structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies of lead molecules ABI-231 and UC-112 have been performed.

Chapter 1 will introduce the current situation of advanced or metastatic melanoma, its clinical drug treatments, as well as problems in current drug treatments. …