Immune System Diseases Commons^™

Vitamin C Contributes To Epigenetic Regulation Of Genes Related To Diabetic Retinopathy In Retinal Endothelial Cells, Elizabeth L. Turner, Jonathon Reynolds, Walker Kay, Marianne Becnel, Matthew Conway, Alexander Kim, John A. Kriak, Kyle B. Bills, David W. Sant

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

The Immunomodulating Effects Of Morphine Dependence And Withdrawal In A Rat Model, Mark Stoll

Annual Research Symposium

Would you like to know what happens to the immune system during opioid drug withdrawal?

Checkpoint Inhibitor Immune-Related Adverse Events: A Focused Review On Autoantibodies And B Cells As Biomarkers, Advancements And Future Possibilities, John Taylor, Aesha Gandhi, Elin Gray, Pauline Zaenker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has evolved rapidly with unprecedented treatment benefits being obtained for cancer patients, including improved patient survival. However, over half of the patients experience immune related adverse events (irAEs) or toxicities, which can be fatal, affect the quality of life of patients and potentially cause treatment interruption or cessation. Complications from these toxicities can also cause long term irreversible organ damage and other chronic health conditions. Toxicities can occur in various organ systems, with common observations in the skin, rheumatologic, gastrointestinal, hepatic, endocrine system and the lungs. These are not only challenging to manage …

Phase 1a Clinical Study For Q-Griffithsin Intranasal Spray For Prevention Of Coronavirus, Megan Bezold, Kenneth Palmer, Nobuyuki Matoba, Elizabeth Cash

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmissible virus that causes acute respiratory disease with possible long-term complications, known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Griffithsin (GRFT; including the oxidation-resistant variant Q-GRFT used in this study) is an algal carbohydrate-binding protein exhibiting antiviral effects against many enveloped viruses, including all major variants of SARS- CoV-2 reported to date. Q-GRFT has been recombinantly manufactured in Nicotiana benthamiana plants, thoroughly purified, and formulated as an intranasal spray designed to be developed as a non-vaccine broad-spectrum prophylactic product for acute use. This is the first-in-human, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The …

A Systematic Review To Study The Global Patterns And Policies Of Hiv Harm Reduction Programs And Their Impact Among People Who Inject Drugs, Noura Shaltout, Rania Soliman, Lamia Refaey, Rim Ghazal, Mirna Atteya, Nahla Elmedany

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Aim: This study aims to provide an updated estimate of HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs (PWID) globally, as well as investigate different policies and methods for applying harm reduction. This article focuses on the two major and the most frequently used harm reduction techniques, Syringe-Service Programs (SSPs) and Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT). Methods: A comprehensive systematic review was undertaken across multiple international databases during the period of (August-December 2021). For studies conducted before 2005, we used data from a previous published systematic review. Thirty-six studies were included, including studies that had performed HIV testing and had a confirmed …

Pneumococcal Vaccine Guidance 2022, Bona Shin, Michael Do, Elaina Lioudis

Transformative Medicine (T-Med)

PCV15 and PCV20 received FDA approval in 2021. This article provides an overview of all pneumococcal vaccines - PPSV23, PCV13, PCV15, and PCV20 and their place in therapy. It provides a summary of pneumococcal disease burden in the U.S., vaccine spectrum of activity, indications, adult/pediatric dosing schedules, efficacy, and common adverse drug reactions.

Investigating The Pi3k/Akt/Atm Pathway, Telomeric Dna Damage, T Cell Death, And Crispr/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing During Acute And Chronic Hiv Infection, Sushant Khanal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection initiates major metabolic and cell- survival complications. Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is the current approach to suppress active HIV replication to a level of undetected viral load, but it is not a curative approach. Newer and sophisticated gene editing technologies could indeed be a potent antiviral therapy to achieve a clinical sterilization/cure of HIV infection. Chronic HIV patients, even under a successful ART regimen, exhibit a low-grade inflammation, immune senescence, premature aging, telomeric DNA attrition, T cell apoptosis, and cellular homeostasis. In this dissertation, we investigated CD4 T cell homeostasis, degree of T cell apoptosis, an …

Immunoglobulin G N-Glycan, Inflammation And Type 2 Diabetes In East Asian And European Populations: A Mendelian Randomization Study, Biyan Wang, Di Liu, Manshu Song, Wei Wang, Bo Guo, Youxin Wang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans have been shown to be associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its risk factors. However, whether these associations reflect causal effects remain unclear. Furthermore, the associations of IgG N-glycans and inflammation are not fully understood. Methods: We examined the causal associations of IgG N-glycans with inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen) and T2D using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis in East Asian and European populations. Genetic variants from IgG N-glycan quantitative trait loci (QTL) data were used as instrumental variables. Two-sample MR was conducted for IgG N-glycans with inflammation (75,391 and …

Immunity To Poliovirus In Afghanistan: A Household Sampling Method For Serological Assessment Based On Geographical Information Systems, Amalia Mendes, Ari Whiteman, Benjamin Nygren, Brian Kaplan, Imtiaz Hussain, Sajid Bashir Soofi, Maureen Martinez, Noha H. Farag

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Afghanistan continues to experience challenges affecting polio eradication. Mass polio vaccination campaigns, which aim to protect children under the age of 5, are a key eradication strategy. To date, the polio program in Afghanistan has only employed facility-based seroprevalence surveys, which can be subject to sampling bias. We describe the feasibility in implementing a cross-sectional household poliovirus seroprevalence survey based on geographical information systems (GIS) in three districts. Digital maps with randomly selected predetermined starting points were provided to teams, with a total target of 1,632 households. Teams were instructed to navigate to predetermined starting points and enrol the closest …

Routine Immunization Coverage And Immunization Card Retention In Pakistan: Results From A Cross-Sectional National Survey, Imtiaz Hussain, Ahmad Khan, Dale A. Rhoda, Imran Ahmed, Muhammad Umer, Uzair Ansari, Muhammad Akram Shah, Soofia Yunus, Sajid Bashir Soofi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions available, saving millions of lives from death and disability each year. Therefore, improving immunization coverage is a high priority for the Government of Pakistan and essential to progress toward universal health coverage. This survey reports the national and provincial/regional coverage and determinants of fully, partially, and not-vaccinated children aged 12–23 months, antigen-wise coverage, percentage of home-based vaccination records (HBR) retention, and reasons for nonretention; dropout, timeliness, and prevalence of missed opportunities for simultaneous vaccination (MOSV).
Methods: The survey was a descriptive cross-sectional national household survey carried out across Pakistan. …

Oral N-Acetyl Cysteine Versus Rectal Indomethacin For Prevention Of Post Ercp Pancreatitis: A Multicenter Multinational Randomized Controlled Trial, Pezhman Alavinejad, Nguyen-Phuong Nhu Tran, Omid Eslami, Omar El Shaarawy, Omar El Shaarawy, Ahmad Hormati, Seied Saeed Seiedian, Abazar Parsi, Mohammed Hussien Ahmed, Amna Subhan Butt

Section of Gastroenterology

Background: This multicenter multinational RCT designed to compare the efficacy of suppository indomethacin and NAC for prevention of PEP.
Methods: During a 6-month period, all of the ERCP cases in seven referral centers were randomly assigned to receive either 1200 mg oral NAC, indomethacin suppository 100 mg, 1200 mg oral NAC plus indomethacin suppository 100 mg or placebo 2 hours before ERCP. The primary outcomes were the rate and severity of any PEP.
Results: A total of 432 patients included (41.4% male). They were originally citizens of 6 countries (60.87% Caucasian). They were randomly allocated to receive either NAC (group …

Chronic Diarrhea: A Rare Presentation Of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Saira Furqan, Sajjad Ali Khan, Dania Ali, Kaleemullah Badini

Section of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism

Hodgkin's Lymphoma is a cancer affecting the lymphatic system. There are two subtypes of Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Nodular lymphocyte predominant (NLPHL) and classical Hodgkin's Lymphoma which has further four types. It has a bimodal distribution and is more common among males. The most common presentation is painless swelling in the neck, armpit or groin region. Associated Symptoms include night sweats, unintentional weight loss, fever, persistent cough or dyspnea. Involvement of the gastrointestinal tract is a rare occurrence. Diagnosis is based on hematological, radiological and histochemical studies. Here we report a rare presentation of a 47-year-old male who presented with symptoms of …

Factors Associated With Loss Of Motivation And Hesitation To Work Amongst Frontline Health Care Providers During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey From A Developing Country, Mehreen Malik, Syeda Tayyaba Rehan, Farheen Malik, Jawad Ahmed, Chaudhary Abdul Fatir, Hassan Ul Hussain, Asiyah Aman, Muhammad Junaid Tahir

Department of Anaesthesia

Background: The COVID-19 took over the world in 2020 and a lockdown has been imposed seeing its fast spread. Frontline health care workers (HCWs) were reported frequently with a lack of motivation, hesitancy and unwillingness to perform their duties during this pandemic. This cross-sectional survey aims to evaluate the factors associated with lack of motivation and increased hesitancy among the frontline HCWs to perform their duties during COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials and methods: A total of 239 HCWs were included in this web-based cross-sectional study, who have worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. The anonymous online questionnaire was sent to all faculty, …

Mixture Models For Interval Censored Outcomes, Yibai Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

Silent events such as the first detectable HIV infection, the onset of Type 2 diabetes and prostate cancer progression are often ascertained by diagnostic tests and/or self-reports that are scheduled periodically. In such applications, we only observe the time to the event of interest to lie between the times of last negative and the first positive tests, resulting in interval-censored observations. In addition, in some medical studies, a substantial proportion of participants may experience the events before the study, so-called prevalent cases, or participants may never experience the event, that is regarded as non-susceptible cases (or indolent cancer or long-term …

Management Of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus In Pregnancy, Oana Denisa Balalau, Mihai George Loghin, Delia Maria Bogheanu, Nicolae Bacalbasa, Anca Daniela Stanescu, Daniela Gabriela Bălan, Ioana Păunică, Octavian Gabriel Olaru

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Systemic lupus erythematosus is one of the most common autoimmune disorders affecting young women. Pregnant women with lupus are generally at higher risk for certain pregnancy complications than women without comorbidities. Even so, a pregnancy with lupus can be carried to term in optimal conditions if it is properly managed by a doctor. Monitoring is generally recommended six months after the onset of lupus symptoms, and ideally there should be no active lupus symptoms prior to conception. General screening tests should include the anti-phospholipid, anti-Ro and anti-La antibodies. Women who are positive for these antibodies have an increased risk of …

¿Existe Asociación Entre La Multimorbilidad Y La Mortalidad De Pacientes Con Covid-19? Análisis De Una Submuestra De Una Cohorte Colombiana., Silvia Villabona Flórez Dr, Mariam Beatriz Posso-Paz Dr, Catalina Cáceres Ramírez Dr, Alvaro José Lora Mantilla Dr, Andrea Karin Riaño Duarte Dr., Laura Alejandra Parra-Gómez Dr, Valentina Ortegón Vargas Dr, María Catalina Rocha Lezama Dr, Paul Anthony Camacho López Dr

AMNET XIX Conferencia Internacional

Objetivo: Determinar la asociación la multimorbilidad y la mortalidad en pacientes con diagnóstico por COVID-19.

Metodología: Estudio observacional de cohorte ambispectiva de pacientes con infección por COVID-19 que acudieron a urgencias de la Fundación Oftalmológica de Santander, Bucaramanga en el periodo entre agosto de 2020 y junio 2021. Se realizó un análisis de una submuestra de pacientes fallecidos, divididos en tres grupos según sus antecedentes; pacientes sin comorbilidades, pacientes con ≤2 comorbilidades y pacientes con multimorbilidad (>2 comorbilidades). Finalmente se analizó el consumo de 14 medicamentos.

Resultados: Se analizaron 1509 participante con una edad media de 58.3±19.8 años. La …

Exploratory Analysis Of Outpatient Visits For Us Adults Diagnosed With Lupus Erythematosus: Findings From The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 2006–2016, Salena Marie Preciado, Khaled A. Elsaid, Souhiela Fawaz, Lawrence Brown, Enrique Seoane-Vazquez, Marc Fleming, Yun Wang

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The study aims to assess office-based visit trends for lupus patients and evaluate their medication burden, chronic conditions, and comorbidities. This cross-sectional study used data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a survey sample weighted to represent national estimates of outpatient visits. Adult patients diagnosed with lupus were included. Medications and comorbidities that were frequently recorded were identified and categorized. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were used to characterize visits by sex, age, race/ethnicity, insurance type, region, and reason for visit. Comorbidities were identified using diagnosis codes documented at each encounter. There were 27,029,228 visits for lupus patients …

Omicron Spike Function And Neutralizing Activity Elicited By A Comprehensive Panel Of Vaccines, John E. Bowen, Amin Addetia, Ha V Dang, Cameron Stewart, Jack T. Brown, William K. Sharkey, Kaitlin R. Sprouse, Kumail Ahmed, Asefa Shariq Ansari, Najeeha Talat Iqbal

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant of concern comprises several sublineages, with BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 having replaced the previously dominant BA.1 and with BA.4 and BA.5 increasing in prevalence worldwide. We show that the large number of Omicron sublineage spike mutations leads to enhanced angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) binding, reduced fusogenicity, and severe dampening of plasma neutralizing activity elicited by infection or seven clinical vaccines relative to the ancestral virus. Administration of a homologous or heterologous booster based on the Wuhan-Hu-1 spike sequence markedly increased neutralizing antibody titers and breadth against BA.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and …

Assessing Cognitive Health Outcomes In Anca-Associated Vasculitis Patients, Ruo Yan Chen

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Anti-neutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is a rare and life-threatening autoimmune disease with severe complications. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is thought to be rare, however, the prevalence of neuropsychiatric complications have been reported in 30-60% of AAV cases. Studies looking at the cognitive health outcomes of AAV patients with CNS involvement have noted cognitive impairment as a significant contributor to reduced quality of life with unique challenges in care and treatment. The data collected from this primary output could be combined with global assessments of cognitive function as well as the application of advanced imaging tools to study …

Covad Survey 2 Long-Term Outcomes: Unmet Need And Protocol, Zoha Zahid Fazal, Parikshit Sen, Mrudula Joshi, Naveen Ravichandran, James B. Lilleker, Vishwesh Agarwal, Sinan Kardes, Minchul Kim, Jessica Day, Ashima Makol

Medical College Documents

Vaccine hesitancy is considered a major barrier to achieving herd immunity against COVID-19. While multiple alternative and synergistic approaches including heterologous vaccination, booster doses, and antiviral drugs have been developed, equitable vaccine uptake remains the foremost strategy to manage pandemic. Although none of the currently approved vaccines are live-attenuated, several reports of disease flares, waning protection, and acute-onset syndromes have emerged as short-term adverse events after vaccination. Hence, scientific literature falls short when discussing potential long-term effects in vulnerable cohorts. The COVAD-2 survey follows on from the baseline COVAD-1 survey with the aim to collect patient-reported data on the long-term …