Medical Pharmacology Commons^™

Role Of Histone Deacetylase (Hdac) In Epithelial To Mesenchymal Transition (Emt) In A Human Cholangiocyte Model Of Ischemic Cholangiopathy, Priyanshi Pragnesh Parikh

Theses and Dissertations

Organ transplants are a vital intervention for many diseases that result in end stage organ failure. Currently, the donation pool is not meeting the demands of the transplant list. Expanding this pool to include donation after cardiac death (DCD) is highly sought-after. However, the use of DCD livers can lead to increased odds of graft failure and ischemic cholangiopathy. The loss of epithelialization and fibrosis that occurs during ischemic cholangiopathy is characteristic of these cells undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The biological changes the cell experiences enhance migratory capacity, invasiveness, and increased resistance to apoptosis. Our earlier studies have shown differential …

The Effect Of An Educational Handout On Knowledge, Awareness And Attitudes Of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) Among Participants At A Needle And Syringe Exchange Site, Mckenzie Buckel

DNP Projects

Background: In 2018, the total number of HIV cases in the United States was 1.2 million. Almost 186,500 of these cases were attributed to intravenous drug use. With the adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) there is approximately a 49% decrease in the rates of HIV among people who inject drugs and the most significant barrier to PrEP among this population is a lack of awareness and knowledge.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine participants’ of a needle and syringe exchange site knowledge, awareness and attitudes of PrEP after reviewing an educational handout about PrEP.

Methods: A quasi …

Provider Education On Annual B12 Levels In Patients On Metformin, Callan Gravel-Pucillo Mms

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Education of primary care providers about the current recommendations, guidelines, and caveats surrounding obtaining annual B12 levels in patients on metformin to screen for deficiency. Education was based off of informal survey results assessing providers' current practices and the preferred medium through which they wanted to recieve educational content. Educational content was presented in a flowchart format for ease of use and distributed at both practice sites for providers to hang at their workstations.

Factors Associated With Improved Outcome Of Inhaled Corticosteroid Use In Covid-19: A Single Institutional Study, A. Manfra, Claire Chen, Kavita Batra, Kyaw Min Tun, Mutsumi Kioka

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Asthmatics seem less prone to adverse outcomes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and some data shows that inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are protective. We gathered data on anecdotal ICS and outcomes of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, given there is literature supporting ICS may reduce risk of severe infection. In addition, we fill gaps in current literature evaluating Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) as a risk assessment tool for COVID-19. This was a single-center, retrospective study designed and conducted to identify factors associated intubation and inpatient mortality. A multivariate logistic regression model was fit to generate adjusted odds ratios (OR). Intubation was associated …

The Safety And Efficacy Of Pravastatin In The Treatment Of Preeclampsia, Miranda Shelly, Tara Riley

Physician Assistant Capstones, 2020-current

Objective: Assess the efficacy of pravastatin in the prevention or treatment of preeclampsia in women who are at risk. Design: Systematic literature review. Methods: A search was performed using Pubmed utilizing the terms preeclampsia and pravastatin. The results were limited to studies that were double blind and placebo controlled and that occurred in the last 5 years. Results: None of the studies found statistical significance in the rate of preeclampsia between the experimental and control groups. Only one study found statistically significant differences in fetal birth weight and age at delivery. The other two studies found no differences between groups …

Prophylactic Intravenous Prehydration With Sodium Bicarbonate Or Sodium Chloride In The Prevention Of Contrast Induced Acute Kidney Injury, Briana Lockett, Caroline Dong

Physician Assistant Capstones, 2020-current

Introduction: Iodinated contrast media is a crucial component in the diagnostic work up of many life-threatening illnesses. However, it has been reported to cause acute kidney injury after administration, especially in patients with pre-existing renal disease. Several prophylactic treatments have been studied in hopes of minimizing these adverse events. The current standard of care in this patient population is prophylactic intravenous volume administration with either sodium chloride or sodium bicarbonate. Objective: The goal of this literature review is to determine if prophylactic intravenous volume administration with either saline or sodium bicarbonate prior to contrast administration decreases the incidence of contrast …

Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Modulation May Improve Intestinal Inflammation In Adults With Cystic Fibrosis, Lauren G. Culver

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

A clinical decision report using:

Ooi CY, Syed SA, Rossi L, Garg M, Needham B, Avolio J, Young K, Surette MG, Gonska T. Impact of CFTR modulation with Ivacaftor on Gut Microbiota and Intestinal Inflammation. Sci Rep. 2018 Dec 13;8(1):17834. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36364-6

for a patient with cystic fibrosis experiencing small bowel obstruction.

Computer-Aided Drug Discovery For Helicobacter Pylori, Nicole Ann Vita

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Helicobacter pylori is a high-priority drug-resistant pathogen and is currently the only bacteria considered to be a class I carcinogen and there is a critical need to identify novel chemical matter to treat H. pylori infections. Hp is responsible for greater than 60% of gastric cancer related deaths and 89% of all gastric cancer morbidities. In a previous study, our lab identified novel Hp thienopyrmidine inhibitors that target respiratory complex I, an essential enzyme in respiration. Respiratory complex I is a large asymmetric multidomain and membrane bound enzyme and due to these innate features, it is not practical for biophysical …

The Association Of Lower Medication Adherence And Increased Medical Spending, Ryan A. Fuchs

Capstone Experience

Medical prescribing is a common occurrence in daily clinical practice. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015-2016 45.8% of the U.S. population used prescription drugs in the past 30 days. (CDC, 2019) Although drug therapy can be effective in treating disease, full benefits are often not realized because many patients do not take their medications as prescribed. There is quite a bit of research out there about non-adherence to medication. Some studies focus on the financial impacts of non-adherence, but most of the studies examine the reasons for medication non-adherence. A gap exists in research about …

Impact Of Alcohol On Bone Health In People Living With Hiv: Integrating Clinical Data From Serum Bone Markers With Morphometric Analysis In A Non-Human Primate Model, Alexandra Denys, Allison Norman, Daniel S. Perrien, Larry J. Suva, Liz Simon, Lee S. Mcdaniel, Tekeda Ferguson, Kim Pedersen, David Welsh, Patricia E. Molina, Martin J.J. Ronis

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

People living with HIV (PLWH) represent a vulnerable population to adverse musculoskeletal outcomes due to HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy (ART), and at-risk alcohol use. Developing measures to prevent skeletal degeneration in this group requires a grasp of the relationship between alcohol use and low bone mass in both the PLWH population and its constituents as defined by sex, age, and race. We examined the association of alcohol use with serum biochemical markers of bone health in a diverse cohort of PLWH enrolled in the New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) study. To explore the effects of alcohol on bone …

The Nogo Receptor Ngr2, A Novel Αvβ3 Integrin Effector, Induces Neuroendocrine Differentiation In Prostate Cancer, Fabio Quaglia, Shiv Ram Krishn, Khalid Sossey-Alaoui, Priyanka Shailendra Rana, Elzbieta Pluskota, Pyung Hun Park, Christopher D. Shields, Stephen Lin, Peter Mccue, Andrew V. Kossenkov, Yanqing Wang, David W. Goodrich, Sheng-Yu Ku, Himisha Beltran, William K. Kelly, Eva Corey, Maja Klose, Christine Bandtlow, Qin Liu, Dario C. Altieri, Edward F. Plow, Lucia R. Languino

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Androgen deprivation therapies aimed to target prostate cancer (PrCa) are only partially successful given the occurrence of neuroendocrine PrCa (NEPrCa), a highly aggressive and highly metastatic form of PrCa, for which there is no effective therapeutic approach. Our group has demonstrated that while absent in prostate adenocarcinoma, the αVβ3 integrin expression is increased during PrCa progression toward NEPrCa. Here, we show a novel pathway activated by αVβ3 that promotes NE differentiation (NED). This novel pathway requires the expression of a GPI-linked surface molecule, NgR2, also known as Nogo-66 receptor homolog 1. We show here that NgR2 is upregulated by αVβ3, …

A Reactivation Of Ocular Toxoplasmosis During Pregnancy, Brett Garee Od, Ms, Sarah Dieter Od, Pete Liette Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite estimated to affect over 500 million people worldwide. The feline is the definitive host for the parasite and infection may be acquired or congenital via maternal transmission. Humans may acquire the infection by ingestion of raw or undercooked meats and vegetables, contaminated water, or exposure to infected cat feces. The infection is often benign, self-limiting, and asymptomatic for humans, but potentially life threatening to infants or the immunocompromised patient.

Case Report: A 22 year-old Caucasian female, pregnant at 12 weeks gestation, presented to the optometry service with acute symptoms of hazy vision …

Frontiers In The Self-Assembly Of Charged Macromolecules, Khatcher O. Margossian

Doctoral Dissertations

The self-assembly of charged macromolecules forms the basis of all life on earth. From the synthesis and replication of nucleic acids, to the association of DNA to chromatin, to the targeting of RNA to various cellular compartments, to the astonishingly consistent folding of proteins, all life depends on the physics of the organization and dynamics of charged polymers. In this dissertation, I address several of the newest challenges in the assembly of these types of materials. First, I describe the exciting new physics of the complexation between polyzwitterions and polyelectrolytes. These materials open new questions and possibilities within the context …

Effect Of Cell Cycle On Cell Surface Expression Of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels And Na+,K+-Atpase, Samantha Edenfield, Abigail M. Sims, Constance Porretta, Harry J. Gould, Dennis Paul

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) are the target for many therapies. Variation in membrane potential occurs throughout the cell cycle, yet little attention has been devoted to the role of VGSCs and Na+,K+-ATPases. We hypothesized that in addition to doubling DNA and cell membrane in anticipation of cell division, there should be a doubling of VGSCs and Na+,K+-ATPase compared to non-dividing cells. We tested this hypothesis in eight immortalized cell lines by correlating immunocytofluorescent labeling of VGSCs or Na+,K+-ATPase with propidium iodide or DAPI fluorescence using flow cytometry and imaging. Cell surface expression of VGSCs during phases S through M was …

Ctpathway: A Crosstalk-Based Pathway Enrichment Analysis Method For Cancer Research, Haizhou Liu, Mengqin Yuan, Ramkrishna Mitra, Xu Zhou, Min Long, Wanyue Lei, Shunheng Zhou, Yu-E Huang, Fei Hou, Christine M. Eischen, Wei Jiang

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Background: Pathway enrichment analysis (PEA) is a common method for exploring functions of hundreds of genes and identifying disease-risk pathways. Moreover, different pathways exert their functions through crosstalk. However, existing PEA methods do not sufficiently integrate essential pathway features, including pathway crosstalk, molecular interactions, and network topologies, resulting in many risk pathways that remain uninvestigated.

Methods: To overcome these limitations, we develop a new crosstalk-based PEA method, CTpathway, based on a global pathway crosstalk map (GPCM) with >440,000 edges by combing pathways from eight resources, transcription factor-gene regulations, and large-scale protein-protein interactions. Integrating gene differential expression and crosstalk effects in …

The Effects Of Mitochondrial Catalase Overexpression On Alcohol-Induced Skeletal Toxicity, Kyler Pisciotta, Bretton Urban, Alexandra Denys, Kim Pedersen, Martin J. Ronis

Medical Research Day

Alcohol induces deleterious effects on the quantity and quality of bone in the skeleton. The mechanism of these effects is believed to be through increased concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within bone cells. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a form of ROS that is converted to water (H2O) and oxygen (O2) by the enzyme catalase. Our previous studies have demonstrated that nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NOX) enzymes 2 and 4 are contributors of ROS within the cellular environment of bone; however, selective knockout of these enzymes did not lead to complete protection against alcohol’s inhibition of osteoblastogenesis and upregulation …

Effect Of Mitochondrial Ros In Binge Etoh Bone Toxicity, Bretton Urban, Kyler Pisciotta, Alexandra Denys, Kim Pedersen, Martin J. Ronis

Medical Research Day

The molecular basis of ethanol (EtOH) toxicity on bone turnover has yet to be fully understood. It is known that chronic consumption increases bone resorption by osteoclast activation while at the same time decreasing bone formation by downregulating osteoblast functions. Our previous work indicated oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation having a role, as dietary antioxidants such as N-acetyl cysteine partially blocked EtOH-induced bone loss in female mice. Mitochondria are a source of ROS such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. MitoTEMPO is a superoxide dismutase mimic that accumulates in mitochondria and scavenges superoxide radicals. Our aim was to …

Prolonged Administration Of Kappa Opioid Agonist Difelikefalin Retains Its Efficacyon The Diuretic Response, Ashlyn Y. Anderson, Luke E. Beckendorf, Daniel R. Kapusta

Medical Research Day

RATIONALE: Disease states exhibiting high amounts of edema, including congestive heart failure, hepatic cirrhosis, and hypertension, are often treated with a combination of diuretics to reduce water retention in the body. Patients treated with the loop diuretic furosemide face an increased risk for developing adverse conditions, such as hyponatremia and hypokalemia and with time loss of diuretic efficacy (diuretic resistance). In contrast, the kappa opioid agonist difelikefalin produces a sodium sparing diuresis by inhibiting hypothalamic neurons responsible for the secretion/release of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) located in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Consequently, inhibition of ADH release increases urine output by increasing …

Lysine Methyltransferase Nsd1 And Cancers: Any Role In Melanoma?, Imène Krossa, Thomas Strub, Andrew E Aplin, Robert Ballotti, Corine Bertolotto

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Epigenetic regulations, that comprise histone modifications and DNA methylation, are essential to processes as diverse as development and cancer. Among the histone post-translational modifications, lysine methylation represents one of the most important dynamic marks. Here, we focused on methyltransferases of the nuclear binding SET domain 1 (NSD) family, that catalyze the mono- and di-methylation of histone H3 lysine 36. We review the loss of function mutations of NSD1 in humans that are the main cause of SOTOS syndrome, a disease associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. We then report the role of NSD1 in triggering tumor suppressive or …

Novel Drugs Approved In 2021-2022, Michael Do, Bona Shin, Elaina Lioudis, Emaleigh Munn

Transformative Medicine (T-Med)

This article provides an abbreviated overview of the newly Federal Drug Administration (FDA)approved novel drugs of 2021-2022 with their respective approved indication(s). The FDA serves as the governing body that regularly evaluates and approves medications that will eventually be introduced to the market for routine use. These medications include both drugs that are the same or related to previously approved products (e.g., Extended indications of priorly approved medications) and novel drugs. By definition, a novel drug is an innovative product which serves to improve quality care in patient populations with unmet or advanced medical needs to overall advance patient care …