Digital Commons Network^™

Hepatoprotective Evaluation Of Benzoylated Emodin Derivatives: Integrating Bioinformatics And In Vitro Studies, Firdayani Firdayani, Putri Hawa Syaifie, Siska Andrina Kusumastuti, Muthia Rahayu Iresha, Wirawan Adikusuma, Dhecella Winy Cintya Ningrum, Etik Mardliyati, Ayu Masyita, Ariza Yandwiputra Besari, Fathir Azzaki Iradata, Lucy Arianie

BioMedicine

Background: Emodin exhibits various pharmacological activities, including hepatoprotective effects. However, its clinical application is limited by poor absorption and low oral bioavailability. This study aimed to optimize emodin through benzoylation and to assess the hepatoprotective potential of the resulting derivatives integrating bioinformatics and in vitro methods.

Methods: We conducted network pharmacology, molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to predict potential targets and interactions of benzoylated emodin derivatives. The derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for cytotoxicity using the MTT assay. The hepatoprotective effects were assessed in vitro using a paracetamol-induced HepG2 cell injury model.

Results: Network pharmacology analysis and gene …

Acidic Extracellular Ph-Induced Pth Secretion In Male Mouse Parathyroids Is Ogr1-Dependent, Yanmei Yang, Mengcun Chen, Mingshu Cui, Elisabeth Lashbrooks, Bin Wang

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

The role of extracellular acidity in regulating PTH secretion in cultured mouse parathyroid glands (PTGs) has not been studied to date, largely because of the technical difficulty of isolating mouse PTGs. We hypothesized that acidic extracellular pH directly stimulates PTH secretion through activation of a proton-sensing receptor, specifically ovarian cancer G protein-coupled receptor 1 (OGR1, also known as GPR68). To test this, we developed a method to reliably identify and isolate PTGs from male mice by administering 5-aminolevulinic acid, which induced selective fluorescence in these glands. Using this model, we demonstrate that acidic extracellular pH significantly stimulates PTH secretion in …

Brain Age Prediction In Generalized Anxiety Disorder Using A Convolutional Neural Network, Corey Richier, André Zugman, Anita Harrewijn, Elise M Cardinale, Parmis Khosravi, Moji Aghajani, Willem B Bruin, Kevin Hilbert, Narcis Cardoner, Daniel Porta-Casteràs, Marta Cano, Savannah Gosnell, Ramiro Salas, Andrea P Jackowski, Pedro M Pan, Giovanni A Salum, Karina S Blair, James R Blair, Mohammed R Milad, Katie L Burkhouse, K Luan Phan, Heidi K Schroeder, Jeffrey R Strawn, Katja Beesdo-Baum, Neda Jahanshad, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Jared A Nielsen, Jordan W Smoller, Jair C Soares, Benson Mwangi, Mon-Ju Wu, Giovana B Zunta-Soares, Michal Assaf, Gretchen J Diefenbach, Paolo Brambilla, Eleonora Maggioni, David Hofmann, Thomas Straube, Carmen Andreescu, Rebecca B Price, Gisele G Manfro, Federica Agosta, Elisa Canu, Camilla Cividini, Massimo Filippi, Milutin Kostić, Ana Munjiza Jovanovic, Brenda Benson, Gabrielle F Freitag, Ellen Leibenluft, Grace V Ringlein, Kathryn Werwath, Hannah Zwiebel, Hans J Grabe, Sandra Van Der Auwera, Katharina Wittfeld, Henry Völzke, Robin Bülow, Nicholas L Balderston, Monique Ernst, Lilianne R Mujica-Parodi, Helena Van Nieuwenhuizen, Hugo D Critchley, Elena Makovac, Matteo Mancini, Frances Meeten, Cristina Ottaviani, Gregory A Fonzo, Martin P Paulus, Murray B Stein, Raquel E Gur, Ruben C Gur, Antonia N Kaczkurkin, Bart Larsen, Theodore D Satterthwaite, Jennifer Harper, Michael T Perino, Chad M Sylvester, Qiongru Yu, Patrick Mcclure, Francisco Pereira, Ulrike Lueken, Dick J Veltman, Paul M Thompson, Nynke A Groenewold, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Dan J Stein, Nic J A Van Der Wee, Anderson M Winkler, Daniel S Pine, Chelsea K Sawyers

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Higher predicted brain age difference has been associated with several psychiatric disorders. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is associated with markers of accelerated aging. In this study, we determined brain predicted age difference (PAD) in individuals with GAD and healthy controls (HC) as well as group differences in PAD variability using voxel-wise structural MRI. The training dataset included 3511 controls, and the testing dataset included 1595 individuals with GAD and 4552 HC from the ENIGMA-Anxiety GAD Working Group. A convolutional neural network model using four input modalities per subject and a model ensemble approach was used to predict brain age. The …

Identifying Modulators Of Stable Klrg1+Il7ra+ Memory Cd8+ T-Cells, Christina Ocampo Valdez

Honors Projects

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease targeting the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. The discovery of insulin revolutionized the treatment of T1D, but current research into T1D has progressed from disease management to possible prevention or delayed onset of diagnosis. One drug currently in use is teplizumab, an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody that has been shown to delay the onset of T1D in some, but not all, at-risk individuals. High levels of a subset of peripheral blood CD8+ T cells we call SKIMs (stable KLRG1+ IL7Ra+ memory cells), which include MAIT (mucosal-associated invariant T) cells, have been associated …

Accelerating Wound Healing Rates With Cucurbita Pepo Leaf Extract Loaded Electrospun Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)/Halloysite/Chitosan/ Caco₃ Composite Nanofibers Through In Vitro And In Vivo Assessments, Samar A. Salim

Nanotechnology Research Centre

Cucurbita pepo leaf extract (CPE) was incorporated into electrospun poly(methyl methacrylate)/ halloysite/chitosan/ CaCO₃ (PMMA/Hal/CS/CaCO₃) composite nanofibers to develop a novel biomaterial for accelerating wound healing rates. The different nanofibrous scaffolds were successfully fabricated and characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). SEM analysis revealed uniform, smooth nanofibers, while FTIR and XRD confirmed the integration of CPE into nanofiber matrix, indicating an amorphous structure and effective dispersion of the extract. In vitro agar well-diffusion and antibiofilm assays revealed that the optimized formulation exhibited potent antimicrobial activity against wound-associated pathogens. The nanofibers composite based on …

Somatic Prosthetics For Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how industrial design can transcend extractive technological paradigms in favor of relational interfaces that foster planetary attunement. Framing the climate crisis as a 'crisis of imagination', the research challenges the Western bifurcation of nature and culture by drawing on Indic cosmologies- which recognize stones, plants, and ecosystems as conscious at different levels and participants in a shared cosmic field. By synthesizing research in Biosemiotics, Quantum Information Pansycishm, and Neuroscience, the project redefines intelligence as a distributed, more-than-human phenomenon.

The research materializes as a speculative design artifact: a device that functions as a somatic prosthetic for planetary resonance. …

O-Glcnacylation As A Metabolic Integrator In Cardiovascular Physiology And Disease, Saima Shakil Malik, Xinchun Pi, Liang Xie

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Titanium Dioxide: An Inquiry Into The Mechanisms And Implications Of Exposure In Gut Dysbiosis And Metabolic Disorders, Meghan Gardiner

Senior Honors Theses

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is one of the most prevalent food additives utilized in commercial products in the United States. While TiO₂ was originally hailed as a nontoxic and cost-effective additive, studies are beginning to reveal that TiO₂ is not as safe as it once seemed. TiO₂ may contribute to the development of insulin resistance and metabolic disorders through direct and indirect mechanisms. The compound induces gut dysbiosis, leading to alterations in bacterial metabolites and pro-inflammatory cytokines, which results in the selective resistance of glucocorticoid receptors. Additionally, TiO₂ itself can translocate from the gut to …

Early Chemical Markers Of Spoilage In Thermally Processed Tomato Paste: A Rapid Approach For Shelf-Stable Foods, Hussein Ali Shaghati, Rawia Mahmood Yousif

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

This study aims to reduce the incubation period (commercial sterility test) of tomato paste cans before the bacteriological inspection in quality control laboratories. 62 cans of tomato paste were incubated under temperatures (mesophilic 25,37°C and thermophilic 55°C) to accelerate potential spoilage. Chemical indicators(pH, titratable acidity, and lactic acid) and microbial indicators (Total plate count and yeast/molds) were monitored daily to identify the earliest reliable spoilage signals. Incubation at elevated temperatures accelerated acid buildup. D+L lactic acid levels measured using a rapid enzyme assay increased with titratable acidity, while pH decreased. Meanwhile, total platelet counts remained at very low levels, while …

Measuring Radon Concentration In The College Of Education For Pure Sciences At The University Of Anbar And Its Effects On Public Health, Ahmed O. Frhan, Omar Abboosh, Mazin H. Hasan, Dhafar Th. Altaan

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

This study aimed to reduce the risks of lung cancer linked to radon gas concentrations. To ensure public safety in the college and avoid the danger of radiation, and to achieve the goals of sustainable development in providing a suitable, clean, and hazard-free environment. These reasons led to research on measuring indoor radon levels in the Physics department, which is part of the College of Education at Anbar University. The study was conducted over a period of approximately 40 days, during which CR-39 detectors were exposed to indoor air in the halls and laboratories. After that, take the detectors to …

Allopurinol Beyond Hyperuricemia: A Multifaceted Therapeutic Agent With Expanding Clinical, Safa Khaldoon, Emad Yousif, Khawla A. Kasar, Hazim F. Abbas

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Allopurinol is a well-established xanthine oxidase inhibitor widely used in the management of hyperuricemia, gout, tumor lysis syndrome, and uric acid nephrolithiasis. This review provides a comprehensive overview of its pharmacology, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, safety profile, and emerging insights from recent clinical and translational studies. Despite being in clinical use for over five decades, allopurinol remains the first-line urate-lowering therapy worldwide due to its proven efficacy, favorable safety profile, and cost-effectiveness. Beyond its classical role in inhibiting xanthine oxidoreductase, increasing evidence highlights additional therapeutic effects, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The structural similarity of allopurinol to purine …

Endotoxin Burden In Dialysis Water: Seasonal Trends And Public Health Implications From A Year-Long Study In Iraq, Yasamen R. Humudat

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Dialysis water quality is critical to patient safety, particularly in relating to bacterial endotoxins, which can pose major health hazards. Environmental variables, such as seasonal flocculation, may influence endotoxin levels in treated water. Purpose of this study was to evaluate the seasonal fluctuation in endotoxin concentrations in dialysis water across a number of hospital-based dialysis centers. Over a 12-month period, water samples were collected monthly from various places and tested for endotoxin levels using the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) assay. The findings demonstrated considerable seasonal changes, with almost 55.5% of the samples surpassing the international threshold of 0.03 EU/mL. Peaks …

The Ramification Of Mutations In Sonic Hedgehog Gene On The Occurrence Of Deformities In The Course Of The Embryonic Development Stage, Umalbaneen Hilal Hadi, Safa J. Al-Yassiri

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) is one of the most significant genes regulating embryonic development in mammals, playing a pivotal role in cell differentiation, tissue fate determination, and regulating lateral symmetry of the embryo. The results of this research show that any mutation whether, a loss of function or a change in the regulation of gene expression in SHH gene leads to severe and highly complex consequences for embryonic development.as a result for that, severe disorders of CNS development SHH is a morphogen essential for germline formation and neuronal differentiation. Mutations in this gene result in failure to develop properly the cerebellum, …

Phkg2 Confers Resistance Of Escc To Cisplatin And Enhances Cxcl8-Dependent Immunosuppression To Exacerbate Tumorigenesis, Jiayan Wu, Chengrui Zhong, Haosheng Zheng, Fei Qin, Xianyu Qin, Yuzhen Zheng, Junguo Chen, Gengfeng Wang, Bozhu Jian, Zui Liu, Xingping Yang, Chao Cheng, Guolin Li, Hongying Liao

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Cisplatin (DDP)-based chemotherapy serves as a foundational cornerstone in the clinical management of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, intrinsic or acquired resistance to DDP persists as a significant clinical challenge, severely undermining therapeutic efficacy and contributing to unfavorable patient prognoses. Through functional screening with a CRISPR/Cas9 knockout library, transcriptomic profiling of cisplatin-resistant cell lines and clinical specimens, and in vitro/in vivo validation assays, we identified PHKG2 as a key mediator of cisplatin resistance in ESCC. Mechanistically, PHKG2-mediated cisplatin resistance is driven by the phosphorylation of IGF2BP3 at residues T225 and T306. This post-translational modification enhances IGF2BP3 phase separation, thereby …

Movement-Stabilized Three-Dimensional Optical Recordings Of Membrane Potential Changes And Calcium Dynamics In Hippocampal Ca1 Dendrites, Kevin C Gonzalez, Satoshi Terada, Asako Noguchi, George N Zakka, Cliodhna O'Toole, Giuliana Bilbao, Luke Reynolds, Anna Jász, Borbála Kertész, Zoltán Szadai, Alissa Shen, François St-Pierre, Franck Polleux, Attila Losonczy, Balázs Rózsa

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Local dendritic computations are thought to critically influence neuronal signaling and plasticity yet remain largely unexplored in vivo due to challenges in stably imaging small structures at ultrafast timescales. We developed a 3D real-time motion correction platform for movement-stabilized, ultrafast two-photon voltage imaging. By co-labeling CA1 pyramidal neurons with voltage and calcium indicators, we simultaneously measured somato-dendritic and electro-calcium coupling at multiple dendritic sites. We characterized isolated dendritic spikes and distance-dependent backpropagation of naturally occurring and photostimulation-evoked bursts and single spikes. We found that bursts backpropagated more reliably than single spikes, validated that somato-dendritic coupling decreases with distance from soma, …

Deep-Learning Endomicroscope With Large Field-Of-View And Depth-Of-Field For Real-Time In Vivo Imaging Of Epithelial Cancer Hallmarks, Huayu Hou, Jimin Wu, Jinyun Liu, Vivek Boominathan, Argaja Shende, Karthik Goli, Jennifer Carns, Richard A Schwarz, Ann M Gillenwater, Preetha Ramalingam, Mila P Salcedo, Kathleen M Schmeler, Tomasz S Tkaczyk, Jacob T Robinson, Ashok Veeraraghavan, Rebecca R Richards-Kortum

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

In vivo microscopy (IVM) has shown great promise to improve early detection of epithelial precancer, but it suffers from fundamental trade-offs that limit the resolution, field-of-view (FOV) and depth-of-field (DOF). Here, we present PrecisionView, a compact, deep learning-enabled endomicroscope that breaks these constraints and achieves 20 mm2 FOV and 500 µm DOF with 4 µm resolution, representing approximately 5× increase in FOV and 8× larger DOF compared to conventional IVM with similar resolution. PrecisionView integrates a deep learning-optimized phase mask and real-time reconstruction, enabling rapid in vivo assessment of two key hallmarks of cancer: epithelial cell nuclear morphology and subsurface …

Latest In Resuscitation Research: Highlights From The 2025 American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium, Caleb T Suh, Clark G Owyang, Lindsay Shepard, Betty Yang, Ryan W Morgan, Daniel M Rolston, Catherine R Counts, Tommaso Scquizzato, James Horowitz, Tatyana Shvilkina, Katherine Berg, Sam Parnia, Sanam Alilou, Catherine Swarts, Ryan A Coute, Lama A Ammar, William C Herring, Thomas Lederer, Joaquin Araos, Benjamin S Abella, Cameron Dezfulian, Sarah M Perman, Felipe Teran

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Biodegradable Pcl–Plga Electrospun Nanofibers For Localized Cancer Therapy, Rahul Tiwari, Pranav, Joel Delossantos, Eswara N.H.K. Ghali, Luis Chavez, Vishal Sharad Chaudhari, Songyang Han, Subhash Chauhan, Murali Yallapu

School of Medicine Publications

Localized chemotherapy offers a promising strategy to improve therapeutic efficacy while minimizing the systemic toxicity of conventional cancer treatment, particularly following tumor resection. Electrospun nanofibers are well suited for this purpose due to their high porosity, extracellular matrix-mimicking architecture, and capacity for localized drug release. In this study, electrospun nanofibers based on PCL and PLGA were developed for localized cancer therapy. Three distinct nanofibrous architectures were fabricated: PCL nanofibers, PCL−PLGA blended nanofibers, and PCL−PLGA multilayered (tetra-layered) nanofibers, and their encapsulation efficiency was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Scanning electron microscopy confirmed uniform, bead-free nanofibrous morphologies, while Fourier transform infrared …

Rhythms Of Hippocampal Function And Memory After Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, Lilliana May Sanchez

Psychology ETDs

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders involve morphologic and neurobiological abnormalities in offspring subjected to prenatal alcohol exposure. Although not as well studied as high exposure, moderate prenatal alcohol exposure represents the most common and undetected form in humans. While learning and memory deficits have been well characterized at the behavioral level in humans with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and in animal models of moderate prenatal alcohol exposure, few studies have determined the circuit or systems level mechanisms of the behavioral deficits. A complete understanding of the neural bases of memory deficits after moderate prenatal alcohol exposure is needed to ultimately identify …

Brain-Based Mechanisms Of Behavioral Impairment In Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (Fasd): The Neuroimaging Biomarkers Of Inhibitory Control, Zinia Pervin

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

The developing brain is highly susceptible to alcohol-induced toxicity, often resulting in long-term deficits in executive function and behavioral regulation. Inhibitory control impairments are among the most prominent deficits observed in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This study investigated the neural mechanisms of inhibitory dysfunction using a multimodal MEG–DTI approach in 67 children aged 6–8 years (34 with FASD, 33 controls) who performed a Go/No-Go task. Source-level MEG analyses revealed reduced stimulus-locked cortical activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and significant group-by-hemisphere interactions in the superior parietal cortex and cuneus. Time–frequency analyses showed diminished response-locked beta power in the sensory-motor …

Developing A Durable, Memory-Driven, Cspz-Targeting Lyme Disease Vaccine By Rationale Adjuvant Selection\, Miranda Mccarty, Sergio A Hernández, Jill Malfetano, Ana Carolina Leão, Maria Jose Villar, Xiuli Yang, Yi-Lin Chen, Jungsoon Lee, Zhuyun Liu, Ulrich Strych, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Utpal Pal, Klemen Strle, Wen-Hsiang Chen, Yi-Pin Lin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Rational adjuvant selection is a systematic approach based on adjuvant-mediated immunomodulation to identify safe vaccine regimens that enhance protective immunity. Transmitted through ticks and caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern hemisphere. There are no approved human vaccines, making it suitable for testing the concept of rational adjuvant selection. Here, we formulated our previously developed and effective LD vaccine antigen, CspZ-YAC187S, with different adjuvants suitable for human use; we analyzed the immune response by transcriptomics and tested the vaccine efficacy after Bb infection. We identified Alum-CpG and Alum-αGal …

Thermal Physiological Ecology Of The Relict Leopard Frog At Hot And Cold Springs, Robert P. Pelletier Iii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The relict leopard frog (Rana onca) once ranged across drainages in southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona, and southwestern Utah. Following a decline, the species only persisted in a few geothermally influenced hot springs, which led to the perspective that hot springs were high-quality habitat. Rana onca has been under intensive, multiagency management and the species has been translocated to establish additional populations, including at cold-water sites. Three research studies are presented into the thermal physiological ecology of R. onca with the aim of informing conservation strategy. The research was focused at a thermally influenced hot spring and a cold-water spring to …

Contribution Of Interleukin-6 (Il-6) To Body Defense And Healing In Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Hasrah Junaidi, Annis C. Adi, Soedarsono Soedarsono, Soetjipto Soetjipto, Chatarina U. Wahyuni, Fariani Syahrul, Mahmudah Mahmudah, Zakiyuddin Zakiyuddin, Iskandar Arfan, Abdullah A. Mamun, Rubia Sari

Saudi Medical Journal

Objective: To examine the contribution of IL-6 to host defense and healing in pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Pulmonary tuberculosis continues to pose a significant global health challenge, with disease outcomes determined by complex host–pathogen interactions. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a multifunctional cytokine, has been implicated in immune regulation and tissue recovery during TB, but its specific role is not fully established. This review aimed to examine the contribution of IL-6 to host defense and healing in pulmonary TB. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed across PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Medline following PRISMA guidelines, covering publications from 2015 to 2025. …

Cardiac Hdac3 Disruption Contributes To Hdac Inhibitor-Induced Qt Prolongation, Jiao Lu, Christopher Ward, Sichong Qian, Lilei Zhang, Jiang Chang, Zheng Sun

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are approved for cancer treatment and are being investigated for a wide range of other diseases. Despite their therapeutic promise, clinical studies have reported cardiac side effects, particularly electrocardiogram (EKG) abnormalities, with QT interval prolongation being one of the most consistently reported findings. The mechanisms underlying these cardiac effects remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of HDAC3 in cardiac electrophysiology. We found that postnatal depletion of cardiac HDAC3 in mice caused QT interval prolongation, recapitulating the EKG abnormalities reported with HDAC inhibitor use. Adult-onset inducible depletion of cardiac HDAC3 induced additional EKG abnormalities, …

Selective And Differential Roles Of Pvhcrh Neurotransmitters In Diet-Induced Obesity In Mice, Zhiying Jiang, Yuhan Cao, Michelle He, Cunjin Su, Runzhou Yang, Maojie Yang, Jing Cai, Hongli Li, Yuanzhong Xu, Shi-Bin Li, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Luis De Lecea, Benjamin R Arenkiel, Qingchun Tong

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Stress and diet are known to synergistically promote risks of obesity but the underlying neural basis remains elusive. Corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons in the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVHCRH) are stress responsive and release both CRH and glutamate. Here we generated a mouse model with gain or loss of release in CRH or glutamate from PVHCRH neurons. While these models showed no changes in body weight when fed chow, they exhibited contrasting effects when fed high-fat high-caloric diets (HFD). Whereas disrupting glutamate release from PVHCRH neurons led to diet-induced obesity (DIO), that of CRH caused no impact. Conversely, augmented CRH release led to …

Robust Magnetoelectric Backscatter Communication System For Bioelectronic Implants, Fatima Alrashdan, Joshua E Woods, Ellie C Chen, Wendy Tan, Zhanghao Yu, Wei Wang, Mathews John, Lukas Jaworski, Drew Bernard, Allison Post, Angel Moctezuma-Ramirez, Abdelmotagaly Elgalad, Kaiyuan Yang, Mehdi Razavi, Jacob T Robinson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Wireless communication technologies for bioelectronic implants enable remote monitoring for diagnosis and adaptive therapeutic intervention without the constraints of wired connections. However, wireless data uplink from millimeter-scale devices deep in the body struggles to achieve low power consumption while maintaining large misalignment tolerances. Here, we report a passive wireless backscatter communication system based on magnetoelectric transducers that consumes less than 0.3 pJ/bit and achieves less than 1E-6 bit error rate at a distance of 55 mm while tolerating a misalignment of 10 mm. Using this robust data uplink, we designed a wireless cardiac sensing node that can transmit electrocardiogram signals …

Water-Soluble Fullerene Derivatives Mitigate Cranial Radiation-Induced Neuroinflammation And Cognitive Dysfunction, Naren Gundapaneni, Iona Hill, Lydia W T Cheung, Khadijeh Koushki, Alyssa Fausnaught, Phuoc Minh Quan Mai, Arjun Vasan, Prapannajeet Biswal, Ashutosh Tripathi, Anilkumar Pillai, Vijayasree V Giridharan, Tatiana Barichello, Yuri Mackeyev, Sunil Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Radiotherapy is widely used to treat malignant and benign brain tumors. A major constraint, however, is the low tolerance of normal brain tissue to radiation. Cranial irradiation-induced injury manifests as inflammatory responses and neurodegeneration, which jointly contribute to progressive cognitive decline. These complications can restrict the delivery of optimal therapeutic doses, cause persistent neurological symptoms, and ultimately compromise quality of life. Thus, neuroprotective agents have emerged as a strategy to safeguard normal tissues from radiation-induced neurotoxicity. This study investigated the efficacy of a highly soluble [60]fullerene (C60) derivative, C60-ser, a carbon-based nanomaterial, to mitigate radiation-induced brain injury. Oral administration of …

Animal Models Of Delirium: A Narrative Review, Tatiana Barichello, Carla Sasso Simon, Diogo Dominguini, Cristiane Ritter, Tsuyoshi Nishiguchi, Gen Shinozaki, Felipe Dal-Pizzol

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Delirium is an acute cognitive failure characterized by an acute onset and psychomotor disturbances. It is associated with poor outcomes in hospitalized patients, resulting in prolonged hospital stays, elevated rates of mortality, and cognitive dysfunctions after hospital discharge. The pathophysiology of delirium remains poorly understood, making the development of animal models a promising avenue for researchers to elucidate the mechanisms underlying human delirium. These models not only aid in understanding the pathophysiology and etiology of the disease but also enhance the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions and identify pharmacological therapies. This review aims to present the most relevant and translational animal …

Quantifying Black Carbon Concentrations In Georgia And Analyzing Associated Public Health Risks, Khloe R. Osborne

Honors Theses

Quantifying Black Carbon Concentrations in Georgia and Analyzing Associated Public Health Risks

One of the most daunting challenges of the industrial world is air pollution. Within this broad spectrum, there is an inhalable particle group named PM2.5, which contains black carbon. Black carbon has evidence that supports the generation and worsening of adverse health impacts, which may include birth complications, cognitive deficits in children, pulmonary aggravation, asthma, cardiovascular issues, neurological degenerative patterns, and cancer risk. This is especially seen in vulnerable populations, like children, elderly, and those who already suffer from weakened health, many of which reside in the southern …

Identifying Novel Gene Dysregulation Associated With Opioid Overdose Death: A Meta-Analysis Of Differential Gene Expression In Human Prefrontal Cortex, Javan K Carter, Bryan C Quach, Caryn Willis, Melyssa S Minto, Dana B Hancock, Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, Olivia Corradin, Ryan W Logan, Consuelo Walss-Bass, Brion S Maher, Eric Otto Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Only recently have human postmortem brain studies of differential gene expression (DGE) associated with opioid overdose death (OOD) been published; sample sizes from these studies have been modest (N = 40-153). To increase statistical power to identify OOD-associated genes, we leveraged human prefrontal cortex RNA-seq data from four independent OOD studies and conducted a transcriptome-wide DGE meta-analysis (N = 272). Using a unified gene expression data processing and analysis framework across studies, we meta-analyzed 20, 098 genes and found 335 significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by OOD status (false discovery rate <  0.05). Of these, 66 DEGs were among the list of 303 genes reported as OOD-associated in prior prefrontal cortex molecular studies (e.g., genes/gene families OPRK1, NPAS4, DUSP, EGR). The remaining 269 DEGs were not previously reported (e.g., NR4A2, SYT1, HCRTR2, BDNF). There was little evidence of genetic drivers for the observed differences in gene expression between opioid addiction cases and controls. Enrichment analyses for the DEGs across molecular pathway and biological process databases highlight an interconnected set of genes and pathways linked to orexin and tyrosine kinase receptors through MEK/ERK/MAPK signaling to affect neuronal plasticity.