Digital Commons Network^™

A Comprehensive Review On Nutraceuticals: Therapy Support And Formulation Challenges, Vivek Puri, Manju Nagpal, Inderbir Singh, Manjinder Singh, Gitika Arora Dhingra, Kampanart Huanbutta, Divya Dheer, Ameya Sharma, Tanikan Sangnim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Nutraceuticals are the nourishing components (hybrid of nutrition and pharmaceuticals) that are biologically active and possess capability for maintaining optimal health and benefits. These products play a significant role in human health care and its endurance, most importantly for the future therapeutic development. Nutraceuticals have received recognition due to their nutritional benefits along with therapeutic effects and safety profile. Nutraceuticals are globally growing in the field of services such as health care promotion, disease reduction, etc. Various drug nutraceutical interactions have also been elaborated with various examples in this review. Several patents on nutraceuticals in agricultural applications and in various …

Dll3 As An Emerging Target For The Treatment Of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms, James Yao, Emily Bergsland, Rahul Aggarwal, Ana Aparicio, Himisha Beltran, Judy S Crabtree, Christine L Hann, Toni Ibrahim, Lauren A Byers, Hironobu Sasano, John Umejiego, Marianne Pavel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) are heterogeneous malignancies that can arise at almost any anatomical site and are classified as biologically distinct well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NET) and poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas (NEC). Current systemic therapies for advanced disease, including targeted therapies, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, are associated with limited duration of response. New therapeutic targets are needed. One promising target is delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3), an inhibitory ligand of the Notch receptor whose overexpression on the surface of NEN is associated with tumorigenesis.

METHODS: This article is a narrative review that highlights the role of DLL3 in NEN progression and prognosis, the …

Epacadostat Plus Pembrolizumab And Chemotherapy For Advanced Solid Tumors: Results From The Phase I/Ii Echo-207/Keynote-723 Study, John D Powderly, Samuel J Klempner, Aung Naing, Johanna Bendell, Ignacio Garrido-Laguna, Daniel V T Catenacci, Matthew H Taylor, James J Lee, Fred Zheng, Feng Zhou, Xiaohua Gong, Hema Gowda, Gregory L Beatty

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Epacadostat, an oral, selective inhibitor of IDO1, has shown activity when administered with pembrolizumab. We evaluated the addition of chemotherapy to epacadostat and pembrolizumab in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors. One proposed mechanism of resistance to PD-1 checkpoint inhibition is through immunosuppression mediated by L-kynurenine. IDO1, indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 is the rate-limiting enzyme catalyzing the conversion of L-tryptophan to L-kynurenine. If IDO1 is a mechanism of tumor escape from checkpoint inhibition, then addition of an IDO1 inhibitor with a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor could enable tumor response to immunotherapy.

Methods: Patients received one of 7 tumor-appropriate chemotherapy regimens. Pembrolizumab …

Hormonal Therapies Up-Regulate Manf And Overcome Female Susceptibility To Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Myocarditis, Yaohua Zhang, Chengcao Sun, Yajuan Li, Juan Qin, Kaushik Amancherla, Ying Jing, Qingsong Hu, Ke Liang, Zhao Zhang, Youqiong Ye, Lisa A Huang, Tina K Nguyen, Sergey D Egranov, Zilong Zhao, Andrew Wu, Yutao Xi, Jun Yao, Mien-Chie Hung, George A Calin, Jie Cheng, Bora Lim, Lorenz H Lehmann, Joe-Elie Salem, Douglas B Johnson, Michael A Curran, Dihua Yu, Leng Han, Radbod Darabi, Liuqing Yang, Javid J Moslehi, Chunru Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been increasingly used in combination for cancer treatment but are associated with myocarditis. Here, we report that tumor-bearing mice exhibited response to treatment with combinatorial anti-programmed cell death 1 and anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 antibodies but also presented with cardiovascular toxicities observed clinically with ICI therapy, including myocarditis and arrhythmia. Female mice were preferentially affected with myocarditis compared to male mice, consistent with a previously described genetic model of ICI myocarditis and emerging clinical data. Mechanistically, myocardial tissue from ICI-treated mice, the genetic mouse model, and human heart tissue from affected patients with ICI myocarditis …

The Single-Cell Immunogenomic Landscape Of B And Plasma Cells In Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma, Dapeng Hao, Guangchun Han, Ansam Sinjab, Lorena Isabel Gomez-Bolanos, Rossana Lazcano, Alejandra Serrano, Sharia D Hernandez, Enyu Dai, Xuanye Cao, Jian Hu, Minghao Dang, Ruiping Wang, Yanshuo Chu, Xingzhi Song, Jianhua Zhang, Edwin R Parra, Jennifer A Wargo, Stephen G Swisher, Tina Cascone, Boris Sepesi, Andrew P Futreal, Mingyao Li, Steven M Dubinett, Junya Fujimoto, Luisa M Solis Soto, Ignacio I Wistuba, Christopher S Stevenson, Avrum Spira, Shabnam Shalapour, Humam Kadara, Linghua Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Tumor-infiltrating B and plasma cells (TIB) are prevalent in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD); however, they are poorly characterized. We performed paired single-cell RNA and B-cell receptor (BCR) sequencing of 16 early-stage LUADs and 47 matching multiregion normal tissues. By integrative analysis of ∼50,000 TIBs, we define 12 TIB subsets in the LUAD and adjacent normal ecosystems and demonstrate extensive remodeling of TIBs in LUADs. Memory B cells and plasma cells (PC) were highly enriched in tumor tissues with more differentiated states and increased frequencies of somatic hypermutation. Smokers exhibited markedly elevated PCs and PCs with distinct differentiation trajectories. BCR clonotype diversity …

The Benefits And Challenges Of Virtual Education For Interprofessional Teams In A Post-Covid Environment, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

There have been a series of disruptions in the healthcare environment since 2019, starting with the global pandemic [...].

Targeting The Eif2ak1 Signaling Pathway Rescues Red Blood Cell Production In Sf3b1-Mutant Myelodysplastic Syndromes With Ringed Sideroblasts, Vera Adema, Feiyang Ma, Rashmi Kanagal-Shamanna, Natthakan Thongon, Guillermo Montalban-Bravo, Hui Yang, Scott A Peslak, Feng Wang, Pamela Acha, Francesc Sole, Pamela Lockyer, Margherita Cassari, Jaroslaw P Maciejewski, Valeria Visconte, Irene Gañán-Gómez, Yuanbin Song, Carlos Bueso-Ramos, Matteo Pellegrini, Tuyet M Tan, Rafael Bejar, Jennifer S Carew, Stephanie Halene, Valeria Santini, Gheath Al-Atrash, Karen Clise-Dwyer, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Gerd A Blobel, Simona Colla

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

SF3B1 mutations, which occur in 20% of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), are the hallmarks of a specific MDS subtype, MDS with ringed sideroblasts (MDS-RS), which is characterized by the accumulation of erythroid precursors in the bone marrow and primarily affects the elderly population. Here, using single-cell technologies and functional validation studies of primary SF3B1-mutant MDS-RS samples, we show that SF3B1 mutations lead to the activation of the EIF2AK1 pathway in response to heme deficiency and that targeting this pathway rescues aberrant erythroid differentiation and enables the red blood cell maturation of MDS-RS erythroblasts. These data support the development of …

Tp53-Mutated Myelodysplastic Syndrome And Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Biology, Current Therapy, And Future Directions, Naval G Daver, Abhishek Maiti, Tapan M Kadia, Paresh Vyas, Ravindra Majeti, Andrew H Wei, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Charles Craddock, David A Sallman, Hagop M Kantarjian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

UNLABELLED: TP53-mutated myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) form a distinct group of myeloid disorders with dismal outcomes. TP53-mutated MDS and AML have lower response rates to either induction chemotherapy, hypomethylating agent-based regimens, or venetoclax-based therapies compared with non-TP53-mutated counterparts and a poor median overall survival of 5 to 10 months. Recent advances have identified novel pathogenic mechanisms in TP53-mutated myeloid malignancies, which have the potential to improve treatment strategies in this distinct clinical subgroup. In this review, we discuss recent insights into the biology of TP53-mutated MDS/AML, current treatments, and emerging therapies, including immunotherapeutic and nonimmune-based approaches …

The Murky Waters Of Sex Differences In Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment, Gilaad G Kaplan, Fox E Underwood, Stephanie Coward, Manasi Agrawal, Ryan C Ungaro, Erica J Brenner, Richard B Gearry, Michele Kissous-Hunt, James D Lewis, Siew C Ng, Jean-Francois Rahier, Walter Reinisch, Flavio Steinwurz, Xian Zhang, Michael D Kappelman, Jean-Frederic Colombel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have emerged in discrete waves. We explored temporal trends in the reporting of COVID-19 in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients.

METHODS: The Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SECURE-IBD) is an international registry of IBD patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The average percent changes (APCs) were calculated in weekly reported cases of COVID-19 during the periods of March 22 to September 12, September 13 to December 12, 2020, and December 13 to July 31, 2021.

RESULTS: Across 73 countries, 6404 cases of COVID-19 were reported in IBD patients. COVID-19 …

Broad-Acting Therapeutic Effects Of Mir-29b-Chitosan On Hypertension And Diabetic Complications, David M Jensen, Peng Han, Lingegowda S Mangala, Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, Anil K Sood, Jing Liu, Alison J Kriegel, Kristie Usa, Michael E Widlansky, Mingyu Liang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

MicroRNA miR-29 promotes endothelial function in human arterioles in part by targeting LYPLA1 and increasing nitric oxide production. In addition, miR-29 is a master inhibitor of extracellular matrix gene expression, which may attenuate fibrosis but could also weaken tissue structure. The goal of this study was to test whether miR-29 could be developed as an effective, broad-acting, and safe therapeutic. Substantial accumulation of miR-29b and effective knockdown of Lypla1 in several mouse tissues were achieved using a chitosan-packaged, chemically modified miR-29b mimic (miR-29b-CH-NP) injected systemically at 200 μg/kg body weight. miR-29b-CH-NP, injected once every 3 days, significantly attenuated angiotensin II-induced …

Proteogenomic Markers Of Chemotherapy Resistance And Response In Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Meenakshi Anurag, Eric J Jaehnig, Karsten Krug, Jonathan T Lei, Erik J Bergstrom, Beom-Jun Kim, Tanmayi D Vashist, Anh Minh Tran Huynh, Yongchao Dou, Xuxu Gou, Chen Huang, Zhiao Shi, Bo Wen, Viktoriya Korchina, Richard A Gibbs, Donna M Muzny, Harshavardhan Doddapaneni, Lacey E Dobrolecki, Henry Rodriguez, Ana I Robles, Tara Hiltke, Michael T Lewis, Julie R Nangia, Maryam Nemati Shafaee, Shunqiang Li, Ian S Hagemann, Jeremy Hoog, Bora Lim, C Kent Osborne, D R Mani, Michael A Gillette, Bing Zhang, Gloria V Echeverria, George Miles, Mothaffar F Rimawi, Steven A Carr, Foluso O Ademuyiwa, Shankha Satpathy, Matthew J Ellis

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Microscaled proteogenomics was deployed to probe the molecular basis for differential response to neoadjuvant carboplatin and docetaxel combination chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Proteomic analyses of pretreatment patient biopsies uniquely revealed metabolic pathways, including oxidative phosphorylation, adipogenesis, and fatty acid metabolism, that were associated with resistance. Both proteomics and transcriptomics revealed that sensitivity was marked by elevation of DNA repair, E2F targets, G2-M checkpoint, interferon-gamma signaling, and immune-checkpoint components. Proteogenomic analyses of somatic copy-number aberrations identified a resistance-associated 19q13.31-33 deletion where LIG1, POLD1, and XRCC1 are located. In orthogonal datasets, LIG1 (DNA ligase I) gene deletion and/or low mRNA …

Modified Messengers: Flatworm Stem Cells And Regeneration Are Guarded By Rna Methylation, Blair W Benham-Pyle

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The contribution of RNA modifications to whole-body regeneration remains unclear. In this issue, Dagan et al (2022) show that m6a mRNA pathway components are critically required for stem cell differentiation, survival, and tissue renewal in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea.

Secreted Fas Decoys Enhance The Antitumor Activity Of Engineered And Bystander T Cells In Fas Ligand-Expressing Solid Tumors, Pradip Bajgain, Alejandro G Torres Chavez, Kishore Balasubramanian, Lindsey Fleckenstein, Premal Lulla, Helen E Heslop, Juan Vera, Ann M Leen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

T-cell immunotherapy has demonstrated remarkable clinical outcomes in certain hematologic malignancies. However, efficacy in solid tumors has been suboptimal, partially due to the hostile tumor microenvironment composed of immune-inhibitory molecules. One such suppressive agent abundantly expressed in solid tumors is Fas ligand (FasL), which can trigger apoptosis of Fas-expressing effector cells such as T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. To alleviate this FasL-induced suppression of tumor-specific immune cells in solid tumors, we describe here the development of a Fas decoy that is secreted by engineered cells upon activation and sequesters the ligand, preventing it from engaging with Fas on …

Scai Shock: Does The Stage Help With Management Decisions?, Jacob C. Jentzer, David A. Baran

Journal of Shock and Hemodynamics

No abstract for an Editorial.

Stroke Genetics Informs Drug Discovery And Risk Prediction Across Ancestries, Aniket Mishra, Rainer Malik, Tsuyoshi Hachiya, Tuuli Jürgenson, Shinichi Namba, Daniel C Posner, Frederick K Kamanu, Masaru Koido, Quentin Le Grand, Mingyang Shi, Yunye He, Marios K Georgakis, Ilana Caro, Kristi Krebs, Yi-Ching Liaw, Felix C Vaura, Kuang Lin, Bendik Slagsvold Winsvold, Vinodh Srinivasasainagendra, Livia Parodi, Hee-Joon Bae, Ganesh Chauhan, Michael R Chong, Liisa Tomppo, Rufus Akinyemi, Gennady V Roshchupkin, Naomi Habib, Yon Ho Jee, Jesper Qvist Thomassen, Vida Abedi, Jara Cárcel-Márquez, Marianne Nygaard, Hampton L Leonard, Chaojie Yang, Ekaterina Yonova-Doing, Maria J Knol, Adam J Lewis, Renae L Judy, Tetsuro Ago, Philippe Amouyel, Nicole D Armstrong, Mark K Bakker, Traci M Bartz, David A Bennett, Joshua C Bis, Constance Bordes, Sigrid Børte, Anael Cain, Paul M Ridker, Kelly Cho, Zhengming Chen, Carlos Cruchaga, John W Cole, Phil L De Jager, Rafael De Cid, Matthias Endres, Leslie E Ferreira, Mirjam I Geerlings, Natalie C Gasca, Vilmundur Gudnason, Jun Hata, Jing He, Alicia K Heath, Yuk-Lam Ho, Aki S Havulinna, Jemma C Hopewell, Hyacinth I Hyacinth, Michael Inouye, Mina A Jacob, Christina E Jeon, Christina Jern, Masahiro Kamouchi, Keith L Keene, Takanari Kitazono, Steven J Kittner, Takahiro Konuma, Amit Kumar, Paul Lacaze, Lenore J Launer, Keon-Joo Lee, Kaido Lepik, Jiang Li, Liming Li, Ani Manichaikul, Hugh S Markus, Nicholas A Marston, Thomas Meitinger, Braxton D Mitchell, Felipe A Montellano, Takayuki Morisaki, Thomas H Mosley, Mike A Nalls, Børge G Nordestgaard, Martin J O'Donnell, Yukinori Okada, N Charlotte Onland-Moret, Bruce Ovbiagele, Annette Peters, Bruce M Psaty, Stephen S Rich, Jonathan Rosand, Marc S Sabatine, Ralph L Sacco, Danish Saleheen, Else Charlotte Sandset, Veikko Salomaa, Muralidharan Sargurupremraj, Makoto Sasaki, Claudia L Satizabal, Carsten O Schmidt, Atsushi Shimizu, Nicholas L Smith, Kelly L Sloane, Yoichi Sutoh, Yan V Sun, Kozo Tanno, Steffen Tiedt, Turgut Tatlisumak, Nuria P Torres-Aguila, Hemant K Tiwari, David-Alexandre Trégouët, Stella Trompet, Anil Man Tuladhar, Anne Tybjærg-Hansen, Marion Van Vugt, Riina Vibo, Shefali S Verma, Kerri L Wiggins, Patrik Wennberg, Daniel Woo, Peter W F Wilson, Huichun Xu, Qiong Yang, Kyungheon Yoon, Compass Consortium, Invent Consortium, Dutch Parelsnoer Initiative (Psi) Cerebrovascular Disease Study Group, Estonian Biobank, Precise4q Consortium, Finngen Consortium, Ninds Stroke Genetics Network (Sign), Megastroke Consortium, Siren Consortium, China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, Va Million Veteran Program, International Stroke Genetics Consortium (Isgc), Biobank Japan, Charge Consortium, Gigastroke Consortium, Iona Y Millwood, Christian Gieger, Toshiharu Ninomiya, Hans J Grabe, J Wouter Jukema, Ina L Rissanen, Daniel Strbian, Young Jin Kim, Pei-Hsin Chen, Ernst Mayerhofer, Joanna M M Howson, Marguerite R Irvin, Hieab Adams, Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Kaare Christensen, Mohammad A Ikram, Tatjana Rundek, Bradford B Worrall, G Mark Lathrop, Moeen Riaz, Eleanor M Simonsick, Janika Kõrv, Paulo H C França, Ramin Zand, Kameshwar Prasad, Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, Frank-Erik De Leeuw, Thomas Liman, Karl Georg Haeusler, Ynte M Ruigrok, Peter Ulrich Heuschmann, W T Longstreth, Keum Ji Jung, Lisa Bastarache, Guillaume Paré, Scott M Damrauer, Daniel I Chasman, Jerome I Rotter, Christopher D Anderson, John-Anker Zwart, Teemu J Niiranen, Myriam Fornage, Yung-Po Liaw, Sudha Seshadri, Israel Fernández-Cadenas, Robin G Walters, Christian T Ruff, Mayowa O Owolabi, Jennifer E Huffman, Lili Milani, Yoichiro Kamatani, Martin Dichgans, Stephanie Debette

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke - the second leading cause of death worldwide - were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry1,2. Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87% of the primary …

Lessons From The Failure To Complete A Trial Of Denosumab In Women With A Pathogenic Brca1/2 Variant Scheduling Risk-Reducing Salpingo-Oophorectomy, Meghna S Trivedi, Nadir Arber, Eitan Friedman, Judy E Garber, Kevin Holcomb, Neil S Horowitz, Jason D Wright, J Jack Lee, Lana A Vornik, Saba Abutaseh, Tawana Castile, Edward R Sauter, Eileen Dimond, Brandy M Heckman-Stoddard, Margaret House, Goli Samimi, Powel H Brown, Katherine D Crew

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Female carriers of pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) BRCA1/2 variants are at increased risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Currently, the only effective strategy for ovarian cancer risk reduction is risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (RR-BSO), which carries adverse effects related to early menopause. There is ongoing investigation of inhibition of the RANK ligand (RANKL) with denosumab as a means of chemoprevention for breast cancer in carriers of BRCA1 P/LP variants. Through the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) Early Phase Clinical Trials Prevention Consortia, a presurgical pilot study of denosumab was developed in premenopausal carriers of P/LP BRCA1/2 variants scheduled for RR-BSO …

Ovarian Steroid Cell Tumors, Not Otherwise Specified: Analysis Of Nine Cases With A Literature Review, Mengyan Lin, Kechun Bao, Lingjia Lu, Shuhang Xu, Yun Liang, Xiaodong Cheng, Fenfen Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Ovarian steroid cell tumors (SCTs), not otherwise specified (NOS), are rare, with few large studies. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical features, prognosis, and treatment choices for these patients of different age groups.

METHODS: This was a retrospective study. We identified nine cases of ovarian steroid cell tumor, not otherwise specified, confirmed by post-operative histopathological examination, and analyzed clinical features, surgical procedures, and follow up outcomes. We also reviewed cases reports of ovarian steroid cell tumors, not otherwise specified.

RESULTS: A total of nine cases were included. The age range was 9-68 years (mean, 41.89 …

Cholinergic Receptor-Wnt Pathway Controls Immune Activation By Sensing Intestinal Dysfunction, Jie Ren, Yu Sang, Alejandro Aballay

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alterations in the intestinal physiology caused by pathogen colonization result in immune activation. To provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the control of immune activation by changes in intestinal homeostasis, we conducted a forward genetic screen for suppressors of immune activation by intestinal distension in Caenorhabditis elegans. Our results indicate that C. elegans ACC-4, a member of a family of acetylcholine receptors, is required in immune activation by defects in the defecation motor program or by pathogen infection. ACC-4 acts postsynaptically in non-cholinergic RIM neurons to regulate several immune genes and a Wnt-mediated host immune response. These findings uncover a …

Melanoma Central Nervous System Metastases: An Update To Approaches, Challenges, And Opportunities, Alcida Karz, Maya Dimitrova, Kevin Kleffman, Christopher Alvarez-Breckenridge, Michael B Atkins, Adrienne Boire, Marcus Bosenberg, Priscilla Brastianos, Daniel P Cahill, Qing Chen, Sherise Ferguson, Peter Forsyth, Isabella C Glitza Oliva, Sarah B Goldberg, Sheri L Holmen, Jonathan P S Knisely, Glenn Merlino, Don X Nguyen, Michael E Pacold, Eva Perez-Guijarro, Keiran S M Smalley, Hussein A Tawbi, Patrick Y Wen, Michael A Davies, Harriet M Kluger, Janice M Mehnert, Eva Hernando

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Brain metastases are the most common brain malignancy. This review discusses the studies presented at the third annual meeting of the Melanoma Research Foundation in the context of other recent reports on the biology and treatment of melanoma brain metastases (MBM). Although symptomatic MBM patients were historically excluded from immunotherapy trials, efforts from clinicians and patient advocates have resulted in more inclusive and even dedicated clinical trials for MBM patients. The results of checkpoint inhibitor trials were discussed in conversation with current standards of care for MBM patients, including steroids, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy. Advances in the basic scientific understanding …

Risk Factors For Community-Acquired Bacterial Infection Among Young Infants In South Asia: A Longitudinal Cohort Study With Nested Case-Control Analysis, Nicholas E Connor, Mohammad Shahidul Islam, Luke C Mullany, Nong Shang, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Anita K M Zaidi, Sajid Soofi, Imran Nisar, Pinaki Panigrahi, Kalpana Panigrahi, Radhanath Satpathy, Anuradha Bose, Rita Isaac, Abdullah H Baqui, Dipak K Mitra, Qazi Sadeq-Ur Rahman, Tanvir Hossain, Stephanie J Schrag, Jonas M Winchell, Melissa L Arvay, Maureen H Diaz, Jessica L Waller, Martin W Weber, Davidson H Hamer, Patricia Hibberd, A S M Nawshad Uddin Ahmed, Maksuda Islam, Mohammad Belal Hossain, Shamim A Qazi, Shams El Arifeen, Gary L Darmstadt, Samir K Saha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Risk factors predisposing infants to community-acquired bacterial infections during the first 2 months of life are poorly understood in South Asia. Identifying risk factors for infection could lead to improved preventive measures and antibiotic stewardship.

METHODS: Five sites in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan enrolled mother-child pairs via population-based pregnancy surveillance by community health workers. Medical, sociodemographic and epidemiological risk factor data were collected. Young infants aged 0-59 days with signs of possible serious bacterial infection (pSBI) and age-matched controls provided blood and respiratory specimens that were analysed by blood culture and real-time PCR. These tests were used to build …

Identification Of Novel Susceptibility Methylation Loci For Pancreatic Cancer In A Two-Phase Epigenome-Wide Association Study, Ziqiao Wang, Yue Lu, Myriam Fornage, Li Jiao, Jianjun Shen, Donghui Li, Peng Wei

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The role of DNA methylation and its interplay with gene expression in the susceptibility to pancreatic cancer (PanC) remains largely unexplored. To fill in this gap, we conducted an integrative two-phase epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of PanC using genomic DNA from 44 cases and 556 controls (20 local controls and 536 public controls in the Framingham Heart Study) in phase 1 and 23 cases and 22 controls in phase 2. We validated the findings using pre-diagnostic blood samples from 13 cases and 26 controls in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Study. We further examined gene expression in peripheral leukocytes of …

Identification Of Key Genes Associated With Cancer Stem Cell Characteristics In Wilms’ Tumor Based On Bioinformatics Analysis, Cheng Su, Jie Zheng, Siyu Chen, Jinwei Tuo, Jinxia Su, Xiuyi Ou, Shaohua Chen, Congjun Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Nephroblastoma, also known as Wilms' tumor (WT), remains one of the major causes of tumor-related deaths worldwide in children. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are considered to be the main culprits in cancer resistance and disease recurrence, which are reported in multiple types of tumors. However, the research on CSCs in WT is limited. Therefore, our study aimed to identify the key genes related to CSCs in WT to provide new ideas for treating WT.

METHODS: The RNA-seq and clinical data of WT samples were obtained from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) Xena database, which included 120 WT …

Bile Acids Regulate The Epithelial Na+ Channel In Native Tissues Through Direct Binding At Multiple Sites, Xue-Ping Wang, Viktor Tomilin, Andrew J Nickerson, Runze Tian, Merve Ertem, Abagail Mckernan, Xiaoguang Lei, Oleh Pochynyuk, Ossama B Kashlan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Bile acids, originally known to emulsify dietary lipids, are now established signalling molecules that regulate physiological processes. Signalling targets several proteins that include the ion channels involved in regulating intestinal motility and bile viscosity. Studies show that bile acids regulate the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) in cultured cell models and heterologous expression systems. ENaC plays both local and systemic roles in regulating extracellular fluids. Here we investigated whether bile acids regulate ENaC expressed in native tissues. We found that taurocholic acid and taurohyodeoxycholic acid regulated ENaC in both the distal nephron and distal colon. We also tested the hypothesis that …

Netie: Inferring The Evolution Of Neoantigen-T Cell Interactions In Tumors, Tianshi Lu, Seongoh Park, Yi Han, Yunguan Wang, Shawna Marie Hubert, P Andy Futreal, Ignacio Wistuba, John V Heymach, Alexandre Reuben, Jianjun Zhang, Tao Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Neoantigens are the key targets of antitumor immune responses from cytotoxic T cells and play a critical role in affecting tumor progressions and immunotherapy treatment responses. However, little is known about how the interaction between neoantigens and T cells ultimately affects the evolution of cancerous masses. Here, we develop a hierarchical Bayesian model, named neoantigen-T cell interaction estimation (netie) to infer the history of neoantigen-CD8

Immune Dysfunction Signatures Predict Outcomes And Define Checkpoint Blockade-Unresponsive Microenvironments In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Sergio Rutella, Jayakumar Vadakekolathu, Francesco Mazziotta, Stephen Reeder, Tung-On Yau, Rupkatha Mukhopadhyay, Benjamin Dickins, Heidi Altmann, Michael Kramer, Hanna A Knaus, Bruce R Blazar, Vedran Radojcic, Joshua F Zeidner, Andrea Arruda, Bofei Wang, Hussein A Abbas, Mark D Minden, Sarah K Tasian, Martin Bornhäuser, Ivana Gojo, Leo Luznik

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background

Immune exhaustion and senescence are dominant dysfunctional states of effector T cells and major hurdles for the success of cancer immunotherapy. In the current study, we characterized how acute myeloid leukemia (AML) promotes the generation of senescent-like CD8⁺ T cells and whether they have prognostic relevance.

METHODS

We analyzed NanoString, bulk RNA-Seq and single-cell RNA-Seq data from independent clinical cohorts comprising 1,896 patients treated with chemotherapy and/or immune checkpoint blockade (ICB).

Results

We show that senescent-like bone marrow CD8⁺ T cells were impaired in killing autologous AML blasts and that their proportion negatively correlated with overall survival …

Haploinsufficiency Of Cyp8b1 Associates With Increased Insulin Sensitivity In Humans, Shiqi Zhong, Raphael Chèvre, David Castaño Mayan, Maria Corlianò, Blake J Cochran, Kai Ping Sem, Theo H Van Dijk, Jianhe Peng, Liang Juin Tan, Siddesh V Hartimath, Boominathan Ramasamy, Peter Cheng, Albert K Groen, Folkert Kuipers, Julian L Goggi, Chester Drum, Rob M Van Dam, Ru San Tan, Kerry-Anne Rye, Michael R Hayden, Ching-Yu Cheng, Shaji Chacko, Jason Flannick, Xueling Sim, Hong Chang Tan, Roshni R Singaraja

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

BACKGROUND

Cytochrome P450 family 8 subfamily B member 1 (CYP8B1) generates 12α-hydroxylated bile acids (BAs) that are associated with insulin resistance in humans.

METHODS

To determine whether reduced CYP8B1 activity improves insulin sensitivity, we sequenced CYP8B1 in individuals without diabetes and identified carriers of complete loss-of-function (CLOF) mutations utilizing functional assays.

RESULTS

Mutation carriers had lower plasma 12α-hydroxylated/non–12α-hydroxylated BA and cholic acid (CA)/chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) ratios compared with age-, sex-, and BMI-matched controls. During insulin clamps, hepatic glucose production was suppressed to a similar magnitude by insulin, but glucose infusion rates to maintain euglycemia were higher in mutation carriers, indicating …

An Automated Treatment Planning Framework For Spinal Radiation Therapy And Vertebral-Level Second Check, Tucker J Netherton, Callistus Nguyen, Carlos E Cardenas, Caroline Chung, Ann H Klopp, Lauren E Colbert, Dong Joo Rhee, Christine B Peterson, Rebecca Howell, Peter Balter, Laurence E Court

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Complicating factors such as time pressures, anatomic variants in the spine, and similarities in adjacent vertebrae are associated with incorrect level treatments of the spine. The purpose of this work was to mitigate such challenges by fully automating the treatment planning process for diagnostic and simulation computed tomography (CT) scans.

Methods and materials: Vertebral bodies are labeled on CT scans of any length using 2 intendent deep-learning models-mirroring 2 different experts labeling the spine. Then, a U-Net++ architecture was trained, validated, and tested to contour each vertebra (n = 220 CT scans). Features from the CT and auto-contours were …

Clinical Significance And Potential Role Of Trimethylamine N-Oxide In Neurological And Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Sowjanya Mudimela, Narahari Koppa Vishwanath, Anilkumar Pillai, Rodrigo Morales, Sean P Marrelli, Tatiana Barichello, Vijayasree V Giridharan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Research in the last three decades has attracted the attention of many scientists and industrialists on the gut microbiome and its metabolites. Among many of these metabolites, trimethylamine oxide. Dietary choline, phosphatidylcholine, carnitine, and betaine produces TMAO that with other gut metabolites such as TMA (trimethylamine), and short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) enter the circulation. Finally they reach the brain through the blood-brain barrier (BBB) where they are involved in several physiological functions such as brain development, neurogenesis, and behavior. Gut-microbiota composition is influenced by diet, lifestyle, antibiotics, and age resulting in dysbiosis. Several studies have confirmed that altered TMAO levels …

Antibody Therapeutics For Epithelial Ovarian Cancer, Mason Ruiz, Ningyan Zhang, Anil K Sood, Zhiqiang An

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) is an aggressive subtype of epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC) and remains the most lethal gynecologic cancer. A lack of effective and tolerable therapeutic options and nonspecific symptoms at presentation with advanced stage of disease are among the challenges in the management of the disease.

AREAS COVERED: An overview of ovarian cancer, followed by a discussion of the current therapeutic regimes and challenges that arise during and after the treatment of EOC. We discuss different formats of antibody therapeutics and their usage in targeting validated targets implicated in ovarian cancer, as well as three emerging …

Rare Genetic Variants Explain Missing Heritability In Smoking, Seon-Kyeong Jang, Luke Evans, Allison Fialkowski, Donna K Arnett, Allison E Ashley-Koch, Kathleen C Barnes, Diane M Becker, Joshua C Bis, John Blangero, Eugene R Bleecker, Meher Preethi Boorgula, Donald W Bowden, Jennifer A Brody, Brian E Cade, Brenda W Campbell Jenkins, April P Carson, Sameer Chavan, L Adrienne Cupples, Brian Custer, Scott M Damrauer, Sean P David, Mariza De Andrade, Carla L Dinardo, Tasha E Fingerlin, Myriam Fornage, Barry I Freedman, Melanie E Garrett, Sina A Gharib, David C Glahn, Jeffrey Haessler, Susan R Heckbert, John E Hokanson, Lifang Hou, Shih-Jen Hwang, Matthew C Hyman, Renae Judy, Anne E Justice, Robert C Kaplan, Sharon L R Kardia, Shannon Kelly, Wonji Kim, Charles Kooperberg, Daniel Levy, Donald M Lloyd-Jones, Ruth J F Loos, Ani W Manichaikul, Mark T Gladwin, Lisa Warsinger Martin, Mehdi Nouraie, Olle Melander, Deborah A Meyers, Courtney G Montgomery, Kari E North, Elizabeth C Oelsner, Nicholette D Palmer, Marinelle Payton, Anna L Peljto, Patricia A Peyser, Michael Preuss, Bruce M Psaty, Dandi Qiao, Daniel J Rader, Nicholas Rafaels, Susan Redline, Robert M Reed, Alexander P Reiner, Stephen S Rich, Jerome I Rotter, David A Schwartz, Aladdin H Shadyab, Edwin K Silverman, Nicholas L Smith, J Gustav Smith, Albert V Smith, Jennifer A Smith, Weihong Tang, Kent D Taylor, Marilyn J Telen, Ramachandran S Vasan, Victor R Gordeuk, Zhe Wang, Kerri L Wiggins, Lisa R Yanek, Ivana V Yang, Kendra A Young, Kristin L Young, Yingze Zhang, Dajiang J Liu, Matthew C Keller, Scott Vrieze

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Common genetic variants explain less variation in complex phenotypes than inferred from family-based studies, and there is a debate on the source of this 'missing heritability'. We investigated the contribution of rare genetic variants to tobacco use with whole-genome sequences from up to 26,257 unrelated individuals of European ancestries and 11,743 individuals of African ancestries. Across four smoking traits, single-nucleotide-polymorphism-based heritability ([Formula: see text]) was estimated from 0.13 to 0.28 (s.e., 0.10-0.13) in European ancestries, with 35-74% of it attributable to rare variants with minor allele frequencies between 0.01% and 1%. These heritability estimates are 1.5-4 times higher than past …