Digital Commons Network^™

Cutr Connections [January 2021], Cutr

CUTR Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Qigong Mind-Body Program For Caregivers Of Cancer Patients: Design Of A Pilot Three-Arm Randomized Clinical Trial, Pinky Budhrani-Shani, Kristin Raeesi, Eli Walter, Kai Lewis, Wanyi Wang, Lorenzo Cohen, Gloria Y. Yeh, Cecile A. Lengacher, Peter M. Wayne

Nursing Faculty Publications

Background: Informal caregivers, often family and friends, experience significant psychological and physical distress leading to reductions in health and quality of life (QOL). Mind-body interventions focused on caregivers are often limited and do not address multiple barriers, including caregivers’ economic, geographic, and time constraints. Translation of in-person, community-based interventions to Internet-based delivery may offer greater accessibility for caregivers, leading to increased adherence.

Methods: Caring for Caregivers with Mind-Body implements a three-arm, pilot, randomized controlled trial to evaluate the feasibility of delivering a Qigong intervention (Eight Brocades) to cancer caregivers. A total of 54 cancer caregivers will be randomized into one …

Identifying Barriers And Facilitators To Implementation Of Community-Based Tuberculosis Active Case Finding With Mobile X-Ray Units In Lima, Peru: A Re-Aim Evaluation, Courtney M. Yuen, Daniela Puma, Ana Karina Millones, Jerome T. Galea, Christine Tzelios, Roger I. Calderon, Meredith B. Brooks, Judith Jimenez, Carmen Contreras, Tim C. Nichols, Tom Nicholson, Leonid Lecca, Mercedes C. Becerra, Salmaan Keshavjee

Social Work Faculty Publications

Objectives: Identify barriers and facilitators to integrating community tuberculosis screening with mobile X-ray units into a health system.

Methods: Reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance evaluation.

Setting: 3-district region of Lima, Peru.

Participants: 63 899 people attended the mobile units from 7 February 2019 to 6 February 2020.

Interventions: Participants were screened by chest radiography, which was scored for abnormality by computer-aided detection. People with abnormal X-rays were evaluated clinically and by GeneXpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) sputum testing. People diagnosed with tuberculosis at the mobile unit were accompanied to health facilities for treatment initiation.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: Reach was …

Toward Patient-Centered Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment: Preferences For Regimens And Formulations In Lima, Peru, Courtney M. Yuen, Ana K. Millones, Jerome T. Galea, Daniela Puma, Judith Jimenez, Leonid Lecca, Mercedes C. Becerra, Salmaan Keshavjee

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: To ensure patient-centered tuberculosis preventive treatment, it is important to consider factors that make it easier for patients to complete treatment. However, there is little published literature about patient preferences for different preventive treatment regimen options, particularly from countries with high tuberculosis burdens.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative research study using a framework analysis approach to understand tuberculosis preventive treatment preferences among household contacts. We conducted three focus group discussions with 16 members of families affected by tuberculosis in Lima, Peru. Participants were asked to vote for preferred preventive treatment regimens and discuss the reasons behind their choices. Coding …

Adapting Problem Management Plus For Implementation: Lessons Learned From Public Sector Settings Across Rwanda, Peru, Mexico And Malawi, Sarah F. Coleman, Hildegarde Mukasakindi, Alexandra L. Rose, Jerome T. Galea, Beatha Nyirandagijimana, Janvier Hakizimana, Robert Bienvenue, Priya Kundu, Eugenie Uwimana, Anathalie Uwamwezi, Carmen Contreras, Fátima G. Rodriguez-Cuevas, Jimena Maza, Todd Ruderman, Emilia Connolly, Mark Chalamanda, Waste Kayira, Kingsley Kazoole, Ksakrad K. Kelly, Jesse H. Wilson, Amruta A. Houde, Elizabeth B. Magill, Giuseppe J. Raviola, Stephanie L. Smith

Social Work Faculty Publications

Problem Management Plus (PM+) is a low-intensity psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization that can be delivered by nonspecialists to address common mental health conditions in people affected by adversity. Emerging evidence demonstrates the efficacy of PM+ across a range of settings. However, the published literature rarely documents the adaptation processes for psychological interventions to context or culture, including curriculum or implementation adaptations. Practical guidance for adapting PM+ to context while maintaining fidelity to core psychological elements is essential for mental health implementers to enable replication and scale. This paper describes the process of contextually adapting PM+ for …

Into Usf: Ten Years Of Excellence And Innovation, Jane Harvey, Melanie King, Anastasia Khawaja, Babak Khoshnevisan

INTO USF Center books

INTO USF: Ten Years of Excellence and Innovation

A collection of writings to mark the tenth anniversary of the establishment of INTO USF.

Predicting The Cost Of Dental Care Using A Probability Model, Nadine Wehbe

Undergraduate Journal of Mathematical Modeling: One + Two

This paper uses survey data to present a probability model that allows dental offices to predict patient costs. The quantitative model is useful for developing and accepting capitation rates. It accounts for whether the care is initial care or maintenance care, the type of dental care (such as operative, prosthetics, or periodontics), and different age groups, all of which affect the cost of dental treatment.

Analysis Of City Of St. Petersburg Comprehensive Plan With Special Reference To Coastal Management Considering Climate Change, Michael F. Johnson

USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

Land Development and the policy that drives it has long been an important issue in the Tampa Bay Area and by extension the state of Florida. Flooding and hurricanes have had to be considered in the future development of most places in Florida. But as climate change begins to pose a serious, leading to rising sea levels, increasingly powerful hurricanes, coastal erosion, increasing drought, and periods of unusually heavy rain, the role of policy, specifically the state- mandated comprehensive plan, in either mitigating or enhancing the susceptibility of any given area to these threats must be evaluated. This paper reviews …

Yellowtail Snapper: Human-Ecological Relationships In The South Florida Fishery, Brent Stoffle, Amanda D. Stoltz

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

In 2018 over a period of five months researchers from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) conducted a study with fishermen and local business owners who participate in the South Florida Yellowtail snapper fishery. Fishermen were asked about changes in their targeting strategies over the last several decades; and they perceive these changes to have altered the health and the biology of the snapper species. The changes are perceived as partially responsible for improving both the overall abundance of Yellowtail and having sped up its the growth and reproductive cycles. This is a case where …

Meeting Strategic Communication Goals Through A Sustainable Library Newsletter, Camielle Crampsie, Karla Morris

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

Libraries face a significant challenge in keeping users, and sometimes even
their own employees, informed and up-to-date about their ever-changing services and resources. A library e-newsletter is one way of effectively communicating updates to a large number of people on a regular basis, serving as both an internal and external communication tool. To do this, it is important to establish a collaborative model that is sustainable, can be assessed, and meets readership needs. Aligning the newsletter with the library’s mission and strategic plan is an effective approach for communications with an academic library community.

Usf Libraries Libguides Task Force Report 2020-2021, Usf Libraries

All Assessment Data

No abstract provided.

Understanding Structural Malleability Of The Sars-Cov-2 Proteins And Their Relation To The Comorbidities, Sagnik Sen, Ashmita Dey, Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Ujjwal Maulik, Vladimir Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a causative agent of the coronavirus disease (CoVID-19), is a part of the β-coronaviridae family. In comparison with two other members of this family of coronaviruses infecting humans (SARS-CoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV), SARS-CoV-2 showed the most severe effects on the entire Earth population causing world-wide CoVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 contains five major protein classes, such as four structural proteins (Nucleocapsid (N), Membrane (M), Envelop (E), and Spike Glycoprotein (S)) and Replicase polyproteins (R), which are synthesized as two polyproteins (ORF1a and ORF1ab) that are subsequently processed into 12 nonstructural proteins …

Natural Resources To Control Covid-19: Could Lactoferrin Amend Sars-Cov-2 Infectivity?, Ehab H. Mattar, Fatma Elrashdy, Hussein A. Almehdar, Vladimir N. Uversky, Elrashdy M. Redwan

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The world population is still facing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a challenge requires complicated tools to control, namely vaccines, effective cures, and complementary agents. Here we present one candidate for the role of an effective cure and/or complementary agent: lactoferrin. It is the cross-talking mediator between many organs/cellular systems in the body. It serves as a physiological, immunological, and anti-microbial barrier, and acts as a regulator molecule. Furthermore, lactoferrin has receptors on most tissues cells, and is a rich source for bioactive peptides, particularly in the digestive system. In the past months, in vitro and in …

Networks Of Networks: An Essay On Multi-Level Biological Organization, Vladimir N. Uversky, Alessandro Giuliani

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The multi-level organization of nature is self-evident: proteins do interact among them to give rise to an organized metabolism, while in the same time each protein (a single node of such interaction network) is itself a network of interacting amino-acid residues allowing coordinated motion of the macromolecule and systemic effect as allosteric behavior. Similar pictures can be drawn for structure and function of cells, organs, tissues, and ecological systems. The majority of biologists are used to think that causally relevant events originate from the lower level (the molecular one) in the form of perturbations, that “climb up” the hierarchy reaching …

On The Prevalence And Potential Functionality Of An Intrinsic Disorder In The Mers-Cov Proteome, Manal A. Alshehri, Manee M. Manee, Fahad H. Alqahtani, Badr M. Al-Shomrani, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Middle East respiratory syndrome is a severe respiratory illness caused by an infectious coronavirus. This virus is associated with a high mortality rate, but there is as of yet no effective vaccine or antibody available for human immunity/treatment. Drug design relies on understanding the 3D structures of viral proteins; however, arriving at such understanding is difficult for intrinsically disordered proteins, whose disorder-dependent functions are key to the virus’s biology. Disorder is suggested to provide viral proteins with highly flexible structures and diverse functions that are utilized when invading host organisms and adjusting to new habitats. To date, the functional roles …

Tudor Staphylococcal Nuclease Is A Docking Platform For Stress Granule Components And Is Essential For Snrk1 Activation In Arabidopsis, Emilio Gutierrez-Beltran, Pernilla H. Elander, Kerstin Dalman, Guy W. Dayhoff, Panagiotis N. Moschou, Vladimir N. Uversky, Jose L. Crespo, Peter V. Bozhkov

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Tudor staphylococcal nuclease (TSN; also known as Tudor-SN, p100, or SND1) is a multifunctional, evolutionarily conserved regulator of gene expression, exhibiting cytoprotective activity in animals and plants and oncogenic activity in mammals. During stress, TSN stably associates with stress granules (SGs), in a poorly understood process. Here, we show that in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, TSN is an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) acting as a scaffold for a large pool of other IDPs, enriched for conserved stress granule components as well as novel or plant-specific SG-localized proteins. While approximately 30% of TSN interactors are recruited to stress granules …

Baicalein Inhibits Heparin-Induced Tau Aggregation By Initializing Non-Toxic Tau Oligomer Formation, Shweta Kishor Sonawane, Vladimir N. Uversky, Subashchandrabose Chinnathambi

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Background: Amyloid aggregate deposition is the key feature of Alzheimer’s disease. The proteinaceous aggregates found in the afflicted brain are the intra-neuronal neurofibrillary tangles formed by the microtubule-associated protein Tau and extracellular deposits, senile plaques, of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide proteolytically derived from the amyloid precursor protein. Accumulation of these aggregates has manifestations in the later stages of the disease, such as memory loss and cognitive inabilities originating from the neuronal dysfunction, neurodegeneration, and brain atrophy. Treatment of this disease at the late stages is difficult, and many clinical trials have failed. Hence, the goal is to find means capable …

Biomolecules From Different Angles, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Questions Concerning The Proximal Origin Of Sars-Cov-2, Murat Seyran, Damiano Pizzol, Parise Adadi, Tarek M. El-Aziz, Sk. Sarif Hassan, Antonio Soares, Ramesh Kandimalla, Kenneth Lundstrom, Murtaza Tambuwala, Alaa A. Aljabali, Amos Lal, Gajendra K. Azad, Pabitra P. Choudhury, Vladimir N. Uversky, Samendra P. Sherchan, Bruce D. Uhal, Nima Rezaei, Adam M. Brufsky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Targeting Autophagy In Ischemic Stroke: From Molecular Mechanisms To Clinical Therapeutics, Amir Ajoolabady, Shuyi Wang, Guido Kroemer, Josef M. Penninger, Vladimir N. Uversky, Domenico Pratico, Nils Henninger, Russel J. Reiter, Askiel Bruno, Kaumudi Joshipura, Hamid Aslkhodapasandhokmabad, Daniel J. Klionsky, Jun Ren

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Stroke constitutes the second leading cause of death and a major cause of disability worldwide. Stroke is normally classified as either ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke (HS) although 87% of cases belong to ischemic nature. Approximately 700,000 individuals suffer an ischemic stroke (IS) in the US each year. Recent evidence has denoted a rather pivotal role for defective macroautophagy/autophagy in the pathogenesis of IS. Cellular response to stroke includes autophagy as an adaptive mechanism that alleviates cellular stresses by removing long-lived or damaged organelles, protein aggregates, and surplus cellular components via the autophagosome-lysosomal degradation process. In this context, autophagy functions as …

Simple And Efficient Protocol For Immunoglobulin Y Purification From Chicken Egg Yolk, Elrashdy M. Redwan, Abdullah A. Aljadawi, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Besides being a common food component broadly consumed worldwide, egg yolk immunoglobulin Y (IgY) has essential therapeutic potentials. In fact, in a time of ever-increasing risk of antibiotic resistance, it is crucial to find new ways to battle infection, and oral administration of preformed specific antibodies represents one of the most attractive approaches against infection. Infectious diseases of bacterial and viral origin in humans and animals can be controlled and passively cured by orally applied IgYs isolated from chicken egg yolks. Despite multiple obvious advantages of oral administration of IgY, harvesting IgY from egg yolk in a pure form is …

Structural Modeling Of The Treponema Pallidum Outer Membrane Protein Repertoire: A Road Map For Deconvolution Of Syphilis Pathogenesis And Development Of A Syphilis Vaccine, Kelly L. Hawley, Jairo M. Montezuma-Rusca, Kristina N. Delgado, Navreeta Singh, Vladimir N. Uversky, Melissa J. Caimano, Justin D. Radolf, Amit Luthra

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Treponema pallidum, an obligate human pathogen, has an outer membrane (OM) whose physical properties, ultrastructure, and composition differ markedly from those of phylogenetically distant Gram-negative bacteria. We developed structural models for the outer membrane protein (OMP) repertoire (OMPeome) of T. pallidum Nichols using solved Gram-negative structures, computational tools, and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) of selected recombinant periplasmic domains. The T. pallidum “OMPeome” harbors two “stand-alone” proteins (BamA and LptD) involved in OM biogenesis and four paralogous families involved in the influx/efflux of small molecules: 8-stranded β-barrels, long-chain-fatty-acid transporters (FadLs), OM factors (OMFs) for efflux pumps, and T. pallidum repeat proteins …

Serotonin Promotes Serum Albumin Interaction With The Monomeric Amyloid Β Peptide, Ekaterina A. Litus, Alexei S. Kazakov, Eugenia I. Deryusheva, Ekaterina L. Nemashkalova, Marina P. Shevelyova, Aliya A. Nazipova, Maria E. Permyakova, Elena V. Raznikova, Vladimir N. Uversky, Sergei E. Permyakov

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Prevention of amyloid β peptide (Aβ) deposition via facilitation of Aβ binding to its natural depot, human serum albumin (HSA), is a promising approach to preclude Alzheimer’s disease (AD) onset and progression. Previously, we demonstrated the ability of natural HSA ligands, fatty acids, to improve the affinity of this protein to monomeric Aβ by a factor of 3 (BBRC, 510(2), 248–253). Using plasmon resonance spectroscopy, we show here that another HSA ligand related to AD pathogenesis, serotonin (SRO), increases the affinity of the Aβ monomer to HSA by a factor of 7/17 for Aβ40/Aβ42, respectively. Meanwhile, the structurally homologous SRO …

The Role Of Non-Specific Interactions In Canonical And Alt-Associated Pml-Bodies Formation And Dynamics, Alexander V. Fonin, Sergey A. Silonov, Olesya G. Shpironok, Iuliia A. Antifeeva, Alexey V. Petukhov, Anna E. Romanovich, Irina M. Kuznetsova, Vladimir N. Uversky, Konstantin K. Turoverov

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

In this work, we put forward a hypothesis about the decisive role of multivalent nonspecific interactions in the early stages of PML body formation. Our analysis of the PML isoform sequences showed that some of the PML isoforms, primarily PML-II, are prone to phase separation due to their polyampholytic properties and the disordered structure of their C-terminal domains. The similarity of the charge properties of the C-terminal domains of PML-II and PML-VI isoforms made it possible for the first time to detect migration of PML-VI from PML bodies to the periphery of the cell nucleus, similar to the migration of …

Isolation And Characterization Of Human Colon Adenocarcinoma Stem-Like Cells Based On The Endogenous Expression Of The Stem Markers, Sergei A. Koshkin, Olga V. Anatskaya, Alexander E. Vinogradov, Vladimir N. Uversky, Guy W. Dayhoff Ii, Margarita A. Bystriakova, Valery A. Pospelov, Elena N. Tolkunova

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Background: Cancer stem cells’ (CSCs) self-maintenance is regulated via the pluripotency pathways promoting the most aggressive tumor phenotype. This study aimed to use the activity of these pathways for the CSCs’ subpopulation enrichment and separating cells characterized by the OCT4 and SOX2 expression. Methods: To select and analyze CSCs, we used the SORE6x lentiviral reporter plasmid for viral transduction of colon adenocarcinoma cells. Additionally, we assessed cell chemoresistance, clonogenic, invasive and migratory activity and the data of mRNA-seq and intrinsic disorder predisposition protein analysis (IDPPA). Results: We obtained the line of CSC-like cells selected on the basis of the expression …

The Participation Of The Intrinsically Disordered Regions Of The Bhlh-Pas Transcription Factors In Disease Development, Marta Kolonko-Adamska, Vladimir N. Uversky, Beata Greb-Markiewicz

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The basic helix–loop–helix/Per-ARNT-SIM (bHLH-PAS) proteins are a family of transcription factors regulating expression of a wide range of genes involved in different functions, ranging from differentiation and development control by oxygen and toxins sensing to circadian clock setting. In addition to the well-preserved DNA-binding bHLH and PAS domains, bHLH-PAS proteins contain long intrinsically disordered C-terminal regions, responsible for regulation of their activity. Our aim was to analyze the potential connection between disordered regions of the bHLH-PAS transcription factors, post-transcriptional modifications and liquid-liquid phase separation, in the context of disease-associated missense mutations. Highly flexible disordered regions, enriched in short motives which …

Potential Molecular Mechanisms Of Rare Anti-Tumor Immune Response By Sars-Cov-2 In Isolated Cases Of Lymphomas, Debmalya Barh, Sandeep Tiwary, Lucas Gabriel Rodrigues Gomes, Marianna E. Weener, Khalid J. Alzahrani, Khalaf F. Alsharif, Alaa A. A. Aljabali, Murtaza M. Tambuwala, Kenneth Lundstrom, Sk. Sarif Hassan, Ángel Serrano-Aroca, Kazuo Takayama, Preetam Ghosh, Elrashdy M. Redwan, Bruno Silva Andrade, Siomar De Castro Soares, Vasco Azevedo, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Recently, two cases of complete remission of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and follicular lymphoma (FL) after SARS-CoV-2 infection were reported. However, the precise molecular mechanism of this rare event is yet to be understood. Here, we hypothesize a potential anti-tumor immune response of SARS-CoV-2 and based on a computational approach show that: (i) SARS-CoV-2 Spike-RBD may bind to the extracellular domains of CD15, CD27, CD45, and CD152 receptors of cHL or FL and may directly inhibit cell proliferation. (ii) Alternately, upon internalization after binding to these CD molecules, the SARS-CoV-2 membrane (M) protein and ORF3a may bind to gamma-tubulin complex …

Association Analysis Of Genetic Variants Of Sodium Taurocholate Co-Transporting Polypeptide Ntcp Gene (Slc10a1) And Hbv Infection Status In A Cohort Of Egyptian Patients, Maissa El Said El Raziky, Naglaa Ali Zayed, Yasmin Saad Ibrahim, Fatma Elrashdy, Rasha Mohamad Hosny Shahin, Mohamed Hassany, Magdy El Serafy, Wahid Doss, Vladimir N. Uversky, Ayman Yosry, Hadeel Gamal Eldeen

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SLC10A1 gene, coding for a functional receptor of hepatitis B virus (HBV), sodium taurocholate co-transporting polypeptide (NTCP), may influence the susceptibility, outcome, and disease course of HBV infection in some populations. Aim: to determine the prevalence of SNPs of the NTCP gene, rs2296651 and rs943277, and their relationship with chronic HBV infection in a group of Egyptian patients. Methods: One hundred and thirty seven patients with HBV and 65 healthy controls were enrolled, and the patients were divided into two groups; group I chronic HBV infection (68 patients with normal ALT and minimal …

Disphscan: A Multi-Sequence Web Tool For Predicting Protein Disorder As A Function Of Ph, Carlos Pintado-Grima, Valentín Iglesias, Jaime Santos, Vladimir N. Uversky, Salvador Ventura

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Proteins are exposed to fluctuating environmental conditions in their cellular context and during their biotechnological production. Disordered regions are susceptible to these fluctuations and may experience solvent-dependent conformational switches that affect their local dynamism and activity. In a recent study, we modeled the influence of pH in the conformational state of IDPs by exploiting a charge–hydrophobicity diagram that considered the effect of solution pH on both variables. However, it was not possible to predict context-dependent transitions for multiple sequences, precluding proteome-wide analysis or the screening of collections of mutants. In this article, we present DispHScan, the first computational tool dedicated …

On The Safety Of The Covid-19 Convalescent Plasma Treatment: Thrombotic And Thromboembolic Concerns, Fatma Elrashdy, Elrashdy M. Redwan, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Recently, it was reported that near-sourced COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CP) is more efficient than distantly sourced CP. What was left behind in this analysis is the investigation of the possible causes of mortality associated with the CP transfusion itself. Knowing this information is important for determining whether not receiving CP of near source is the main cause of high rate of death in the group of patients who received distantly sourced CP. We argue that the thrombotic and thromboembolic events may act as risk factors for adverse complications and death associated with CP transfusion. Therefore, they have to be considered …