Digital Commons Network^™

A Novel Mitragynine Analog With Low-Efficacy Mu Opioid Receptor Agonism Displays Antinociception With Attenuated Adverse Effects, Soumen Chakraborty, Abdelfattah Faouzi, Sarah M Bernhard, Nitin Nuthikattu, Rahul Jilakara, Satyanarayana M Chintala, Tao Che, Susruta Majumdar, Et Al

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7OH) are the major alkaloids mediating the biological actions of the psychoactive plant kratom. To investigate the structure-activity relationships of mitragynine/7OH templates, we diversified the aromatic ring of the indole at the C9, C10, and C12 positions and investigated their G-protein and arrestin signaling mediated by mu opioid receptors (MOR). Three synthesized lead C9 analogs replacing the 9-OCH

Intestinal Antiviral Signaling Is Controlled By Autophagy Gene Epg5 Independent Of The Microbiota, Sanghyun Lee, Gowri Kalugotla, Harshad Ingle, Rachel Rodgers, Yating Wang, Yuhao Li, Nicolette R Borella, Hongju Deng, Lindsay Droit, Ryan Hill, Stefan T Peterson, Chandni Desai, Dylan Lawrence, Megan T Baldridge, Et Al

Open Access Publications

Mutations in the macroautophagy/autophagy gene

Predilection For Developing A Hematogenous Orthopaedic Implant-Associated Infection In Older Versus Younger Mice, John M Thompson, Alyssa G Ashbaugh, Yu Wang, Robert J Miller, Julie E Pickett, Daniel L J Thorek, Robert S Sterling, Lloyd S Miller

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of hematogenous orthopaedic implant-associated infections (HOIAI) remains largely unknown, with little understanding of the influence of the physis on bacterial seeding. Since the growth velocity in the physis of long bones decreases during aging, we sought to evaluate the role of the physis on influencing the development of Staphylococcus aureus HOIAI in a mouse model comparing younger versus older mice.

METHODS: In a mouse model of HOIAI, a sterile Kirschner wire was inserted retrograde into the distal femur of younger (5-8-week-old) and older (14-21-week-old) mice. After a 3-week convalescent period, a bioluminescent Staphylococcus aureus strain was inoculated …

Improved Gal4 And Tet Off Drivers For C. Elegans Bipartite Expression, Michael Nonet

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The first generation of

Nanoparticle T Cell Engagers For The Treatment Of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Kinan Alhallak, Jennifer Sun, Barbara Muz, Amanda Jeske, Jessica Yavner, Hannah Bash, Chaelee Park, Berit Lubben, Ola Adebayo, Samuel Achilefu, John F Dipersio, Abdel Kareem Azab

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of leukemia and has a 5-year survival rate of 25%. The standard-of-care for AML has not changed in the past few decades. Promising immunotherapy options are being developed for the treatment of AML; yet, these regimens require highly laborious and sophisticated techniques. We create nanoTCEs using liposomes conjugated to monoclonal antibodies to enable specific binding. We also recreate the bone marrow niche using our 3D culture system and use immunocompromised mice to enable use of human AML and T cells with nanoTCEs. We show that CD33 is ubiquitously present on AML …

Neuropathic Pain: Biomolecular Intervention And Imaging Via Targeting Microglia Activation, Aijun Ji, Jinbin Xu

Open Access Publications

Many diseases, including cancer, can lead to neuropathic pain (NP). NP is one of the accompanying symptoms of suffering in many conditions and the life quality of NP patient is seriously affected. Due to complex causes, the effects of clinical treatments have been very unsatisfactory. Many experts have found that neuron-microglia interaction plays an essential role in NP occurrence and development. Therefore, the activation of microglia, related inflammatory mediators and molecular and cellular signaling pathways have become the focus of NP research. With the help of modern functional imaging technology, advanced pre-and clinical studies have been carried out and NP …

Signaling Through Retinoic Acid Receptors Is Essential For Mammalian Uterine Receptivity And Decidualization, Yan Yin, Meade E. Haller, Sangappa B. Chadchan, Ramakrishna Kommagani, Liang Ma

Open Access Publications

Retinoic acid (RA) signaling has long been speculated to regulate embryo implantation, because many enzymes and proteins responsible for maintaining RA homeostasis and transducing RA signals are tightly regulated in the endometrium during this critical period. However, due to a lack of genetic data, it was unclear whether RA signaling is truly required for implantation and which specific RA signaling cascades are at play. Herein we utilize a genetic murine model that expresses a dominant-negative form of RA receptor (RAR) specifically in female reproductive organs to show that functional RA signaling is fundamental to female fertility, particularly implantation and decidualization. …

Racial Disparities In Modifiable Risk Factors And Statin Usage In Black Patients With Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Anandita Agarwala, Nathan Bekele, Elena Deych, Michael W Rich, Aliza Hussain, Laney K Jones, Amy C Sturm, Karen Aspry, Elizabeth Nowak, Zahid Ahmad, Christie M Ballantyne, Anne C Goldberg

Open Access Publications

Background Black men and women are at higher risk for, and suffer greater morbidity and mortality from, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) compared with adults of European Ancestry (EA). Black patients with familial hypercholesterolemia are at particularly high risk for ASCVD complications because of lifelong exposure to elevated levels of low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol. Methods and Results This retrospective study analyzed ASCVD prevalence and risk factors in 808 adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia from 5 US-based lipid clinics, and compared findings in Black versus EA patients. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the strongest predictors of ASCVD as a function of …

Genome Assemblies Across The Diverse Evolutionary Spectrum Of Leishmania Protozoan Parasites, Wesley C. Warren, Natalia S. Akopyants, Deborah E. Dobson, Christiane Hertz-Fowler, Lon-Fye Lye, Peter J. Myler, Gowthaman Ramasamy, Achchuthan Shanmugasundram, Fatima Silva-Franco, Sascha Steinbiss, Chad Tomlinson, Richard K. Wilson, Stephen M. Beverley

2020-Current year OA Pubs

We report the high-quality draft assemblies and gene annotations for 13 species and/or strains of the protozoan parasite genera

Phagocytes Produce Prostaglandin E2 In Response To Cytosolic Listeria Monocytogenes, Courtney E. Mcdougal, Zachary T. Morrow, Tighe Christopher, Seonyoung Kim, Drake Carter, David M. Stevenson, Daniel Amador-Noguez, Mark J. Miller, John-Demian Sauer

Open Access Publications

Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular bacterium that elicits robust CD8+ T-cell responses. Despite the ongoing development of L. monocytogenes-based platforms as cancer vaccines, our understanding of how L. monocytogenes drives robust CD8+ T-cell responses remains incomplete. One overarching hypothesis is that activation of cytosolic innate pathways is critical for immunity, as strains of L. monocytogenes that are unable to access the cytosol fail to elicit robust CD8+ T-cell responses and in fact inhibit optimal T-cell priming. Counterintuitively, however, activation of known cytosolic pathways, such as the inflammasome and type I IFN, lead to impaired immunity. Conversely, production of prostaglandin E2 …

Endothelial Fgf Signaling Is Protective In Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension, Kel Vin Woo, Isabel Y Shen, Carla J Weinheimer, Attila Kovacs, Jessica Nigro, Chieh-Yu Lin, Murali Chakinala, Derek E Byers, David M Ornitz

Open Access Publications

Hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) is one of the most common and deadliest forms of PH. Fibroblast growth factor receptors 1 and 2 (FGFR1/2) are elevated in patients with PH and in mice exposed to chronic hypoxia. Endothelial FGFR1/2 signaling is important for the adaptive response to several injury types and we hypothesized that endothelial FGFR1/2 signaling would protect against hypoxia-induced PH. Mice lacking endothelial FGFR1/2, mice with activated endothelial FGFR signaling, and human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs) were challenged with hypoxia. We assessed the effect of FGFR activation and inhibition on right ventricular pressure, vascular remodeling, and endothelial-mesenchymal transition …

Memory-Like Differentiation Enhances Nk Cell Responses To Melanoma, Nancy D Marin, Bradley A Krasnick, Michelle Becker-Hapak, Leah Conant, Simon P Goedegebuure, Melissa M Berrien-Elliott, Keenan J Robbins, Jennifer A Foltz, Mark Foster, Pamela Wong, Celia C Cubitt, Jennifer Tran, Christopher B Wetzel, Miriam Jacobs, Alice Y Zhou, David Russler-Germain, Lynne Marsala, Timothy Schappe, Ryan C Fields, Todd A Fehniger

Open Access Publications

PURPOSE: Treatment of advanced melanoma is a clinical challenge. Natural killer (NK) cells are a promising cellular therapy for T cell-refractory cancers, but are frequently deficient or dysfunctional in patients with melanoma. Thus, new strategies are needed to enhance NK-cell antitumor responses. Cytokine-induced memory-like (ML) differentiation overcomes many barriers in the NK-cell therapeutics field, resulting in potent cytotoxicity and enhanced cytokine production against blood cancer targets. However, the preclinical activity of ML NK against solid tumors remains largely undefined.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Phenotypic and functional alterations of blood and advanced melanoma infiltrating NK cells were evaluated using mass cytometry. ML NK …

Interplay Of Trypanosome Lytic Factor And Innate Immune Cells In The Resolution Of Cutaneous Leishmania Infection, Jyoti Pant, Marie Samanovic, Maria T. Nelson, Mert K. Keceli, Joseph Verdi, Stephen M. Beverley, Jayne Raper

Open Access Publications

Trypanosome Lytic Factor (TLF) is a primate-specific high-density lipoprotein (HDL) complex that, through the cation channel-forming protein apolipoprotein L-1 (APOL1), provides innate immunity to select kinetoplastid parasites. The immunoprotective effects of TLF have been extensively investigated in the context of its interaction with the extracellular protozoan Trypanosoma brucei brucei, to which it confers sterile immunity. We previously showed that TLF could act against an intracellular pathogen Leishmania, and here we dissected the role of TLF and its synergy with host-immune cells. Leishmania major is transmitted by Phlebotomine sand flies, which deposit the parasite intradermally into mammalian hosts, where neutrophils are …

Evaluation Of Admission Chest X-Ray Findings In Patients With Respiratory Infection During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Dimitrios Velissaris, Maria Lagadinou, Themistoklis Paraskevas, Eleousa Oikonomou, Vasileios Karamouzos, Fotios Sampsonas, Markos Marangos, Menelaos Karanikolas

Open Access Publications

AIMS: To evaluate the prevalence of X-ray findings in hospitalized patients requiring hospitalization with suspected Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and potential differences in the laboratory values and clinical outcomes related to the presence of abnormal chest X-ray (CXR) findings.

METHODS:

RESULTS:

CONCLUSION: CXR is a routine examination in all patients with symptoms of lower respiratory tract disease and its findings relate to in-hospital mortality and PaO

Efficacy And Safety Of Belimumab In Paediatric And Adult Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: An Across-Study Comparison, Hermine Brunner, Carlos Abud-Mendoza, Masaaki Mori, Clarissa Pilkington, Reema Syed, Syuji Takei, Diego Viola, Richard Furie, Sandra Navarra, Fengchun Zhang, Damon Bass, Gina Eriksson, Anne Hammer, Beulah Ji, Mohamed Okily, David Roth, Holly Quasny, Nicolino Ruperto

Open Access Publications

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy and safety of belimumab in paediatric versus adult patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

METHODS: We performed across-study comparisons of patients with active SLE who received belimumab or placebo, plus standard therapy, in PLUTO (paediatric phase II) and BLISS-52, BLISS-76, BLISS-NEA and EMBRACE (adult phase III). Analysed efficacy data included Week 52 SLE Responder Index (SRI)-4 response rate (EMBRACE: SRI with modified Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) proteinuria scoring (SRI-S2K)); SRI-4 response rate (EMBRACE: SRI-S2K) according to baseline disease activity indicators (Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment-Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity …

Ascaris Suum Informs Extrasynaptic Volume Transmission In Nematodes, Louise E Atkinson, Yang Liu, Fiona Mckay, Elke Vandewyer, Charles Viau, Allister Irvine, Bruce A Rosa, Zihui Li, Qingxiao Liang, Nikki J Marks, Aaron G Maule, Makedonka Mitreva, Isabel Beets, Lingjun Li, Angela Mousley

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Neural circuit synaptic connectivities (the connectome) provide the anatomical foundation for our understanding of nematode nervous system function. However, other nonsynaptic routes of communication are known in invertebrates including extrasynaptic volume transmission (EVT), which enables short- and/or long-range communication in the absence of synaptic connections. Although EVT has been highlighted as a facet of

Alzheimer's Disease Alters Oligodendrocytic Glycolytic And Ketolytic Gene Expression, Erin R Saito, Justin B Miller, Oscar Harari, Carlos Cruchaga, Kathie A Mihindukulasuriya, John S K Kauwe, Benjamin T Bikman

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) is strongly correlated with impaired brain glucose metabolism, which may affect AD onset and progression. Ketolysis has been suggested as an alternative pathway to fuel the brain.

METHODS: RNA-seq profiles of post mortem AD brains were used to determine whether dysfunctional AD brain metabolism can be determined by impairments in glycolytic and ketolytic gene expression. Data were obtained from the Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (62 cases; 13 controls), Mount Sinai Brain Bank (110 cases; 44 controls), and the Mayo Clinic Brain Bank (80 cases; 76 controls), and were normalized to cell type: astrocytes, microglia, …

Bioactive In Situ Crosslinkable Polymer-Peptide Hydrogel For Cell Delivery To The Intervertebral Disc In A Rat Model, Marcos N Barcellona, Julie E Speer, Liufang Jing, Deepanjali S Patil, Munish C Gupta, Jacob M Buchowski, Lori A Setton

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD) is associated with significant biochemical and morphological changes that include a loss of disc height, decreased water content and decreased cellularity. Cell delivery has been widely explored as a strategy to supplement the nucleus pulposus (NP) region of the degenerated IVD in both pre-clinical and clinical trials, using progenitor or primary cell sources. We previously demonstrated an ability for a polymer-peptide hydrogel, serving as a culture substrate, to promote adult NP cells to undergo a shift from a degenerative fibroblast-like state to a juvenile-like NP phenotype. In the current study, we evaluate the ability …

Differential Effects Of The Novel Neurosteroid Hypnotic (3Β,5Β,17Β)-3-Hydroxyandrostane-17-Carbonitrile On Electroencephalogram Activity In Male And Female Rats, Srdjan M Joksimovic, Dayalan Sampath, Kathiresan Krishnan, Douglas F Covey, Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, Yogendra H Raol, Slobodan M Todorovic

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: We recently showed that a neurosteroid analogue, (3β,5β,17β)-3-hydroxyandrostane-17-carbonitrile (3β-OH), induced hypnosis in rats. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hypnotic and anaesthetic potential of 3β-OH further using electroencephalography.

METHODS: We used behavioural assessment and cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) spectral power analysis to examine hypnotic and anaesthetic effects of 3β-OH (30 and 60 mg kg

RESULTS: We found dose-dependent sex differences in 3β-OH-induced hypnosis and EEG changes. Both male and female rats responded similarly to i.p. 3β-OH 30 mg kg

CONCLUSIONS: Based on its behavioural effects and EEG signature, 3β-OH is a potent hypnotic in rats, with …

Lung Epithelial Signaling Mediates Early Vaccine-Induced Cd4 + T Cell Activation And Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Control, Shibali Das, Nancy D Marin, Ekaterina Esaulova, Mushtaq Ahmed, Amanda Swain, Bruce A Rosa, Makedonka Mitreva, Javier Rangel-Moreno, Mihai G Netea, Luis B Barreiro, Maziar Divangahi, Maxim N Artyomov, Deepak Kaushal, Shabaana A Khader

Open Access Publications

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death due to a single infectious agent. The development of a TB vaccine that induces durable and effective immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (

Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Chimeras Expressing The Oropouche Virus Glycoproteins Elicit Protective Immune Responses In Mice, Sarah Hulsey Stubbs, Marjorie Cornejo Pontelli, Nischay Mishra, Changhong Zhou, Juliano De Paula Souza, Rosa Maria Mendes Viana, W Ian Lipkin, David M Knipe, Eurico Arruda, Sean P J Whelan

Open Access Publications

Oropouche virus (OROV) infection of humans is associated with a debilitating febrile illness that can progress to meningitis or encephalitis. First isolated from a forest worker in Trinidad and Tobago in 1955, the arbovirus OROV has since been detected throughout the Amazon basin with an estimated 500,000 human infections over 60 years. Like other members of the family

Critical Care Service Delivery Across Healthcare Systems In Low-Income And Low-Middle-Income Countries: Protocol For A Systematic Review, Andrew George Lim, Nicole Benzoni, Et Al

Open Access Publications

INTRODUCTION: Critical care in low-income and low-middle income countries (LLMICs) is an underdeveloped component of the healthcare system. Given the increasing growth in demand for critical care services in LLMICs, understanding the current capacity to provide critical care is imperative to inform policy on service expansion. Thus, our aim is to describe the provision of critical care in LLMICs with respect to patients, providers, location of care and services and interventions delivered.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will search PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science and EMBASE for full-text original research articles available in English describing critical care services that specify the location …

Sars-Cov-2 Infection Of The Pancreas Promotes Thrombofibrosis And Is Associated With New-Onset Diabetes, Mirza Muhammad Fahd Qadir, Manika Bhondeley, Wandy Beatty, Dina D Gaupp, Lara A Doyle-Meyers, Tracy Fischer, Ishitri Bandyopadhyay, Robert V Blair, Rudolf Bohm, Jay Rappaport, Eric Lazartigues, Richard S Vander Heide, Jay K Kolls, Xuebin Qin, Franck Mauvais-Jarvis

Open Access Publications

Evidence suggests an association between severe acute respiratory syndrome-cornavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the occurrence of new-onset diabetes. We examined pancreatic expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), the cell entry factors for SARS-CoV-2, using publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing data sets, and pancreatic tissue from control male and female nonhuman primates (NHPs) and humans. We also examined SARS-CoV-2 immunolocalization in pancreatic cells of SARS-CoV-2-infected NHPs and patients who had died from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We report expression of ACE2 in pancreatic islet, ductal, and endothelial cells in NHPs and humans. In pancreata from SARS-CoV-2-infected …

Evaluation Of Total Body Weight Versus Adjusted Body Weight Liposomal Amphotericin B Dosing In Obese Patients, Michelle H Ting, Andrej Spec, Scott T Micek, David J Ritchie, Tamara Krekel

Open Access Publications

Liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) is used for various fungal infections, but it is unclear which dosing weight to use in obese patients. The purpose of this study was to compare clinical outcomes of adjusted body weight (adjBW) versus total body weight (TBW) dosing of LAmB. This single-center, retrospective cohort study included patients who received LAmB for definitive therapy and whose TBW exceeded 120% of their ideal body weight (IBW). Analyses were conducted for 3 mg/kg for adjBW versus TBW and 5 mg/kg for adjBW versus TBW. A total of 238 patients were included. For the 68 patients who received LAmB …

Developing Methods To Detect And Diagnose Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy During Life: Rationale, Design, And Methodology For The Diagnose Cte Research Project, Michael L Alosco, Daniel S Marcus, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease that has been neuropathologically diagnosed in brain donors exposed to repetitive head impacts, including boxers and American football, soccer, ice hockey, and rugby players. CTE cannot yet be diagnosed during life. In December 2015, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded a seven-year grant (U01NS093334) to fund the "Diagnostics, Imaging, and Genetics Network for the Objective Study and Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (DIAGNOSE CTE) Research Project." The objectives of this multicenter project are to: develop in vivo fluid and neuroimaging biomarkers for CTE; characterize its clinical presentation; refine …

Modulation Of The Effects Of Class Ib Antiarrhythmics On Cardiac Nav1.5-Encoded Channels By Accessory Navβ Subunits, Wandi Zhu, Wei Wang, Paweorn Angsutararux, Rebecca L. Mellor, Lori L. Isom, Jeanne M. Nerbonne, Jonathan R. Silva

Open Access Publications

Native myocardial voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels function in macromolecular complexes comprising a pore-forming (α) subunit and multiple accessory proteins. Here, we investigated the impact of accessory NaVβ1 and NaVβ3 subunits on the functional effects of 2 well-known class Ib antiarrhythmics, lidocaine and ranolazine, on the predominant NaV channel α subunit, NaV1.5, expressed in the mammalian heart. We showed that both drugs stabilized the activated conformation of the voltage sensor of domain-III (DIII-VSD) in NaV1.5. In the presence of NaVβ1, the effect of lidocaine on the DIII-VSD was enhanced, whereas the effect of ranolazine was abolished. Mutating the main class Ib …

Taspase1 Orchestrates Fetal Liver Hematopoietic Stem Cell And Vertebrae Fates By Cleaving Tfiia, Hidetaka Niizuma, Adam C. Searleman, Shugaku Takeda, Scott A. Armstrong, Christopher Y. Park, Emily H. Cheng, James J. Hsieh

Open Access Publications

Taspase1, a highly conserved threonine protease encoded by TASP1, cleaves nuclear histone-modifying factors and basal transcription regulators to orchestrate diverse transcription programs. Hereditary loss-of-function mutation of TASP1 has recently been reported in humans as resulting in an anomaly complex syndrome, which manifests with hematological, facial, and skeletal abnormalities. Here, we demonstrate that Taspase1-mediated cleavage of TFIIAα-β, rather than of MLL1 or MLL2, in mouse embryos was required for proper fetal liver hematopoiesis and correct segmental identities of the axial skeleton. Homozygous genetic deletion of Taspase1 disrupted embryonic hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal and quiescence states and axial skeleton fates. Strikingly, mice …

Efficient Crispr/Cas9 Mutagenesis For Neurobehavioral Screening In Adult Zebrafish, Dana Shaw, Mayssa Mokalled

Open Access Publications

Adult zebrafish are widely used to interrogate mechanisms of disease development and tissue regeneration. Yet, the prospect of large-scale genetics in adult zebrafish has traditionally faced a host of biological and technical challenges, including inaccessibility of adult tissues to high-throughput phenotyping and the spatial and technical demands of adult husbandry. Here, we describe an experimental pipeline that combines high-efficiency CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis with functional phenotypic screening to identify genes required for spinal cord repair in adult zebrafish. Using CRISPR/Cas9 dual-guide ribonucleic proteins, we show selective and combinatorial mutagenesis of 17 genes at 28 target sites with efficiencies exceeding 85% in adult …

Das181 Treatment Of Severe Lower Respiratory Tract Parainfluenza Virus Infection In Immunocompromised Patients: A Phase 2 Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study, Roy F Chemaly, Francisco M Marty, Cameron R Wolfe, Steven J Lawrence, Sanjeet Dadwal, Rosemary Soave, Jason Farthing, Stephen Hawley, Paul Montanez, Jimmy Hwang, Jennifer Hui-Chun Ho, Stanley Lewis, George Wang, Michael Boeckh

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: There are no antiviral therapies for parainfluenza virus (PIV) infections. DAS181, a sialidase fusion protein, has demonstrated activity in in vitro and in animal models of PIV.

METHODS: Adult immunocompromised patients diagnosed with PIV lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) who required oxygen supplementation were randomized 2:1 to nebulized DAS181 (4.5 mg/day) or matching placebo for up to 10 days. Randomization was stratified by need for mechanical ventilation (MV) or supplemental oxygen (SO). The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients reaching clinical stability survival (CSS) defined as returning to room air (RTRA), normalization of vital signs for at least …

Modern Acinetobacter Baumannii Clinical Isolates Replicate Inside Spacious Vacuoles And Egress From Macrophages, Gabriela Sycz, Gisela Di Venanzio, Jesus S. Distel, Mariana G. Sartorio, Nguyen-Hung Le, Nichollas E. Scott, Wandy L. Beatty, Mario F. Feldman

Open Access Publications

Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections are increasing at alarming rates. Therefore, novel antibiotic-sparing treatments to combat these A. baumannii infections are urgently needed. The development of these interventions would benefit from a better understanding of this bacterium's pathobiology, which remains poorly understood. A. baumannii is regarded as an extracellular opportunistic pathogen. However, research on Acinetobacter has largely focused on common lab strains, such as ATCC 19606, that have been isolated several decades ago. These strains exhibit reduced virulence when compared to recently isolated clinical strains. In this work, we demonstrate that, unlike ATCC 19606, several modern A. baumannii clinical isolates, including …