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Measuring The Potential Impact Of Combination Hiv Prevention In Sub-Saharan Africa, Amin Khademi, Sunanth Anand, David Potts

Publications

A public health approach to combination HIV prevention is advocated to contain the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. We explore the implications of universal access to treatment along with HIV education scale-up in the region. We develop an HIV transmission model to investigate the impacts of universal access to treatment, as well as an analytical framework to estimate the effects of HIV education scale-up on the epidemic. We calibrate the model with data from South Africa and simulate the impacts of universal access to treatment along with HIV education scale-up on prevalence, incidence, and HIV-related deaths over a course of 15 …

Antimalarial Drug Discovery Using Triazoles To Overcome Chloroquine Resistance, Elias Sibhatu Tesfaselassie

Dissertations and Theses

Malaria is considered as one of the most prevalent and debilitating diseases affecting humans. Plasmodium falciparum is the most virulent form of the parasite which developed resistance to several antimalarial drugs. Chloroquine is one of the most successful antimalarials developed that is safe, effective, and cheap. However, its use has been limited due to the emergence of drug resistance. Click chemistry, particularly, the copper(I)-catalyzed reaction between azides and alkynes has shown to have a cutting-edge advantage in medicinal chemistry by its reliability, selectivity and biocompatibility.

Triazole-based antimalarials were synthesized via copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction by modifying the aliphatic chains terminal …

Preparation And Characterization Of Anti-Hiv Nanodrug Targeted To Microfold Cell Of Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue, Upal Roy, Hong Ding, Sudheesh Pilakka-Kanthikeel, Andrea D. Raymond, Venkata Atluri, Adriana Yndart, Elena M. Kaftanovskaya, Elena Batrakova, Marisela Agudelo, Madhavan Nair

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

The human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) still remains one of the leading life-threatening diseases in the world. The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy has significantly reduced disease morbidity and mortality. However, most of the drugs have variable penetrance into viral reservoir sites, including gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). Being the largest lymphoid organ, GALT plays a key role in early HIV infection and host–pathogen interaction. Many different treatment options have been proposed to eradicate the virus from GALT. However, it becomes difficult to deliver traditional drugs to the GALT because of its complex physiology. In this regard, we developed a …

The Depsipeptide Romidepsin Reverses Hiv-1 Latency In Vivo, Ole S. Søgaard, Mette E. Graversen, Steffen Leth, Rikke Olesen, Christel R. Brinkmann, Sara K. Nissen, Anne Sofie Kjaer, Mariane H. Schleimann, Paul W. Denton, William J. Hey-Cunningham, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Kim Krogsgaard, Maja Sommerfelt, Remi Fromentin, Nicolas Chomont, Thomas A. Rasmussen, Lars Østergaard, Martin Tolstrup

Biology Faculty Publications

Pharmacologically-induced activation of replication competent proviruses from latency in the presence of antiretroviral treatment (ART) has been proposed as a step towards curing HIV-1 infection. However, until now, approaches to reverse HIV-1 latency in humans have yielded mixed results. Here, we report a proof-of-concept phase Ib/IIa trial where 6 aviremic HIV-1 infected adults received intravenous 5 mg/m2 romidepsin (Celgene) once weekly for 3 weeks while maintaining ART. Lymphocyte histone H3 acetylation, a cellular measure of the pharmacodynamic response to romidepsin, increased rapidly (maximum fold range: 3.7–7.7 relative to baseline) within the first hours following each romidepsin administration. Concurrently, HIV-1 transcription …

Role Of Mrp Transporters In Regulating Antimicrobial Drug Inefficacy And Oxidative Stress-Induced Pathogenesis During Hiv-1 And Tb Infections, Upal Roy, Paul Barber, Yuk-Ching Tse-Dinh, Elena V. Batrakova, Debasis Mondal, Madhavan Nair

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Multi-Drug Resistance Proteins (MRPs) are members of the ATP binding cassette (ABC) drug-efflux transporter superfamily. MRPs are known to regulate the efficacy of a broad range of anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) used in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and antibacterial agents used in Tuberculus Bacilli (TB) therapy. Due to their role in efflux of glutathione (GSH) conjugated drugs, MRPs can also regulate cellular oxidative stress, which may contribute to both HIV and/or TB pathogenesis. This review focuses on the characteristics, functional expression, and modulation of known members of the MRP family in HIV infected cells exposed to ARV drugs and discusses …

Evaluation Of Soil As A Risk Indicator For Human Leptospirosis In Coastal, Rural Ecuador, Chad Allen Weddell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Leptospirosis, a zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic spirochete bacteria (family Leptospiraceae, genus Leptospira), is endemic in developing tropical regions of the world. It occurs in epidemics and is endemic in Ecuador where environmental conditions are ideal for maintenance. The role of soil as a long term reservoir has been previously been documented. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technology was used in our study to further explore the role of soil as an environmental reservoir and its potential use as a static risk indicator for disease. Red, Green, Blue (RGB) spectral band data from known leptospire …

Dead/Live Microbial Culture Technique, Michael Veri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New methodology has been utilized to provoke or increase targeted metabolic pathways in microbes. The low hanging fruit of natural products has been discovered over the last 50 years. To continue finding new metabolites to be used as possible drug candidates, methodology development such as those proposed herein are necessary. This methodology uses extracts from known pathogenic bacteria to elicit production of latent biosynthetic pathways from environmental bacterial isolates that may be active against the original pathogenic strains. A new compound, MAV-1 (1) of the diketopiperazine family (Figure 1) was isolated and identified utilizing these techniques. The structure of MAV-1 …

A Forward Genetic Screen Identifies Factors Associated With Fever Pathogenesis In Plasmodium Falciparum, Phaedra J. Thomas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Infectious diseases that spread from person-to-person and continent-to-continent are a cause for concern for any health entity. One such disease is malaria, a mosquito-borne infection instigated by the protozoan parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Hundreds of millions of people are affected annually and it is responsible for nearly 1 million deaths. It is the most fatal species causing malaria and proliferates in human red blood cells with a life cycle occurring every 48 hours. At this time, the parasite’s late stage form or schizont bursts from the erythrocyte releasing immune-inducing particles and infective forms (merozoites) into the bloodstream. The merozoites go …

Health-Related Quality Of Life And Positive Mental Health Indicators In Youth With Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Sim Yin Tan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a chronic health condition that is increasingly affecting both children and adolescents (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Although many studies have investigated the impact of HIV on cognitive, physical, academic, and psychosocial functioning, little is known about the self-perception of health-related quality of life, subjective well-being, social-emotional well-being, and psychopathology risks of youth who are infected with HIV. This study is one of first to examine the presence of these positive and negative health indicators and the relationship among these factors in youth with HIV and a community-based sample.

A total of 84 …

Effect Of Timely Treatment On Malaria Gametocytemia In Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Miguel Reina-Ortiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Malaria is a disease that causes great burden in public health worldwide. It was estimated that in 2011 there were 3.3 billion people at risk of acquiring malaria. According to data from the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador, malaria incidence has shown a 99.9% steady decrease since year 2000. This study evaluated the effect of timely treatment on circulating gametocyte and malaria incidence rates. All cases reported in the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador from July 2012 to March 2015 and to the national headquarters between February 2012 and December 2014 were studied. The effect of early treatment on: 1) …

Assessment Of Soil Transmitted Helminth Infection (Sthi) In School Children, Risk Factors, Interactions And Environmental Control In El Salvador., Sharad Suryakant Malavade

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background:

Soil transmitted helminth infections (STHI) are important Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). The three main STHI are infections with Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms. STHI have a significant effect on the growth and development of children. A national survey for STHI in El Salvador by Pan American Health Organization and Ministry of Health in 2012 in school children aged 8years to 10 years. The survey collected data on age, gender, behavioral habits, and source of drinking water, type of toilet facility used and ecological zone of residence.

A) We did an analyses of the data with an aim to …

Guanidinyl-Substituted Polyamides Useful For Treating Human Papilloma Virus, James Bashkin, Terri G. Edwards, Christopher Fisher, George D. Harris, Kevin J. Koeller

UMSL Patents

Polyamide compositions containing guanidinyl radicals, including tetramethylguanidinyl radicals, are described. These polyamides are useful for medical applications, for example, for treating human papilloma virus infections.

For the most up-to-date information about these patents, including the availability of Certificates of Correction, be sure to check the United States Patent and Trademark Office's free, publicly accessible database: Patent Public Search https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/landing.html

Hpv.Edu Study Protocol: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Evaluation Of Education, Decisional Support And Logistical Strategies In School-Based Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Vaccination Of Adolescents, S. Rachel Skinner, Cristyn Davies, Spring Cooper, Tanya Stoney, Helen Marshall, Jane Jones, Joanne Collins, Heidi Hutton, Adriana Parrella, Gregory Zimet, David G. Regan, Patti Whyte, Julia M. L. Brotherton, Peter Richmond, Kirsten Mccaffrey, Suzanne M. Garland, Julie Leask, Melissa Kang, Annette Braunack-Mayer, John Kaldor

Publications and Research

Background The National Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Program in Australia commenced in 2007 for females and in 2013 for males, using the quadrivalent HPV vaccine (HPV 6,11,16,18). Thus far, we have demonstrated very substantial reductions in genital warts and in the prevalence of HPV among young Australian women, providing early evidence for the success of this public health initiative. Australia has a long history of school-based vaccination programs for adolescents, with comparatively high coverage. However, it is not clear what factors promote success in a school vaccination program. The HPV.edu study aims to examine: 1) student knowledge about HPV vaccination; …

Metazoan Endoparasites Of The Gray Fox, Urocyon Cinereoargenteus From New Mexico, John E. Ubelaker, Bretton S. Griffin, Genevieve M. Konicke, Nora Abdullah, Aya Mouhaffel, Donald W. Duszynski, Robert L. Harrison

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

Metazoan gastrointestinal endoparasites were recovered from 10 of 14 (71.4%) gray foxes [Urocyon cinereoargenteus (Schreber, 1775)] collected in New Mexico from 1996 -1998. They include a pentastome Porocephalus sp., (n=1, 7.1%), a trematode: Fasciola hepatica Linnaeus, 1758 (n=1, 7.1%), the nematodes: Physaloptera rara Hall and Wigdor, 1918 (n=3, 14.3%), Physaloptera praeputialis Linstow, 1899 (n=2, 14.3%), an unidentified female Physaloptera sp. (n=1, 7.1%), Toxocara mystax (Zeder, 1800) (n=2, 14.3%), Toxocara canis (Werner, 1782) (n=1, 7.1%), Spirocerca lupi (Rudolphi, 1809) (n=6, 42.9%), and cestodes: Taenia pisiformis (Bloch, 1780) n=3, n=3, (21.4%), Taenia serialis (Gervais, 1847) (n=3, 21.4%), and Mesocestoides …

Towards A New Global Strategy For Women’S, Children’S And Adolescents’ Health, Marleen Temmerman, Rajat Khosla, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Flavia Bustreo

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

The year 2015 marks a defining moment for the health of women, children, and adolescents. It is the end point of the United Nations’ millennium development goals, and their transition to the sustainable development goals, and also the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development’s plan of action and the Beijing Declaration and platform of action.

This is a moment of reflection as well as celebration. Although great strides have been made in reducing maternal and child mortality, showing that change is possible, many countries are lagging behind in reaching millennium development goal 4 (to reduce the …

The Invasive American Weed Parthenium Hysterophorus Can Negatively Impact Malaria Control In Africa, Vincent O. Nyasembe, Xavier Cheseto, Fatma Kaplan, Woodbridge A. Foster, Peter E.A. Teal, James H. Tumlinson, Christian Borgemeister, Baldwyn Torto

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The direct negative effects of invasive plant species on agriculture and biodiversity are well known, but their indirect effects on human health, and particularly their interactions with disease-transmitting vectors, remains poorly explored. This study sought to investigate the impact of the invasive Neotropical weed Parthenium hysterophorus and its toxins on the survival and energy reserves of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. In this study, we compared the fitness of An. gambiae fed on three differentially attractive mosquito host plants and their major toxins; the highly aggressive invasive Neotropical weed Parthenium hysterophorus (Asteraceae) in East Africa and two other adapted weeds, …

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - September 13, 2015, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the September 13, 2015 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's Newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include:

USA Center for Lung Biology Hosts Lung Bowl

USA Health System Participates in Heart Walk

USA Physician Receives Honor From Alma Mater

USA Welcomes Dr. Om Prakash Jha

Sept. 17 DSS to Feature Dr. Janice Endsley

A Pairwise Likelihood Augmented Estimator For The Cox Model Under Left-Truncation, Fan Wu, Sehee Kim, Jing Qin, Rajiv Saran, Yi Li

The University of Michigan Department of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Survival data collected from prevalent cohorts are subject to left-truncation and the analysis is challenging. Conditional approaches for left-truncated data under the Cox model are inefficient as they typically ignore the information in the marginal likelihood of the truncation times. Length-biased sampling methods can improve the estimation efficiency but only when the stationarity assumption of the disease incidence holds, i.e., the truncation distribution is uniform; otherwise they may generate biased estimates. In this paper, we propose a semi-parametric method for the Cox model under general left-truncation, where the truncation distribution is unspecified. Our approach is to make inference based on …

Ebola Virus Infection: Overview And Update On Prevention And Treatment, Miguel J. Martínez, Abdulbaset M. Salim, Juan C. Hurtado, Paul E. Kilgore

Department of Pharmacy Practice

In 2014 and 2015, the largest Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in history affected large populations across West Africa. The goal of this report is to provide an update on the epidemic and review current progress in the development, evaluation and deployment of prevention and treatment strategies for EVD. Relevant information was identified through a comprehensive literature search using Medline, PubMed and CINAHL Complete and using the search terms Ebola, Ebola virus disease, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, West Africa outbreak, Ebola transmission, Ebola symptoms and signs, Ebola diagnosis, Ebola treatment, vaccines for Ebola and clinical trials on Ebola. Through 22 July …

Epidemiology News, Georgia Southern University

Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Environmental Health Sciences: News & Publications (2011-2018)

• Georgia Southern Examines Social Media Reactions
• Georgia Southern Alumni as ASPPH/CDC Allan Rosenfield Fellow

Public Health Surveillance Using Electronic Health Records: Rising Potential To Advance Public Health, Guthrie S. Birkhead, Michael Klompas, Md Mph, Nirav R. Shah

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Background: Public health surveillance has traditionally relied on manual processes including paper-based reporting by clinicians. The introduction of electronic laboratory reporting increased the efficiency and completeness of infectious disease surveillance but clinical and risk factor data are often still collected manually. The use of electronic health records (EHR) has significant promise to enrich surveillance by collecting these data automatically and by expanding surveillance to chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, obesity). However, the extent of the use of EHRs for public surveillance is not well studied.

Evidence Acquisition: The peer-reviewed medical literature was searched for descriptions of the use of EHRs …

Designing A State-Of-The-Science, Accredited, Commercially-Successful Biorepository Utilizing Iso:9001(2008) Quality Management System Requirements To Construct The Framework, Kimberly S. Gonzalez

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The research community relies upon biorepositories’ ability to prepare for the scientific advancement that can precipitate the discoveries of the future. Furthermore, as the complexities, financial pressure, and quality issues biorepositories face continue to unfold, it is imperative to explore unmet needs researchers may have for biorepository services as well as evaluate the commercial potential, funding, and competitiveness of a new biorepository. With the goal of contributing to medical and scientific research and the biorepository field, this paper utilizes principles from ISO 9001:2008 “Quality management systems- Requirements” to outline and explore the challenges in establishing a state-of-the-science, accredited, commercial BSL-2 …

Differential Expression Of Mrna Encoding Cytokines And Chemokines In The Reproductive Tract After Infection Of Mice With Chlamydia Trachomatis, Katheryn L. Cerny, Maranda Van Fleet, Anatoly Slepenkin, Ellena M. Peterson, Phillip J. Bridges

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Infection with Chlamydia trachomatis targets epithelial cells within the genital tract which respond by secreting chemokines and cytokines. Persistent inflammation can lead to fibrosis, tubal infertility and/or ectopic pregnancy; many infections are asymptomatic. Most studies have investigated the inflammatory response in the initial stages of infection, less is known about the later stages of infection, especially with a low, potentially asymptomatic, bacterial load. Our objective was to determine the inflammatory mediators involved in clearance of low-grade infection and the potential involvement in chronic inflammation. Six to eight week old C3H/HeJ mice were pretreated with 2.5 mg medroxyprogesterone acetate on day …

On Partial Identification Of The Pure Direct Effect, Caleb Miles, Phyllis Kanki, Seema Meloni, Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Dissecting Tumor Metabolic Heterogeneity: Telomerase And Large Cell Size Metabolically Define A Sub-Population Of Stem-Like, Mitochondrial-Rich, Cancer Cells., Rebecca Lamb, Bela Ozsvari, Gloria Bonuccelli, Duncan L Smith, Richard Pestell, Ubaldo E. Martinez-Outshoorn, Md, Robert B Clarke, Federica Sotgia, Michael P Lisanti

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Tumor cell metabolic heterogeneity is thought to contribute to tumor recurrence, distant metastasis and chemo-resistance in cancer patients, driving poor clinical outcome. To better understand tumor metabolic heterogeneity, here we used the MCF7 breast cancer line as a model system to metabolically fractionate a cancer cell population. First, MCF7 cells were stably transfected with an hTERT-promoter construct driving GFP expression, as a surrogate marker of telomerase transcriptional activity. To enrich for immortal stem-like cancer cells, MCF7 cells expressing the highest levels of GFP (top 5%) were then isolated by FACS analysis. Notably, hTERT-GFP(+) MCF7 cells were significantly more efficient at …

Vancomycin Dosing Considerations In A Real-World Cohort Of Obese And Extremely Obese Patients, Haley J. Morrill, R. Caffrey, Eunsun Noh, Kerry L. Laplante

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Study Objective:

To compare the effects of empiric vancomycin dosing regimens on attainment of optimal target trough concentrations in obese (body mass index [BMI] 30–40 kg/m²) and extremely obese (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m²) patients.

Design:

Retrospective cohort study.

Data Source:

National Veterans Affairs standardized databases.

Patients:

A total of 263 obese and 71 extremely obese (actual body weight range 72–244 kg in both groups) inpatients from all Veterans Affairs facilities nationally who had suspected methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia and were treated with vancomycin between 2002 and 2012.

Measurements and Main Results:

Patients with steady-state trough concentrations …

Histological And Histochemical Studies Of Esophagus In Mabuya Aurata Septemaeniata, Anam S. Khalaf, Gazwa D. Al-Nakeeb

Baghdad Science Journal

The wall of the esophagus in Mabuya aurata septemaeniata as in high vertebrates consists of four layers, mucosa, submucosa,muscularis and serosa. Mucosa forms many unorganized short and long folds penetrate inside the esophageal cavity. Mucosa contains two sub layers, first one is lining epithelium which includes two types of cells, simple ciliated columnar epithelial cells and goblet cells, second one is lamina properia. Mucosa does not have muscularis mucosa. There is no esophageal glands within esophagus. Many special stains were used as (Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS)) to detect Carbohydrates in goblet cells. Alcian blue were used to detect the amount …

Characterizing Ebola Transmission Patterns Based On Internet News Reports., J. C. Cleaton, Cecile Viboud, Lone Simonsen, A. M. Hurtado, G. Chowell

Global Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:  Detailed information on patient exposure, contact patterns, and discharge status, is rarely available in real time from traditional surveillance systems in the context of an emerging infectious disease outbreak. Here we validate the systematic collection of Internet news reports to characterize epidemiological patterns of Ebola virus disease (EVD) infections during the West African 2014-2015 outbreak.

METHODS:  Based on 58 news reports, we analyzed a total of 79 EVD clusters (286 cases) of size ranging from 1 to 33 cases between January 2014 and February 2015 in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:  The great majority of reported …

Relationships Between Cancer Pattern, Country Income And Geographical Region In Asia., Chirk Jenn Ng, Chin Hai Teo, Nurdiana Abdullah, Wei Phin Tan, Hui Meng Tan

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Cancer incidence and mortality varies across region, sex and country's economic status. While most studies focused on global trends, this study aimed to describe and analyse cancer incidence and mortality in Asia, focusing on cancer site, sex, region and income status.

METHODS: Age-standardised incidence and mortality rates of cancer were extracted from the GLOBOCAN 2012 database. Cancer mortality to incidence ratios (MIRs) were calculated to represent cancer survival. The data were analysed based on the four regions in Asia and income.

RESULTS: Cancer incidence rate is lower in Asia compared to the West but for MIR, it is the …

The Role Of Perlecan And Endorepellin In The Control Of Tumor Angiogenesis And Endothelial Cell Autophagy., Stephen Douglass, Atul Goyal, Renato V. Iozzo

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

During tumor growth and angiogenesis there is a dynamic remodeling of tissue architecture often accompanied by the release of extracellular matrix constituents full of biological activity. One of the key constituents of the tumor microenvironment is the large heparan sulfate proteoglycan perlecan. This proteoglycan, strategically located at cell surfaces and within basement membranes, is a well-defined pro-angiogenic molecule when intact. However, when partially processed by proteases released during cancer remodeling and invasion, the C-terminal fragment of perlecan, known as endorepellin, has opposite effects than its parent molecule. Endorepellin is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis by exerting a dual receptor antagonism …