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Uni Schedule Of Classes: Policies And Procedures, Fall 2023, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Schedule of Classes

A listing and schedule of the courses being taught as well as policies and procedures concerning attending classes at the University of Northern Iowa.

Pd-1 Blockade In Combination With Dasatinib Potentiates Induction Of Anti-Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia Immunity, Paul Koller, Natalia Baran, Karine Harutyunyan, Antonio Cavazos, Saradhi Mallampati, Renee L Chin, Zhou Jiang, Xian Sun, Heng-Huan Lee, Jennifer L Hsu, Patrick Williams, Xuelin Huang, Michael A Curran, Mien-Chie Hung, Marina Konopleva

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immunotherapy, in the form of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), has been part of the standard of care in the treatment of acute leukemia for over 40 years. Trials evaluating novel immunotherapeutic approaches, such as targeting the programmed death-1 (PD-1) pathway, have unfortunately not yielded comparable results to those seen in solid tumors. Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins are cell surface proteins essential for the adaptive immune system to recognize self versus non-self. MHC typing is used to determine donor compatibility when evaluating patients for HSCT. Recently, loss of MHC class II (MHC II) was shown to be a mechanism …

Basic: A Bayesian Adaptive Synthetic-Control Design For Phase Ii Clinical Trials, Liyun Jiang, Peter F Thall, Fangrong Yan, Scott Kopetz, Ying Yuan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard for evaluating experimental treatments but often require large sample sizes. Single-arm trials require smaller sample sizes but are subject to bias when using historical control data for comparative inferences. This article presents a Bayesian adaptive synthetic-control design that exploits historical control data to create a hybrid of a single-arm trial and a randomized controlled trial.

Methods: The Bayesian adaptive synthetic control design has two stages. In stage 1, a prespecified number of patients are enrolled in a single arm given the experimental treatment. Based on the stage 1 data, applying propensity …

Bayesian Approach For Design And Analysis Of Medical Device Trials In The Era Of Modern Clinical Studies, Han Cao, Chen Yao, Ying Yuan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Medical device technology develops rapidly, and the life cycle of a medical device is much shorter than drugs. It is necessary to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a medical device in a timely manner to keep up with technology flux. Bayesian methods provides an efficient approach to addressing this challenge. In this article, we review the characteristics of the Bayesian approach and some Bayesian designs that were commonly used in medical device regulatory setting, including Bayesian adaptive design, Bayesian diagnostic design, Bayesian multiregional design, and Bayesian label expansion study. We illustrate these designs with medical devices approved by the …

Single-Cell Dissection Of Tumor Microenvironmental Response And Resistance To Cancer Therapy, Yikai Luo, Han Liang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cancer treatment strategies have evolved significantly over the years, with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy as major pillars. Each modality leads to unique treatment outcomes by interacting with the tumor microenvironment (TME), which imposes a fundamental selective pressure on cancer progression. The advent of single-cell profiling technologies has revolutionized our understanding of the intricate and heterogeneous nature of the TME at an unprecedented resolution. This review delves into the commonalities and differential manifestations of how cancer therapies reshape the microenvironment in diverse cancer types. We highlight how groundbreaking immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) strategies alone or in combination with tumor-targeting treatments …

Local Continual Reassessment Methods For Dose Finding And Optimization In Drug-Combination Trials, Jingyi Zhang, Fangrong Yan, Nolan A Wages, Ruitao Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Due to the limited sample size and large dose exploration space, obtaining a desirable dose combination is a challenging task in the early development of combination treatments for cancer patients. Most existing designs for optimizing the dose combination are model-based, requiring significant efforts to elicit parameters or prior distributions. Model-based designs also rely on intensive model calibration and may yield unstable performance in the case of model misspecification or sparse data. We propose to employ local, underparameterized models for dose exploration to reduce the hurdle of model calibration and enhance the design robustness. Building upon the framework of the partial …

Kunitz-Type Protease Inhibitor Tfpi2 Remodels Stemness And Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment In Glioblastoma, Lizhi Pang, Madeline Dunterman, Songlin Guo, Fatima Khan, Yang Liu, Erfan Taefi, Atousa Bahrami, Changiz Geula, Wen-Hao Hsu, Craig Horbinski, Charles David James, Peiwen Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Glioblastoma (GBM) tumors consist of multiple cell populations, including self-renewing glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) and immunosuppressive microglia. Here we identified Kunitz-type protease inhibitor TFPI2 as a critical factor connecting these cell populations and their associated GBM hallmarks of stemness and immunosuppression. TFPI2 promotes GSC self-renewal and tumor growth via activation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT)3 pathway. Secreted TFPI2 interacts with its functional receptor CD51 on microglia to trigger the infiltration and immunosuppressive polarization of microglia through activation of STAT6 signaling. Inhibition of the TFPI2-CD51-STAT6 signaling axis activates T cells and synergizes with anti-PD1 therapy …

Nuclear Receptors As Potential Therapeutic Targets In Peripheral Arterial Disease And Related Myopathy, Ashok Kumar, Vihang A Narkar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a prevalent cardiovascular complication of limb vascular insufficiency, causing ischemic injury, mitochondrial metabolic damage and functional impairment in the skeletal muscle, and ultimately leading to immobility and mortality. While potential therapies have been mostly focussed on revascularization, none of the currently available pharmacological treatments are fully effective in PAD, often leading to amputations, particularly in chronic metabolic diseases. One major limitation of focussed angiogenesis and revascularization as a therapeutic strategy is a limited effect on metabolic restoration and muscle regeneration in the affected limb. Therefore, additional preclinical investigations are needed to discover novel treatment options …

Controversy And Consensus On The Management Of Elevated Sperm Dna Fragmentation In Male Infertility: A Global Survey, Current Guidelines, And Expert Recommendations, Ala'a Farkouh, Ashok Agarwal, Taha Abo-Almagd Abdel-Meguid Hamoda, Parviz Kavoussi, Ramadan Saleh, Armand Zini, Mohamed Arafa, Ahmed M Harraz, Murat Gul, Vilvapathy Senguttuvan Karthikeyan, Damayanthi Durairajanayagam, Amarnath Rambhatla, Florence Boitrelle, Eric Chung, Ponco Birowo, Tuncay Toprak, Ramy Abou Ghayda, Rossella Cannarella, Nguyen Ho Vinh Phuoc, Fotios Dimitriadis, Giorgio I Russo, Ioannis Sokolakis, Taymour Mostafa, Konstantinos Makarounis, Imad Ziouziou, Shinnosuke Kuroda, Marion Bendayan, Raneen Sawaid Kaiyal, Andrian Japari, Mara Simopoulou, Lucia Rocco, Nicolas Garrido, Nazim Gherabi, Kadir Bocu, Oguzhan Kahraman, Tan V Le, Christine Wyns, Kelton Tremellen, Selcuk Sarikaya, Sheena Lewis, Donald P Evenson, Edmund Ko, Aldo E Calogero, Fahmi Bahar, Marlon Martinez, Andrea Crafa, Quang Nguyen, Rafael F Ambar, Giovanni Colpi, Mustafa Emre Bakircioglu, Ralf Henkel, Hussein Kandil, Ege Can Serefoglu, Abdullah Alarbid, Akira Tsujimura, Alireza Kheradmand, Christina Anagnostopoulou, Angelo Marino, Aram Adamyan, Birute Zilaitiene, Cevahir Ozer, Edoardo Pescatori, Paraskevi Vogiatzi, Gian Maria Busetto, Giancarlo Balercia, Haitham Elbardisi, Hamed Akhavizadegan, Hesamoddin Sajadi, Hisanori Taniguchi, Hyun Jun Park, Israel Maldonado Rosas, Mohamed Al-Marhoon, Mohammad Ali Sadighi Gilani, Naif Alhathal, Germar-Michael Pinggera, Priyank Kothari, Nasser Mogharabian, Sava Micic, Sheryl Homa, Sara Darbandi, Tran Quang Tien Long, Wael Zohdy, Widi Atmoko, Marjan Sabbaghian, Wael Ibrahim, Ryan P Smith, Christopher Chee Kong Ho, Jean De La Rosette, Ahmed I El-Sakka, Mirko Preto, Cătălina Zenoaga-Barbăroșie, Saad Mohammed Abumelha, Aykut Baser, Kaan Aydos, Liliana Ramirez-Dominguez, Vijay Kumar, Teng Aik Ong, Tiago Cesar Mierzwa, Ricky Adriansjah, Saleem A Banihani, Kasonde Bowa, Shinichiro Fukuhara, Marcelo Rodriguez Peña, Mohamad Moussa, Umut Çağın Ari, Chak-Lam Cho, Nicholas N Tadros, Muhammet Rasit Ugur, Edouard Amar, Marco Falcone, Frederic Romain Santer, Arif Kalkanli, Keshab Kumar Karna, Kareim Khalafalla, Ranjit B Vishwakarma, Federica Finocchi, Carlo Giulioni, Erman Ceyhan, Gökhan Çeker, Chadi Yazbeck, Osvaldo Rajmil, Mehmet Yilmaz, Baris Altay, Trenton L Barrett, Kay Seong Ngoo, Shubhadeep Roychoudhury, Gianmaria Salvio, Haocheng Lin, Ates Kadioglu, Massimiliano Timpano, Tomer Avidor-Reiss, Lukman Hakim, Puneet Sindhwani, Giorgio Franco, Rajender Singh, Filippo Giacone, Mikhail Ruzaev, Raghavender Kosgi, Nikolaos Sofikitis, Ayad Palani, Gokhan Calik, Deniz Kulaksız, Davor Jezek, Manaf Al Hashmi, Panagiotis Drakopoulos, Huda Omran, Sofia Leonardi, Ciler Celik-Ozenci, Nur Dokuzeylül Güngör, Jonathan Ramsay, Toshiyasu Amano, Emrullah Sogutdelen, Gede Wirya Kusuma Duarsa, Koji Chiba, Sunil Jindal, Missy Savira, Luca Boeri, Edson Borges, Deepak Gupte, Fatih Gokalp, Guadalupe Hernández Hebrard, Suks Minhas, Rupin Shah, Global Andrology Forum

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) has been associated with male infertility and poor outcomes of assisted reproductive technology (ART). The purpose of this study was to investigate global practices related to the management of elevated SDF in infertile men, summarize the relevant professional society recommendations, and provide expert recommendations for managing this condition.

Materials and methods: An online global survey on clinical practices related to SDF was disseminated to reproductive clinicians, according to the CHERRIES checklist criteria. Management protocols for various conditions associated with SDF were captured and compared to the relevant recommendations in professional society guidelines and the appropriate …

Cancer Germline Predisposing Variants And Late Mortality From Subsequent Malignant Neoplasms Among Long-Term Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Report From The St Jude Lifetime Cohort And The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, Cheng Chen, Na Qin, Mingjuan Wang, Qian Dong, Saima Sultana Tithi, Yawei Hui, Wenan Chen, Gang Wu, Dennis Kennetz, Michael N Edmonson, Michael C Rusch, Andrew Thrasher, John Easton, Heather L Mulder, Nan Song, Noel-Marie Plonski, Kyla Shelton, Cindy Im, Matthew J Ehrhardt, Kim E Nichols, Wendy M Leisenring, Kayla L Stratton, Rebecca Howell, Yutaka Yasui, Smita Bhatia, Gregory T Armstrong, Kirsten K Ness, Melissa M Hudson, Jinghui Zhang, Hui Wang, Deo Kumar Srivastava, Leslie L Robison, Zhaoming Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Carriers of cancer predisposing variants are at an increased risk of developing subsequent malignant neoplasms among those who have survived childhood cancer. We aimed to investigate whether cancer predisposing variants contribute to the risk of subsequent malignant neoplasm-related late mortality (5 years or more after diagnosis).

Methods: In this analysis, data were included from two retrospective cohort studies, St Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE) and the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), with prospective follow-up of patients who were alive for at least 5 years after diagnosis with childhood cancer (ie, long-term childhood cancer survivors) with corresponding germline whole genome or …

Craniofacial Features Of Polr3-Related Leukodystrophy Caused By Biallelic Variants In Polr3a, Polr3b And Polr1c, Amytice Mirchi, Simon-Pierre Guay, Luan T. Tran, Nicole I. Wolf, Adeline Vanderver, Bernard Brais, Michel Sylvain, Daniela Pohl, Elsa Rossignol, Michael Saito, Sebastien Moutton, Luis González-Gutiérrez-Solana, Isabelle Thiffault, Michael C. Kruer, Dolores Gonzales Moron, Marcelo Kauffman, Cyril Goizet, László Sztriha, Emma Glamuzina, Serge B. Melançon, Sakkubai Naidu, Jean-Marc Retrouvey, Suzanne Lacombe, Beatriz Bernardino-Cuesta, Isabelle De Bie, Geneviève Bernard

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: RNA polymerase III-related or 4H leukodystrophy (POLR3-HLD) is an autosomal recessive hypomyelinating leukodystrophy characterized by neurological dysfunction, hypodontia and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. The disease is caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in POLR3A, POLR3B, POLR1C or POLR3K. Craniofacial abnormalities reminiscent of Treacher Collins syndrome have been originally described in patients with POLR3-HLD caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in POLR1C. To date, no published studies have appraised in detail the craniofacial features of patients with POLR3-HLD. In this work, the specific craniofacial characteristics of patients with POLR3-HLD associated with biallelic pathogenic variants in POLR3A, POLR3B and POLR1C …

Batf Is Required For Treg Homeostasis And Stability To Prevent Autoimmune Pathology., Achia Khatun, Xiaopeng Wu, Qi Fu, Kexin Gai, Arjun Kharel, Matthew R. Kudek, Lisa Fraser, Ashley Ceicko, Moujtaba Y. Kasmani, Amber Majnik, Robert Burns, Yi-Guang Chen, Nita Salzman, Elizabeth J. Taparowsky, Dayu Fang, Calvin B. Williams, Weiguo Cui

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Regulatory T (Treg) cells are inevitable to prevent deleterious immune responses to self and commensal microorganisms. Treg function requires continuous expression of the transcription factor (TF) FOXP3 and is divided into two major subsets: resting (rTregs) and activated (aTregs). Continuous T cell receptor (TCR) signaling plays a vital role in the differentiation of aTregs from their resting state, and in their immune homeostasis. The process by which Tregs differentiate, adapt tissue specificity, and maintain stable phenotypic expression at the transcriptional level is still inconclusivei. In this work, the role of BATF is investigated, which is induced in response to TCR …

The Impact Of Pediatric Ckd On Educational And Employment Outcomes., Lyndsay A. Harshman, Ryan C. Ward, Matthew B. Matheson, Anne Dawson, Amy J. Kogon, Marc B. Lande, Stephen J. Molitor, Rebecca J. Johnson, Camille Wilson, Bradley A. Warady, Susan L. Furth, Stephen R. Hooper

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

KEY POINTS: This study evaluates educational and employment outcomes in patients with pediatric kidney disease and assesses predictors of educational attainment and employment in young adulthood. Despite high rates of high school graduation, nearly 20% of patients with CKD are unemployed or receiving disability at long-term follow-up.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric patients with CKD are at risk for neurocognitive deficits and academic underachievement. This population may be at risk for lower educational attainment and higher rates of unemployment; however, published data have focused on patients with advanced CKD and exist in isolation from assessment of neurocognition and kidney function.

METHODS: Data from …

Joint Vestibular Schwannoma Enlargement Prediction And Segmentation Using A Deep Multi-Task Model, Kai Wang, Nicholas A George-Jones, Liyuan Chen, Jacob B Hunter, Jing Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To develop a deep-learning-based multi-task (DMT) model for joint tumor enlargement prediction (TEP) and automatic tumor segmentation (TS) for vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients using their initial diagnostic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (ceT1) magnetic resonance images (MRIs).

Methods: Initial ceT1 MRIs for VS patients meeting the inclusion/exclusion criteria of this study were retrospectively collected. VSs on the initial MRIs and their first follow-up scans were manually contoured. Tumor volume and enlargement ratio were measured based on expert contours. A DMT model was constructed for jointly TS and TEP. The manually segmented VS volume on the initial scan and the tumor enlargement label …

Clinical And Biological Significance Of Circulating Mirnas In Chronic Pancreatitis Patients Undergoing Total Pancreatectomy With Islet Autotransplantation, Srividya Vasu, Giovanna Saracino, Carly M Darden, Kenjiro Kumano, Yang Liu, Michael C Lawrence, Bashoo Naziruddin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Specific microRNAs (miRNAs) were elevated in chronic pancreatitis (CP) patients during islet infusion after total pancreatectomy (TPIAT). We aimed to identify circulating miRNA signatures of pancreatic damage, predict miRNA-mRNA networks to identify potential links to CP pathogenesis and identify islet isolation and transplantation functional outcomes.

Methods: Small RNA sequencing was performed to identify distinct circulating miRNA signatures in CP. Plasma miRNAs were measured using miRCURY LNA SYBR green quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. Correlation analyses were performed using R software. The miRNA target and disease interactions were determined using miRNet and the miRNA enrichment and annotation tool.

Results: …

Dynamics Of The Dynll1-Mre11 Complex Regulate Dna End Resection And Recruitment Of Shieldin To Dsbs, Michelle L Swift, Rui Zhou, Aleem Syed, Lisa A Moreau, Bartłomiej Tomasik, John A Tainer, Panagiotis A Konstantinopoulos, Alan D D'Andrea, Yizhou Joseph He, Dipanjan Chowdhury

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The extent and efficacy of DNA end resection at DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) determine the repair pathway choice. Here we describe how the 53BP1-associated protein DYNLL1 works in tandem with the Shieldin complex to protect DNA ends. DYNLL1 is recruited to DSBs by 53BP1, where it limits end resection by binding and disrupting the MRE11 dimer. The Shieldin complex is recruited to a fraction of 53BP1-positive DSBs hours after DYNLL1, predominantly in G1 cells. Shieldin localization to DSBs depends on MRE11 activity and is regulated by the interaction of DYNLL1 with MRE11. BRCA1-deficient cells rendered resistant to PARP inhibitors by …

The Concise Guide To Pharmacology 2023/24: Enzymes, Stephen P H Alexander, Doriano Fabbro, Eamonn Kelly, Alistair A Mathie, John A Peters, Emma L Veale, Jane F Armstrong, Elena Faccenda, Simon D Harding, Jamie A Davies, Stephanie Annett, Detlev Boison, Kathryn Elisa Burns, Carmen Dessauer, Jurg Gertsch, Nuala Ann Helsby, Angelo A Izzo, Rennolds Ostrom, Andreas Papapetropoulos, Nigel J Pyne, Susan Pyne, Tracy Robson, Roland Seifert, Johannes-Peter Stasch, Csaba Szabo, Mario Van Der Stelt, Albert Van Der Vliet, Val Watts, Szu Shen Wong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2023/24 is the sixth in this series of biennial publications. The Concise Guide provides concise overviews, mostly in tabular format, of the key properties of approximately 1800 drug targets, and about 6000 interactions with about 3900 ligands. There is an emphasis on selective pharmacology (where available), plus links to the open access knowledgebase source of drug targets and their ligands (www.guidetopharmacology.org), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. Although the Concise Guide constitutes almost 500 pages, the material presented is substantially reduced compared to information and links presented on the website. It …

International Association For The Study Of Lung Cancer Study Of Reproducibility In Assessment Of Pathologic Response In Resected Lung Cancers After Neoadjuvant Therapy, Sanja Dacic, William Travis, Mary Redman, Anjali Saqi, Wendy A Cooper, Alain Borczuk, Jin-Haeng Chung, Carolyn Glass, Javier Martin Lopez, Anja C Roden, Lynette Sholl, Annikka Weissferdt, Juan Posadas, Angela Walker, Hu Zhu, Manuja T Wijeratne, Casey Connolly, Murry Wynes, Neus Bota-Rabassedas, Beatriz Sanchez-Espiridion, J Jack Lee, Sabina Berezowska, Teh-Ying Chou, Keith Kerr, Andrew Nicholson, Claudia Poleri, Kurt A Schalper, Ming-Sound Tsao, David P Carbone, Neal Ready, Tina Cascone, John Heymach, Boris Sepesi, Catherine Shu, Naiyer Rizvi, Josuha Sonett, Nasser Altorki, Mariano Provencio, Paul A Bunn, Mark G Kris, Chandra P Belani, Karen Kelly, Ignacio Wistuba

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Pathologic response has been proposed as an early clinical trial end point of survival after neoadjuvant treatment in clinical trials of NSCLC. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) published recommendations for pathologic evaluation of resected lung cancers after neoadjuvant therapy. The aim of this study was to assess pathologic response interobserver reproducibility using IASLC criteria.

Methods: An international panel of 11 pulmonary pathologists reviewed hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides from the lung tumors of resected NSCLC from 84 patients who received neoadjuvant immune checkpoint inhibitors in six clinical trials. Pathologic response was assessed for percent viable …

Kras G12c In Advanced Nsclc: Prevalence, Co-Mutations, And Testing, Tony Kiat Hon Lim, Ferdinandos Skoulidis, Keith M Kerr, Myung-Ju Ahn, Joshua R Kapp, Fernando A Soares, Yasushi Yatabe

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

KRAS is the most commonly mutated oncogene in advanced, non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Western countries. Of the various KRAS mutants, KRAS G12C is the most common variant (~40%), representing 10-13% of advanced non-squamous NSCLC. Recent regulatory approvals of the KRASG12C-selective inhibitors sotorasib and adagrasib for patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC harboring KRASG12C have transformed KRAS into a druggable target. In this review, we explore the evolving role of KRAS from a prognostic to a predictive biomarker in advanced NSCLC, discussing KRAS G12C biology, real-world prevalence, clinical relevance of co-mutations, and approaches to molecular testing. Real-world evidence …

Advances In Vaccine Development For Cancer Prevention And Treatment In Lynch Syndrome, Ana M Bolivar, Fahriye Duzagac, Krishna M Sinha, Eduardo Vilar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Lynch Syndrome (LS) is one of the most common hereditary cancer syndromes, and is caused by mutations in one of the four DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes, namely MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2. Tumors developed by LS carriers display high levels of microsatellite instability, which leads to the accumulation of large numbers of mutations, among which frameshift insertion/deletions (indels) within microsatellite (MS) loci are the most common. As a result, MMR-deficient (MMRd) cells generate increased rates of tumor-specific neoantigens (neoAgs) that can be recognized by the immune system to activate cancer cell killing. In this context, LS is an ideal …

Evaluation Of The Natural History Of Disease By Combining Incident And Prevalent Cohorts: Application To The Nun Study, Daewoo Pak, Jing Ning, Richard J Kryscio, Yu Shen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Nun study is a well-known longitudinal epidemiology study of aging and dementia that recruited elderly nuns who were not yet diagnosed with dementia (i.e., incident cohort) and who had dementia prior to entry (i.e., prevalent cohort). In such a natural history of disease study, multistate modeling of the combined data from both incident and prevalent cohorts is desirable to improve the efficiency of inference. While important, the multistate modeling approaches for the combined data have been scarcely used in practice because prevalent samples do not provide the exact date of disease onset and do not represent the target population …

Cytosolic Dna Accumulation Promotes Breast Cancer Immunogenicity Via A Sting-Independent Pathway, Jing Zhang, Hui Dai, Lei Huo, Jared K Burks, Daniel J Mcgrail, Shiaw-Yih Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized cancer treatment. However, ICB alone has demonstrated only benefit in a small subset of patients with breast cancer. Recent studies have shown that agents targeting DNA damage response improve the efficacy of ICB and promote cytosolic DNA accumulation. However, recent clinical trials have shown that these agents are associated with hematological toxicities. More effective therapeutic strategies are urgently needed.

METHODS: Primary triple negative breast cancer tumors were stained for cytosolic single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) using multiplex immunohistochemical staining. To increase cytosolic ssDNA, we genetically silenced TREX1. The role of tumor cytosolic ssDNA in promoting …

Anchors: A Way For Ftsz Filaments To Stay Membrane Bound, Arindam Naha, Daniel P Haeusser, William Margolin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Most bacteria use the tubulin homolog FtsZ to organize their cell division. FtsZ polymers initially assemble into mobile complexes that circle around a ring-like structure at the cell midpoint, followed by the recruitment of other proteins that will constrict the cytoplasmic membrane and synthesize septal peptidoglycan to divide the cell. Despite the need for FtsZ polymers to associate with the membrane, FtsZ lacks intrinsic membrane binding ability. Consequently, FtsZ polymers have evolved to interact with the membrane through adaptor proteins that both bind FtsZ and the membrane. Here, we discuss recent progress in understanding the functions of these FtsZ membrane …

Preclinical Development Of 1b7/Cd3, A Novel Anti-Tslpr Bispecific Antibody That Targets Crlf2-Rearranged Ph-Like B-All, Ze Tian, Chunhua Shi, Guojun Yang, Jason K Allen, Qing Shi, Amin Al-Shami, Jill Wardell Olson, Melinda G Smith, Qing Chang, Jasbir Kaur, Junping You, Timothy E Lofton, Michelle A Gonzalez, Qi Zhang, Dongxing Zha, Sarah K Tasian, Nitin Jain, Marina Y Konopleva, Timothy Heffernan, Jeffrey J Molldrem

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Patients harboring CRLF2-rearranged B-lineage acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) face a 5-year survival rate as low as 20%. While significant gains have been made to position targeted therapies for B-ALL treatment, continued efforts are needed to develop therapeutic options with improved duration of response. Here, first we have demonstrated that patients with CRLF2-rearranged Ph-like ALL harbor elevated thymic stromal lymphopoietin receptor (TSLPR) expression, which is comparable with CD19. Then we present and evaluate the anti-tumor characteristics of 1B7/CD3, a novel CD3-redirecting bispecific antibody (BsAb) that co-targets TSLPR. In vitro, 1B7/CD3 exhibits optimal binding to both human and cynomolgus CD3 and TSLPR. …

Innately Expressed Estrogen-Related Receptors In The Skeletal Muscle Are Indispensable For Exercise Fitness, Ashok Kumar, Vihang A Narkar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a prevalent cardiovascular complication of limb vascular insufficiency, causing ischemic injury, mitochondrial metabolic damage and functional impairment in the skeletal muscle, and ultimately leading to immobility and mortality. While potential therapies have been mostly focussed on revascularization, none of the currently available pharmacological treatments are fully effective in PAD, often leading to amputations, particularly in chronic metabolic diseases. One major limitation of focussed angiogenesis and revascularization as a therapeutic strategy is a limited effect on metabolic restoration and muscle regeneration in the affected limb. Therefore, additional preclinical investigations are needed to discover novel treatment options …

Automated Cellular-Level Dual Global Fusion Of Whole-Slide Imaging For Lung Adenocarcinoma Prognosis, Songhui Diao, Pingjun Chen, Eman Showkatian, Rukhmini Bandyopadhyay, Frank R Rojas, Bo Zhu, Lingzhi Hong, Muhammad Aminu, Maliazurina B Saad, Morteza Salehjahromi, Amgad Muneer, Sheeba J Sujit, Carmen Behrens, Don L Gibbons, John V Heymach, Neda Kalhor, Ignacio I Wistuba, Luisa M Solis Soto, Jianjun Zhang, Wenjian Qin, Jia Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Histopathologic whole-slide images (WSI) are generally considered the gold standard for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Survival prediction based on WSI has recently attracted substantial attention. Nevertheless, it remains a central challenge owing to the inherent difficulties of predicting patient prognosis and effectively extracting informative survival-specific representations from WSI with highly compounded gigapixels. In this study, we present a fully automated cellular-level dual global fusion pipeline for survival prediction. Specifically, the proposed method first describes the composition of different cell populations on WSI. Then, it generates dimension-reduced WSI-embedded maps, allowing for efficient investigation of the tumor microenvironment. In addition, we introduce …

Nuclear Smooth Muscle Α-Actin Participates In Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Differentiation, Callie S Kwartler, Albert J Pedroza, Anita Kaw, Pujun Guan, Shuangtao Ma, Xue-Yan Duan, Caroline Kernell, Charis Wang, Jose Emiliano Esparza Pinelo, Mikayla S Borthwick Bowen, Jiyuan Chen, Yuan Zhong, Sanjay Sinha, Xuetong Shen, Michael P Fischbein, Dianna M Milewicz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Missense variants throughout ACTA2, encoding smooth muscle α-actin (αSMA), predispose to adult-onset thoracic aortic disease, but variants disrupting arginine 179 (R179) lead to Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome (SMDS) characterized by diverse childhood-onset vascular diseases. Here we show that αSMA localizes to the nucleus in wildtype (WT) smooth muscle cells (SMCs), enriches in the nucleus with SMC differentiation, and associates with chromatin remodeling complexes and SMC contractile gene promotors. The ACTA2 p.R179 αSMA variant shows decreased nuclear localization. Primary SMCs from Acta2SMC-R179C/+ mice are less differentiated than WT SMCs in vitro and in vivo and have global changes in …

The Advocate (Fall 2023), Lewis & Clark Law School

The Advocate

No abstract provided.

Renal Cell Carcinoma Of Variant Histology: Biology And Therapies, Pavlos Msaouel, Giannicola Genovese, Nizar M Tannir

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The term variant histology renal cell carcinomas (vhRCCs), also known as non-clear cell RCCs, refers to a diverse group of malignancies with distinct biologic and therapeutic considerations. The management of vhRCC subtypes is often based on extrapolating results from the more common clear cell RCC studies or basket trials that are not specific to each histology. The unique management of each vhRCC subtype necessitates accurate pathologic diagnosis and dedicated research efforts. Herein, we discuss tailored recommendations for each vhRCC histology informed by ongoing research and clinical experience.

A Translational Blueprint For Developing Intraoperative Imaging Agents Via Radiopharmaceutical-Guided Drug Design, Teresa E Sullivan, Servando Hernandez Vargas, Sukhen C Ghosh, Solmaz Aghaamiri, Naruhiko Ikoma, Ali Azhdarinia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cancer imaging is a rapidly evolving field due to the discovery of novel molecular targets and the availability of corresponding techniques to detect them with high precision, accuracy, and sensitivity. Nuclear medicine is the most widely used molecular imaging modality and has a growing toolkit of clinically used radiopharmaceuticals that enable whole-body tumor visualization, staging, and treatment monitoring for a variety of tumors in a non-invasive manner. The need for similar imaging capabilities in the operating room has led to the emergence of fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) as a powerful technique that gives surgeons unprecedented ability to distinguish tumors from healthy …