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Full-Text Articles in Immunology and Infectious Disease

Notch1 Modification And Signaling In T Helper Cell Differentiation, Karthik Chandiran Jul 2017

Notch1 Modification And Signaling In T Helper Cell Differentiation, Karthik Chandiran

Doctoral Dissertations

Notch signaling modulates the developmental program of multiple cell types. The cleaved intracellular region of the receptor possess the functional domain which influences T cell activation, proliferation and differentiation. However, in naïve CD4 T cells the mechanistic details underlying cleavage of Notch1 is not clearly understood. Notch functions by acting as a signaling hub and interacting with its canonical (CSL) and non-canonical (NFkB, mTOR, Akt) binding partners to cross-talk with other signaling pathways. Notch signaling drives the differentiation program of multiple T helper cell subsets (Th1, Th2, Th17, Th9, iTreg and TFH). Recent discoveries also demonstrated a role for microRNAs …


Migration Frustrations Of Mir-146a Regulation, Emma Baccus, Victoria Gahman, Hannah Phillips, Shannon Rappaport, Alyssa Reiter, Kaleb M. Pauley Apr 2017

Migration Frustrations Of Mir-146a Regulation, Emma Baccus, Victoria Gahman, Hannah Phillips, Shannon Rappaport, Alyssa Reiter, Kaleb M. Pauley

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

The autoimmune disease, Sjögren’s Syndrome (SS), causes the degradation of salivary and lacrimal glands due to an influx of immune cells. In previous studies, a significant increase in miR-146a was observed in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of SS patients. Since immune cell infiltration is critical in SS pathogenesis, the following research examines the effect of miR-146a on cell migration. We hypothesize that transfecting THP-1 human monocytes with synthetic miR-146a will downregulate migration of the monocytes based on other studies stating that miR-146a downregulates migration in vivo. In order to execute our experiment, we transfected THP-1 cells with synthetic miR-146a …


Effect Of Metformin On Mir-146a Expression, S. Jackson Grout, Bryce C. Macturk, Amanda D. Sims, Kaleb M. Pauley Apr 2017

Effect Of Metformin On Mir-146a Expression, S. Jackson Grout, Bryce C. Macturk, Amanda D. Sims, Kaleb M. Pauley

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Sjögren’s Syndrome (SjS) is an autoimmune disorder that affects secretory glands in the human body, restricting their function and causing extreme dryness in areas like the mouth and eyes. miR-146a is an anti-inflammatory microRNA that targets the NFκB activation pathway. Previous studies have shown that SjS patients have increased miR-146a expression, despite having high levels of inflammation. The objective of this study was to investigate whether metformin, a diabetes drug with a wide variety of effects and potential functions, reduces levels of miR-146a expression. Metformin is known to reduce inflammation by inhibiting the activation of NFκB. THP-1 human monocytes were …


Mir-146a Upregulation Of Phagocytosis In Human Macrophages, Ryan Marquardt, Daniel J. Stank, Kaleb M. Pauley Apr 2017

Mir-146a Upregulation Of Phagocytosis In Human Macrophages, Ryan Marquardt, Daniel J. Stank, Kaleb M. Pauley

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

Sjögrens Syndrome (SjS) is an autoimmune disease that attacks exocrine glands such as salivary and lacrimal glands resulting in severe dryness of the mouth and eyes. Previous studies have linked increased microRNA-146a (miR-146a) expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in SjS patients compared to healthy controls. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression, are known to play key regulatory roles in immune responses and have been implicated in a growing number of autoimmune disorders. Further investigation into the role of increased miR-146a expression in SjS revealed links to several immune functions including phagocytosis.Our goal was to …


A Novel Molecular Relationship Between Parn And Pld That, When Deregulated, Contributes To The Aggressive Phenotype Of Breast Cancer Cell Lines., Taylor Elaine Miller Jan 2017

A Novel Molecular Relationship Between Parn And Pld That, When Deregulated, Contributes To The Aggressive Phenotype Of Breast Cancer Cell Lines., Taylor Elaine Miller

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The removal of mRNA transcript poly(A) tails by 3'-5' exonucleases is the rate-limiting step for controlled mRNA decay in eukaryotes. Poly(A)-specific ribonuclease (PARN) is one such exonuclease that degrades poly(A) tails, and although its in vitro activity is well-characterized, PARN’s patho-physiological roles in the cell are not well understood. Prior studies have found a possible role for PARN in cancer, in that PARN expression levels in human breast cancer tissues are often decreased compared to normal control tissues. Indeed, data mined from the ONCOMINE cancer array database showed that PARN is downregulated in patient invasive breast carcinoma samples compared to …


Dnp63a Suppresses Cell Invasion By Targeting Rac1 Through Mir-320a, Amjad Ahmed Aljagthmi Jan 2017

Dnp63a Suppresses Cell Invasion By Targeting Rac1 Through Mir-320a, Amjad Ahmed Aljagthmi

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

DNp63a, a member of the p53 family of transcription factors, is overexpressed in a number of cancers and known to play a role in proliferation, differentiation, migration and invasion. DNp63a has been shown to regulate several microRNAs that play a role in both development and cancer, but to date there has not been a global analysis of p63- regulated miRNA. Using next-generation sequencing of small RNA from wild type and sip63 transfected HaCaT cells, our laboratory recently identified a number of DNp63a- regulated miRNAs by RNA-Seq studies which may serve as biomarkers of cancer progression. We identified a novel miRNA, …