Immunology of Infectious Disease Commons^™

Peppermint Oil Effects On The Gut Microbiome In Children With Functional Abdominal Pain, Santosh Thapa, Ruth Ann Luna, Bruno P Chumpitazi, Numan Oezguen, Susan M Abdel-Rahman, Uttam Garg, Salma Musaad, James Versalovic, Gregory L Kearns, Robert J Shulman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Peppermint oil (PMO) is effective in the treatment of functional abdominal pain disorders, but its mechanism of action is unclear. Evidence suggests PMO has microbicidal activity. We investigated the effect of three different doses of PMO on gut microbiome composition. Thirty children (7-12 years of age) with functional abdominal pain provided a baseline stool sample prior to randomization to 180, 360, or 540 mg of enteric coated PMO (10 participants per dose). They took their respective dose of PMO (180 mg once, 180 mg twice, or 180 mg thrice daily) for 1 week, after which the stool collection was repeated. …

Sars-Cov-2 Anti-Spike Antibodies After Vaccination In Pediatric Heart Transplantation: A First Report, Joseph A Spinner, Christopher L Julien, Lily Olayinka, William J Dreyer, Claire E Bocchini, Flor M Munoz, Sridevi Devaraj

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data regarding the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in children after solid organ transplant.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the SARS-CoV-2 Anti-Spike IgG antibodies measured following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination at our pediatric heart transplant (HTx) center.

RESULTS: Among patients (median age 17.1 years) in whom antibody testing was performed (median 118 days post-vaccine completion), a SARS-CoV-2 Anti-Spike IgG antibody was detected in 28 of 40 (70%) post-HTx recipients (median antibody level 10.9 AU/ml). Neutropenia, diabetes mellitus, and previous use of rituximab were associated with absence of a detectable antibody. All 7 post-HTx patients with a …

Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Commonly Failed In Children With Co-Morbidities, Richard Kellermayer, Qinglong Wu, Dorottya Nagy-Szakal, Karen Queliza, Faith D Ihekweazu, Claire E Bocchini, Abria R Magee, Numan Oezguen, Jennifer K Spinler, Emily B Hollister, Robert J Shulman, James Versalovic, Ruth Ann Luna, Tor C Savidge

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is arguably the most effective treatment for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). Clinical reports on pediatric FMT have not systematically evaluated microbiome restoration in patients with co-morbidities. Here, we determined whether FMT recipient age and underlying co-morbidity influenced clinical outcomes and microbiome restoration when treated from shared fecal donor sources.

METHODS: Eighteen rCDI patients participating in a single-center, open-label prospective cohort study received fecal preparation from a self-designated (single case) or two universal donors. Twelve age-matched healthy children and four pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) cases from an independent serial FMT trial, but with a shared …

Reduced Pro-Inflammatory Dendritic Cell Phenotypes Are A Potential Indicator Of Successful Peanut Oral Immunotherapy, Sara Anvari, Levi B Watkin, Charles G Minard, Kimberly Schuster, Oluwatomi Hassan, Aikaterini Anagnostou, Jordan S Orange, David B Corry, Carla M Davis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Dendritic cells are important mediators in the early presentation of antigen and regulation of the differentiation of T cells. Peanut oral immunotherapy (POIT) results in desensitization in most peanut allergic individuals (responders), but not in others due to allergic reactions (non-responders). Delineation of early immunologic changes contributing to desensitization would help clarify the POIT mechanism of action. We analyzed dendritic cells in 15 pediatric subjects (5-12 years) undergoing a phase 1 single-center POIT study. We examined dendritic cells at baseline, 6-, 12-, 18- and 24-weeks after initiation of POIT and responders of therapy were compared to non-responders and healthy controls. …

Urine Alcam, Pf4 And Vcam-1 Surpass Conventional Metrics In Identifying Nephritis Disease Activity In Childhood-Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Samar A Soliman, Anam Haque, Kamala Vanarsa, Ting Zhang, Faten Ismail, Kyung Hyun Lee, Claudia Pedroza, Larry A Greenbaum, Sherene Mason, M John Hicks, Scott E Wenderfer, Chandra Mohan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Serial kidney biopsy for repeat evaluation and monitoring of lupus nephritis (LN) in childhood-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (cSLE) remains challenging, thus non-invasive biomarkers are needed. Here, we evaluate the performance of ten urine protein markers of diverse nature including cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules in distinguishing disease activity in cSLE.

METHODS: Eighty-four pediatric patients meeting ≥4 ACR criteria for SLE were prospectively enrolled for urine assay of 10 protein markers normalized to urine creatinine, namely ALCAM, cystatin-C, hemopexin, KIM-1, MCP-1, NGAL, PF-4, Timp-1, TWEAK, and VCAM-1 by ELISA. Samples from active renal (LN) and active non-renal SLE patients were …

Crispr/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing Reveals 12 Testis-Enriched Genes Dispensable For Male Fertility In Mice, Yuki Oyama, Haruhiko Miyata, Keisuke Shimada, Yoshitaka Fujihara, Keizo Tokuhiro, Thomas X Garcia, Martin M Matzuk, Masahito Ikawa

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Gene expression analyses suggest that more than 1000-2000 genes are expressed predominantly in mouse and human testes. Although functional analyses of hundreds of these genes have been performed, there are still many testis-enriched genes whose functions remain unexplored. Analyzing gene function using knockout (KO) mice is a powerful tool to discern if the gene of interest is essential for sperm formation, function, and male fertility in vivo. In this study, we generated KO mice for 12 testis-enriched genes, 1700057G04Rik, 4921539E11Rik, 4930558C23Rik, Cby2, Ldhal6b, Rasef, Slc25a2, Slc25a41, Smim8, Smim9, Tmem210, and Tomm20l, using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats /CRISPR-associated …

Extended-Spectrum Antiprotozoal Bumped Kinase Inhibitors: A Review, Wesley C. Van Voorhis, J. Stone Doggett, Marilyn Parsons, Matthew A. Hulverson, Ryan Choi, Samuel L. M. Arnold, Michael W. Riggs, Andrew Hemphill, Daniel K. Howe, Robert H. Mealey, Audrey O. T. Lau, Ethan A. Merritt, Dustin J. Maly, Erkang Fan, Kayode K. Ojo

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Many life-cycle processes in parasites are regulated by protein phosphorylation. Hence, disruption of essential protein kinase function has been explored for therapy of parasitic diseases. However, the difficulty of inhibiting parasite protein kinases to the exclusion of host orthologues poses a practical challenge. A possible path around this difficulty is the use of bumped kinase inhibitors for targeting calcium dependent protein kinases that contain atypically small gatekeeper residues and are crucial for pathogenic apicomplexan parasites’ survival and proliferation. In this review, we review efficacy against the kinase target, the parasite growth in vitro, and in animal infection models, as well …