Immunopathology Commons^™

Immunological Factors Associated With Siv/ Shiv Persistence In Diverse Tissue Niches, Omalla A. Olwenyi

Theses & Dissertations

The significant challenge towards a successful HIV cure lies in eradicating persistent viral reservoirs across diverse tissue niches. As a result, HIV-infected individuals have to resort to lifelong antiretroviral therapy. Recent news of supposed HIV eradication in a second patient has further re-invigorated the fields of HIV cure. However, a few barriers remain, such as the lack of currently available assays to accurately quantify viral reservoirs, limited information on cellular factors associated with persistence, and varied dynamics of the viral reservoir in various body compartments. Lastly, HIV-infected individuals live different lifestyles stemming from comorbid substance abuse including consumption of morphine, …

Role Of Gut Microbiome In Covid-19: An Insight Into Pathogenesis And Therapeutic Potential, Ikram Hussain, Gabriel Liu Yuan Cher, Muhammad Abbas Abid, Muhammad Bilal Abid

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulted in an unprecedented global crisis. Although primarily a respiratory illness, dysregulated immune responses may lead to multi-organ dysfunction. Prior data showed that the resident microbial communities of gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts act as modulators of local and systemic inflammatory activity (the gut-lung axis). Evolving evidence now signals an alteration in the gut microbiome, brought upon either by cytokines from the infected respiratory tract or from direct infection of the gut, or both. Dysbiosis leads to a "leaky gut". The intestinal permeability then allows access to …

Understanding The Effect Of Dietary Palmitic Acid On Glycolysis During Innate Immune Memory In Macrophages, Khaleda A. Aqaei

University Honors Theses

Trained immunity is long-term innate immune memory induced by a primary stimulus, which leads to hyper-inflammation upon secondary stimulation with a homologous or heterologous ligand. Trained immunity is mediated by epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming of the target cell and leads to modification of gene expression and cellular function. Classically, trained immunity is initiated by β-glucans, an inflammatory molecule found on the exterior of fungal species. Interestingly, our lab has recently described that dietary fatty acids can initiate trained immunity, working through similar pathways as β-glucans. Specifically, our data show that a pre-treatment with a specific dietary saturated fatty acid (SFA), …

Roles Of A Bradykinin Storm And A Cytokine Storm In Covid-19 Cases, Nouha H. Odeh

Honors College Theses

In the light of recent events, it is imperative to understand the key inflammatory response elements that appear to be the source of more severe ailments resulting from a SARS-CoV-2 viral infection known as Covid-19 The more severe cases of Covid-19 are characterized by a severe inflammatory response resulting in tissue damage. My research proposal aims to investigate the two possible culprits of this response: a bradykinin (BK) storm and an interleukin-6 (IL-6) mediated cytokine storm. In both systems respectively, the excess release of these signals subsequently signals the production of even more of the same response element, resulting in …

Development Of Vaccines And Antivirals Against Zika Virus, Aryamav Pattnaik

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The re-emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV), an arbovirus, poses a major global human health concern because of its ability to cause congenital abnormalities and neurological diseases. While many candidate vaccines and antiviral drugs are in the developmental pipeline, none have been approved for use against ZIKV infection. This dissertation describes the characterization of one vaccine and two antiviral drug candidates against ZIKV infection. A bacterial ferritin-based nanoparticle vaccine, termed zDIII-F, is designed to display multiple copies of ZIKV E protein domain III on its surface. These stable nanoparticles are shown to induce robust antibody-mediated protection against lethal ZIKV infection in …

An Investigation Of Healthcare Supports For Those With Food Allergy In Ireland, Joseph Bolger, Nicola Blake, Sneha Vinod

International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences

Introduction: In Ireland, around 5% of children and 3% adults have food allergy (134,000 people). This current paper describes a survey that was carried out on a subset of service-users with the aim of identifying whether there is a need for increased specialist medical services and/or for a funded charity such as Anaphylaxis Ireland, defunct since 2015.

Materials & Methods: These needs were assessed via an online survey using Google Forms. The survey was conducted from 17-27th February 2020. There were 31 questions in total, relating to topics such as symptoms, clinical wait times, satisfaction with care provided and demand …

Full Issue: The International Undergraduate Journal Of Health Sciences, Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2021, Iujhs Full Issue

International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences

The full June 2021 issue (Volume 1, Issue 1) of the International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences

Decline In Amphibian Health In Local Stream, Elyse Vetter, Elise Dearment, Colton Russell, Audrey Fontes, Lee Kats

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Many local streams of the Santa Monica Mountains are populated by the native California Newt, Taricha torosa, a species of special concern. Arroyo Sequit is one of these streams, the upper and lower portions of which are split by a culvert and the Mulholland Highway. This stream and the surrounding areas burned during the Woolsey fire of 2018. Since the fire, construction has been ongoing in and around the stream. Two years post-fire (during the summer of 2020) significantly more newts were found in the stream than years prior. A large proportion of these newts were unhealthy in appearance, …

A High-Throughput Approach To Characterizing Arv1 On The Regulation Of Lipid Homeostasis Uncovers A Novel Interaction With Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor, Nicholas Anthony Wachowski

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Acyl-CoA cholesterol acyl transferase related enzyme-2 required for viability 1 (ARV1) was first recognized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a study done in 2000 by Tinkelenberg et al. In yeast, the deletion of ARV1 results in numerous defects including abnormal sterol trafficking [1], the reduction of sphingolipid metabolism [2], synthesis of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor [3], ER stress [4], and hypersensitivity of fatty acids leading to lipoapoptosis [5]. Arv1 germline deletion in mice displayed a lean phenotype with increased energy [6]. In humans, ARV1 mutations lead to epileptic encephalopathy [7].

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) consists of simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis …

A General Pathological Outlook Of Covid-19, Shadman Shaikh

Honor’s College Freeman Research Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic has been expressed as one of the world’s most fatal pandemics in recent human history, and with good reason. At the time of this writing, over 125 million global cases have been confirmed, with a death toll rate sitting at 2.5 million. From the moment the pandemic was announced globally, the international scientific community sought out to analyze more about the virus in the hopes to find a cure. It should be imperative to analyze this virus in all aspects, including recent treatment efforts. Doing so will allow us to not only understand as to how this …

Ketogenic Diet As A Preventative Measure Or Treatment Option For Osteoarthritistargeting Nfl Athletes As A High-Risk Group, Kelsi J. Smith

Selected Honors Theses

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent joint disease that results from the degradation of articular cartilage, leading to inflammation, pain, and eventual joint failure. At one time, it was thought that OA was only the result of the natural decline experienced in old age; however, various risk factors have now been identified that may contribute to an increased risk for developing OA. Risk factors may include joint loading, altered biomechanics, obesity, and joint injury, to which athletes are exposed at a high rate. NFL athletes are one group of athletes that have continued to show a high prevalence of arthritis in …

Tetraspanins As Potential Therapeutic Candidates For Targeting Flaviviruses, Waqas Ahmed, Girish Neelakanta, Hameeda Sultana

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Tetraspanin family of proteins participates in numerous fundamental signaling pathways involved in viral transmission, virus-specific immunity, and virus-mediated vesicular trafficking. Studies in the identification of novel therapeutic candidates and strategies to target West Nile virus, dengue and Zika viruses are highly warranted due to the failure in development of vaccines. Recent evidences have shown that the widely distributed tetraspanin proteins may provide a platform for the development of novel therapeutic approaches. In this review, we discuss the diversified and important functions of tetraspanins in exosome/extracellular vesicle biology, virus-host interactions, virus-mediated vesicular trafficking, modulation of immune mechanism(s), and their possible role(s) …

Morphological Changes In Dorsal Root Ganglia Macrophages Associated With Neuropathic Pain Mechanisms Suggest A Novel Target For Chronic Pain Therapy, Emily Kussick

CMC Senior Theses

The present study examined morphological changes in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) following an innate immune stimulus. The importance of the DRG has increasingly become recognized in pain processing as more than just the home of primary afferent cell bodies. All sensory information passes through the DRG via the primary afferents, and on to the spinal cord. The primary afferents synapse with second-order neurons in the spinal cord that ascend towards the brain, where they transmit the pain signal to the limbic forebrain and/or the somatosensory cortex for processing. The DRG is an interesting niche to study at as it …