Pathogenic Microbiology Commons^™

Crispr Technology As An Antiviral In Dsdna And Ssrna Viruses, Cathryn Mayes

Theses & Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the necessity of emergency response and pandemic preparedness, especially for emerging viral threats. Currently, virus-specific vaccines and antivirals are the primary tools to combat viral diseases; however, broad-spectrum antivirals that target more than one virus species could provide additional protection from emerging and re-emerging viral diseases (Andersen et al. 2020; Zhu et al. 2015; Hickman et al. 2022).

Clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-associated endonucleases have become recently utilized as potential antiviral strategies due to their high specificity, efficacy, and versatility (Najafi et al. 2022). While CRISPR-based antivirals have previously been used to target specific …

Comparison Of The Humoral Immune Response Following Both Bacterial Challenge And Rnai Of Major Factors On Proliferation Of Bartonella Quintana In The Human Louse, Jake Zina

Masters Theses

Human body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus, and head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis, have been hematophagous ectoparasites of humans for thousands of years. Despite being ecotypes, only body lice are known to transmit bacterial diseases to humans, and it appears that lower humoral and cellular immune responses allow body lice to possess a higher vector competence. We previously observed that the transcription level of the defensin 1 gene was up-regulated only in head lice following oral challenge of Bartonella quintana, a causative agent of trench fever, and also that body lice excreted more viable B. quintana in their …

Investigating Host Defenses Of North American Salamanders Against The Recently Emerged Chytrid Pathogen, Batrachochytrium Salamandrivorans, Kenzie Pereira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A recently emerged chytrid fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) threatens salamander biodiversity. Bsal susceptibility varies between and within salamander species, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying these differences. Susceptibility is likely influenced by numerous interacting factors, but my dissertation studied the role of host immune responses.

My first aim investigated between species differences by studying the bioactive properties of salamander skin peptides against Bsal and the related pathogen, B. dendrobatidis (Bd). Skin peptides were collected from five salamander species, used for in vitro assays, and analyzed by RP-HPLC. While skin peptides from one …

Genomic Analysis Of Metabolic Differences Found In Clostridium Perfringens That Cause Necrotic Enteritis In Poultry, Connor Aylor

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

Clostridium perfringens is a common member of gut microbiota in healthy animals, but can also be an important pathogen in human and veterinary medicine. It produces several protein toxins that contribute to both histotoxic and enteric diseases in animals. Necrotic enteritis in poultry has been associated with the NetB toxin of C. perfringens; however, this toxin alone is insufficient to cause disease in infected chickens. While considerable research has focused on the presence of toxins and virulence factors, little has been done to assess the function of metabolic factors on the ability of the bacteria to cause disease. In …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Efficacy Of Various Essential Oils Against The Sars Cov-2 Virus, Elizabeth Wagstaff, Chandrelyn Kraczek, Jack Brandon Lopez

Annual Research Symposium

A poster presentation and abstract for the Roseman Symposium. The project focuses on testing 3 essential oil blends and two disinfectants containing an essential oil blend against SARS CoV-2 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project procedure involves plaque assays, disinfection, and neutralization techniques.