Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health Commons^™

In Vitro Pharmacological Evaluation Of Novel Cmpi Derivatives As Selective Positive Allosteric Modulators Of The Alpha4 Beta2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor, Josue Gaona, Nataly Sanchez, Wilder Felix, Nathalia Menegasso, Brisa Cea, Ganesh Thakur, Ayman K. Hamouda

School of Medicine Student Publications and Presentations

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) contribute to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), where degeneration of dopaminergic and cholinergic neurons disrupts neurotransmission. The (α4)₃(β2)₂ nAChR subtype is expressed on affected neuronal populations and represents a promising therapeutic target. Positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) may enhance receptor function while preserving endogenous signaling. We evaluated chemical derivatives of CMPI [3-(2-chlorophenyl)-5-(5-methyl-1-(piperidin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)isoxazol] as selective PAMs of (α4)₃(β2)₂ nAChRs. Two-electrode voltage-clamp recordings were performed in Xenopus laevis oocytes expressing defined receptor stoichiometries to assess potentiation and generate dose–response curves. Cytotoxicity was assessed in HEK cells using the MTT assay. Substitutions at the pyrazole …

Trophic Structure And Mercury Bioaccumulation In Walleye And Yellow Perch In The Upper And Lower Red Lake Basins, Marissa Pribyl

Biology Graduate Theses

Mercury is a persistent global contaminant that biomagnifies through aquatic food webs, with dietary and environmental factors serving as the primary drivers of accumulation in fishes. Trophic structure and methylmercury dynamics in Walleye (ogaa; Sander vitreus) and Yellow Perch (asaawens; Perca flavescens) were investigated in the Upper and Lower Red Lake basins in Red Lake, Minnesota, during 2024-2025. Diets of Walleye and Yellow Perch were assessed through stomach dissections, and tissue samples from both species were analyzed for total mercury concentrations. Additional analyses included shiners (gigoozens; Notropis spp., Hudsonius spp.) along with a variety of freshwater fish and …

Comparison Of Analytical Techniques From The Extraction Of Bioactive Compounds From Kratom, Curry, Ginger, And Turmeric, Riley Bruno

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Plants, herbs, and spices have been used as medicines for thousands of years. Early civilizations often attributed healing properties of plants to magical or divine forces. However, as chemistry and analytical technology advanced between the 16th and 18th centuries, scientists began to understand that bioactive compounds within the plants actually caused these effects. Today, natural products remain extremely important in drug discovery. As the number of newly developed synthetic drugs declines, there has been renewed interest in identifying biologically active molecules from plants. Bioactive molecules are a group of diverse chemical compounds that stimulate a response in living tissues. The …

Conditioned Feed Aversion As A Means Of Conditioning Livestock To Avoid Consuming Toxic Plants Growing In South Africa : An Overview, Leendert D. Snyman, Frederick D. Provenza

Poisonous Plant Research (PPR)

Significant economic losses to the livestock industry are caused by the ingestion of toxic plants in South Africa, among which the most dangerous ones are Moraea pallida (geeltulp), Urginea/Drimea sanguinea (rooislangkop), Senecio latifolius (Staggers Ragwort), and Geigeria ornativa (vermeerbos). Conditioned feed aversion is a potential means to address this issue. Treating animals with an aversive substance along with an extract of the sensory characteristics of a specific plant conditions animals to avoid the plant. Geigeria ornativa, unlike the other three plants, is non-aversive. Following treatment for aversion, the induced aversion fades with time and eventually breaks down. Continuous exposure …

Rare Presentation Of Omental Tuberculosis With Drug-Induced Jaundice In A Teenage Female: A Case Report, Archana Venkatesan, Krishna Ravi

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Omental tuberculosis (TB) is a rare form of abdominal TB, often presenting with nonspecific symptoms that mimic malignancies. We report a case of a 16-year-old female from India who presented with abdominal distension, vomiting, weight loss, and amenorrhea. Imaging revealed an abdominal mass, and a diagnosis of omental TB was confirmed via histopathology. This case highlights the diagnostic challenge posed by such atypical presentations, especially in TB-endemic regions. The patient also developed rifampicin-induced jaundice, which resolved upon drug cessation and supportive care. Anti-TB therapy was cautiously reintroduced at a modified dose. This report underscores the need for high clinical suspicion, …

Analysis Of Active Ingredients In Medicinal Herbs With High-Performance Liquid Chromatography And Related Technologies: A Review, T.-H. Tsai, C.-Y. Hong, C.-F. Chen

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

An increasing number of analytical techniques have been brought to bear on the herbal drugs used in traditional Chinese medicine. This in turn has led to improved quality control of medicinal herbs, ingredient stability and shelf-life tests, ensurement of the concentrations of herbal drug ingredients in biological fluids, and pharmacokinetic studies. In the past decades, gas chromatography has been the method of choice for the analysis of volatile compounds, while liquid chromatography is a highly successful separation technique for nonvolatile molecules. Recently, high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with various column and detection systems have become some of the most important techniques …

Analysis Of Activated Carbon Fiber (Acf) As Particulate Filtration And Volatile Organic Compound (Voc) Media For The Development Of A Dual-Air Purifying Facepiece Respirator, Brie Mcmahan

ETDs from 2020-2029

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in occupational or public settings poses adverse health outcomes such as respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, neurological, carcinogenic morbidity and mortality. Many occupational settings expose workers to PM and VOC concurrently, yet most commercially available respirators are designed to address either particulates or vapors alone. This includes air-purifying respirators (APRs), powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs), and filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) with nuisance-level vapor protection, often limited by bulk, discomfort, high pressure drop, and misuse. We identified a need for alternative dual-exposure media and a respiratory protection device that is lighter, and more comfortable …

Temporal Variation Of Benthic Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Communities In Two Upland Intermittent Streams In The Boston Mountains, R. J. Mccollough, K. B. Hecke

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Benthic aquatic macroinvertebrates are some of the most highly used organisms for biomonitoring and assessing stream health. However, biomonitoring is often done in one season, potentially missing important taxa and inaccurately reflecting the community as well as stream health. In addition, while road crossing effects have also been extensively researched the last few decades, these studies are also often conducted in one season, likely misrepresenting the community structure and the overall effects of the road crossing. The highly known River Continuum Concept (RCC) is often applied to these benthic aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. This study aimed to examine aquatic macroinvertebrate communities …

Feeding Performance And Survival Of Louisiana Poeciliid Fishes Exposed To Residential Wastewater Effluent, Jonathan Chapman

Masters Theses

Mosquitoes are a primary transmitter of vector-borne disease, and their larvae can thrive within shallow pools of stagnant water. Rainwater drainage ditches are a common sight in many communities, and in Louisiana, they are dually used as outlets for onsite residential wastewater discharge in neighborhoods disassociated from municipal sewage treatment. However, when discharge systems malfunction, the water becomes uninhabitable to mosquito predators, allowing mosquitoes to thrive. This research examines the predation performance of mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna), and least killifish (Heterandria formosa), the primary biological control agents utilized to combat mosquitoes within ditch communities. Individuals were captured …

Anticancer Efficacy Of Methyl-Cantharidimide (Mca) In Liver Cancer, Yidong Li

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is still one of the major public health challenges worldwide to the present day. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) that occurs in cancer chemotherapies is a non-negligible cause of cancer treatment failure and tumor recurrence. Overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters is one of the most frequent mechanisms of MDR occurrence. Therefore, the establishment of a chemotherapy agent whose anticancer efficacy would not be affected by the overexpression of ABC transporters is in demand. Methyl-cantharidimide (MCA), a cantharidin (CTD) analog, has been approved in China for clinical liver cancer treatment. This study revealed that MCA was efficacious in the ABCB1-, ABCG2-mediated …

Evaluation Of Pulmonary Toxicity To Inhaled Erbium Oxide Nanoparticles In Golden Syrian Hamsters, Randy Liang

Theses and Dissertations

Erbium oxide nanoparticles (Er2O3 NPs) are used in various products from simple pottery to semiconductors and such usage leads to an elevated risk of accidental occupational exposure. In the present study, the pulmonary toxicity of Er2O3 NPs was assessed by examining tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from the lungs of Golden Syrian Hamsters following inhalation exposure. The study’s goal was to determine the severity and mechanism of toxicity upon exposure to inhaled Er2O3 NPs. Animals were divided into 4 groups all being exposed for 4 hours a day for 8 days: Group-1: room air, Group-2: vehicle control (water), Group-3: …

Evaluation Of The Mechanism Of Cell Death After Exposure To Amorphous Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles In Rat Pleural Mesothelial Cells And Golden Syrian Hamsters, Rachel P. Renda

Theses and Dissertations

Amorphous Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) are widely used in the industrial processes, chemical, and cosmetics industries. Amorphous SiO2 NPs are abundant in the earth’s crust and can be released into the air through industrial and manufacturing activities. Such particles are overlooked and not as commonly studied when compared to their crystalline counterpart. Amorphous SiO2 NPs are pulmonary toxicants; however, the mechanism of toxicity is uncertain. In the current study, toxicity was assessed using both in vitro and in vivo systems to understand a possible mechanism of cell death. Rat Pleural Mesothelial Cells (RPMCs) were exposed to 50-800 μg/ml SiO2 …

When Words Flow Like Water: How The Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Environmental Impact Statement Failed To Prevent Hydrogeologic Harm In Minnesota, Carly Gutzmann

Journal of Earth and Life Science

For the aquifers of Minnesota, the environmental impact statement (EIS) was a promise of protection that never left the page. An environmental impact statement is meant to be an aid in the decision making process in order to ensure that projects consider potential environmental harms that may occur. However, they are often used instead as another regulatory box to check, rather than as active considerations when planning. As such, a project plan can be flawed from the start—if project developers only consider environmental impacts after they have already put considerable time, effort, and funding into their project as-is, they may …

Investigation Of Genx Exposure To Pathways Associated With Colorectal Cancer Risk, Emily J. Ferguson

Theses and Dissertations--Toxicology and Cancer Biology

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants widely detected in drinking water and food sources, resulting in chronic human exposure. Among these compounds, hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA), commonly known as GenX, has been introduced as a short-chain replacement for legacy PFAS such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Although GenX is believed to be a safer alternative, emerging research suggests it can still affect human health.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, highlighting the need to better understand environmental …

Ion-Imprinted Polymer-Based Sensors For Toxic Metal-Ion Detection In Water: Coordination Chemistry, Transduction Strategies, And Environmental Applications, Ghita Yammouri, Gymama Slaughter

Center for Bioelectronics Publications

Toxic metal contamination in aquatic environments remains a persistent threat to human health and ecosystems. Yet, the high cost, infrastructure demands, and centralized nature of conventional analytical methods constrain routine monitoring. Ion-imprinted polymers (IIPs), a subclass of molecularly imprinted polymers, have emerged as promising synthetic recognition materials for metal-ion sensing because they generate coordination-defined binding sites with high selectivity, chemical stability, low cost, and reusability. This review summarizes recent advances in Ion-imprinted polymer (IIP)-based sensing technologies for toxic metal-ion detection in water from 2016 to 2026. It examines the fundamental recognition chemistry of IIPs, major synthesis strategies used to generate …

Hfpo-Da Aquatic Toxicity And Bioaccumulation, Bailey Dawn Rappold

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been detected globally in environmental media and biota. Legacy compounds PFOA and PFOS have been observed to be toxic and bioaccumulative in low doses and have been removed from production and industrial processes. Replacement PFAS chemicals are less understood and present a gap in current knowledge in their toxicological effects. This research utilized extended chronic toxicity studies to assess the impacts of HFPO-DA, a short chain replacement PFAS, on the standard aquatic toxicology organism Pimephales promelas. Organisms were exposed for 29 to 30 days at environmentally relevant concentrations of the toxicant, 7.8125 ng/L …

Spatial Temporal Modeling Of Infectious Disease Patterns In Texas, Robert E. Lashbrook

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses

The Texas Department of State Health Services monitors numerous notifiable conditions statewide, including Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Rabies, and West Nile virus (WNV). Given the substantial health, economic, and public health burden associated with these conditions, improving prediction is an important step toward reducing their overall impact. This study evaluated whether external demographic, social, climate, and environmental data could improve prediction of county-year disease activity across Texas. County level data was analyzed using supervised machine learning models, including linear regression, ridge regression, multilayer perceptron, random forest, XGBoost, as well as K-means clustering to identify broader …

A Hybrid Response Surface Methodology And Machine Learning Framework For Quantifying Effects Of Physicochemical Parameters On Pfas Distribution, Harsh V. Patel, Jazmin Green, Hyoshin Park, Stephanie Luster-Teasley Pass, Renzun Zhao

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Predicting PFAS adsorption across diverse adsorbents and environmental matrices remains challenging because adsorbent physicochemical properties, PFAS molecular descriptors, and operational conditions simultaneously influence adsorption. This study develops and evaluates a unified hybrid modeling framework that integrates Response Surface Model (RSM) with machine-learning algorithms to quantify how six key variables, surface area, Log K_ow, pH_pzc, pK_a, log dose, and log-initial concentration, affect PFAS distribution coefficients (Log K_d). A data set of more than 1000 adsorption observations spanning 15 PFAS compounds, multiple adsorbent types, and a broad operational range was compiled and preprocessed using …

Nutrient-Driven Transcription Factor-Dna Interactions And Their Signaling Mechanisms In Metabolic Disease, Evelyn A. Bates

Theses and Dissertations--Nutritional Sciences

Metabolic homeostasis is maintained through tightly coordinated signaling networks that integrate diverse physiological inputs. Central to this regulation are transcription factors, which sense nutrient, hormonal, and vitamin-derived signals and translate them into coordinated gene expression programs. Transcription factor activity is governed by DNA binding, recruitment of coregulatory proteins, and interactions with specific response elements in gene promoters, which allows them to selectively modulate diverse metabolic pathways. Owing to their multifactorial and tunable nature, transcription factors have emerged as promising targets for the treatment and diagnosis of metabolic diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). This dissertation explores the molecular …

Evaluating Sampling Strategies To Monitor Southern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus Niger Niger) Populations, Casey Robin Hitchens

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Reliable population monitoring is essential for evaluating wildlife translocations and informing conservation management, yet traditional monitoring approaches are often labor intensive and require prolonged sampling. This study evaluated marking techniques, survey methods, and population estimation approaches for monitoring a translocated population of southern fox squirrels (Sciurus niger niger) at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, USA (MCRDPI). From January-June 2023, I conducted six live trapping and camera trapping sessions across five survey sites. I compared the performance of color-coded collars and tail shaves for individual identification and the recapture probability between live traps and camera traps. Logistic mixed-effects …

Rna-Sequence-Driven Identification Of Differentially Expressed Genes In Α-Crystallin-Deficient Zebrafish, Kehlie Hopper

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a condition that develops in infants when exposed to alcohol in utero, leading to physical impairments such as reduced eye size and disrupted retinal function. Alpha-crystallin A is a key structural protein required for proper lens development and maintenance of transparency, while Alpha-crystallin B plays a protective role against cellular stress during eye development. In this study, I compared AB wild-type (ABWT), αA-crystallin knockout (cryaa), and αB-crystallin knockout (cryaba) zebrafish to investigate how the loss of these proteins influences eye development under ethanol exposure. The cryaa mutants exhibited reduced eye size even under control conditions, …

Murder On The Menu, Andrea Florian, Leslie Deleon, Angela Simpkins, Anamika Chhetri

SPARK Symposium Presentations

You're invited to a birthday party in Maryland! There will be many guests and even...seafood cuisine at a fancy restaurant! All is well until one of our guests comes down with a peculiar sickness. Do you think you can figure out what happened?

Honeymoon Horror Story, Andrea Florian, Aunalise Terreri, Kiley St. John, Sienna White

SPARK Symposium Presentations

On what was supposed to be a romantic honeymoon getaway, a newly married couple’s paradise quickly turns dark. The wife, Julia Harper, is found dead under mysterious circumstances, and suspicion falls on her neuroscientist husband. As lies unravel, investigators discover that this honeymoon was never about love, but revenge. In the end, all that’s left is betrayal and secrets…Can you solve this murder mystery?

The Last Ball, Andrea Florian, Lili M. Wrenne, Mehrael Adly, Jia Howell

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Sixty-year old, billionaire, Walter Spencer has been found dead at his annual birthday celebration. Guests reported odd behavior before he passed with wild mood swings, speaking gibberish, and experiencing hallucinations. Close friends of Walter say his young 25-year-old wife was the last to see him. Are you able to solve his mystery?

A Sweet Deception, Andrea Florian, Ellis Stafford, Bridget Mcloud, Awi Siam

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Have you ever wanted to be a detective and solve a murder? Well, here is your chance! Bradley Thompson, an investment banker at JP Morgan, was murdered in his home, and we are relying on you to piece together the toxicological clues and find his killer! This murder-mystery activity will involve selecting different toxicological tests and evaluating evidence to determine who committed this heinous crime.

Data For Forthcoming Article: "Employing Zebrafish To Understand Genetic Drivers Of Epilepsy-Related Comorbid Behaviors", Colleen Carpenter-Swanson

Biology Faculty Data

Forthcoming from Frontiers in Pharmacology:

"Children with epilepsy frequently experience a range of significant comorbidities beyond seizures, such as motor dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and neurodevelopmental delays. In some cases, these comorbidities contribute more significantly to overall disease burden than the seizures themselves. To improve quality-of-life (QOL) for these children, treatment options should be selected that control seizures and ameliorate comorbidities. Unfortunately, such therapeutics remain largely elusive. Addressing this issue requires suitable preclinical models. Here we used CRISPR-generated zebrafish with single-gene mutations linked to pediatric epilepsy and applied clinically-relevant behavioral assays to study the effects of these mutations. Using high-throughput locomotion-based …

Murder Of The Magic Mushroom Man, Andrea Florian, Alexa Cabral, Olivia Fawkes, Emily Gomez

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Rowan Tucker is an heirloom vegetable farmer that lives in Newbury, VT on an 80-acre farm. Most of the money in Rowan’s name was from selling psilocybin mushrooms that he disguised as payments under “crop-selling”. He was found dead presenting symptoms early that morning of confusion, hallucinations, vomiting, sweating, and extreme salivation. How did he get murdered? Who did it?

A Ubiquitous Organophosphate Flame Retardant Disrupts Energy And Glucose Homeostasis In Mice, Krystal M. Sewell, Kelly Oriakhi, Sara Y. Ngo Tenlep, Megan L. Weaver, Mansura Shahad Bawa, Se-Hyung Park, Shubh Saraswat, Xiaohua D. Zhang, Robert N. Helsley, Samir Softic, Cetewayo S. Rashid

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) are used in many consumer products, and their presence in our environment raises concerns about potential health dangers. In humans, exposure to OPFRs, such as tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCPP) is associated with metabolic disorders such as obesity, hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance. Our current study seeks to determine how TDCPP exposure affects body composition, glucose homeostasis, and energy balance in a rodent model. C57Bl/6 J mice were divided into two weight-matched groups and fed purified low phytoestrogen diets containing either 0.1 % DMSO (control) or TDCPP 415 mg/kg resulting in an approximate exposure of 50 mg/kg/day. Both male …

Contribution Of Metabolism-Independent Glucose Sensing To Metabolic Homeostasis, Nadia Rashid, Kavaljit H. Chhabra

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Glucose sensing and signaling are central to cellular metabolic machinery for the regulation of metabolic homeostasis. Glucose sensing has been almost always assumed to be coupled with glucose metabolism; however, recent findings have unraveled metabolism-independent sensing mechanisms. Here, we discuss whether glucose transporters (GLUTs) and sodium-glucose co-transporters (SGLTs) may also function as glucose sensors independent of their roles in transporting glucose. Moreover, we review the emerging roles of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in sensing glucose and, consequently, initiating its signaling pathways in a cell-specific manner. Altogether, this review offers insights into the newly identified glucose sensing mechanisms and highlights the …

Anatomical Atlas Of Kinase Responsiveness To Weight Gain: Adipose Depot Reprogramming In Diet-Induced Adiposity, Wang-Hsin Lee, Zachary A. Kipp, Sally N. Pauss, Genesee J. Martinez, Mei Xu, Terry D. Hinds, Jr.

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Background/Objectives: Adipose tissue depots located at different anatomical sites exert differential functions in response to adiposity and glucose intolerance. These fat depots exhibit distinct metabolic signaling patterns that may influence pathological fat accumulation, thereby affecting the efficacy of anti-obesity interventions. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underpinning depot-specific signaling and pathway responsiveness remain insufficiently understood.

Methods: Kinase activity was characterized during the progression of adiposity across five adipose tissue depots in obese versus lean mice using the advanced PamGene kinome technology. Furthermore, kinase pathways in human preadipocytes and mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were analyzed and compared with those in their differentiated, mature adipocytes. The …