Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Association Of Flame-Retardant Clothing With Mycosis Fungoides: A Retrospective Analysis, Katherine E Park, Vignesh Ramachandran, Jessica Tran, Tejas P Joshi, Naveen Garg, Madeleine Duvic

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Mycosis fungoides (MF), the most prevalent form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), has been associated with a variety of environmental and occupational exposures. Flame-retardant clothing (FRC), in contrast to flame-resistant clothing, is chemically treated and may constitute a previously unrecognized occupational hazard.

Objectives: To report an association between FRC and MF.

Methods: After encountering several young male patients whose onset of MF coincided with the occupational use of FRC and occupation as fire fighters, we did a retrospective search. Additional biopsy proven MF patients with use of FRC were identified by the EPIC electronic medical record using the search …

Home Cooking Quality Assessment Tool Validation Using Community Science And Crowdsourcing Approaches, Margaret Raber, Nalini Ranjit, Larkin L Strong, Karen Basen-Engquist

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To refine a measure of home cooking quality (defined as the usage level of practices with the potential to influence the nutrient content of prepared foods) and conduct a construct validation of the revised tool, the Healthy Cooking Questionnaire 2 (HCQ2).

Design: Two validation approaches are described: (1) a community science approach used to refine and validate Healthy Cooking Questionnaire (HCQ) constructs, and (2) responses to the revised HCQ (HCQ2) in a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers to determine questionnaire comprehension.

Setting: The Community Scientist Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center facilitated discussion …

Ovarian Cancer Reporting Lexicon For Computed Tomography (Ct) And Magnetic Resonance (Mr) Imaging Developed By The Sar Uterine And Ovarian Cancer Disease-Focused Panel And The Esur Female Pelvic Imaging Working Group, Atul B Shinagare, Elizabeth A Sadowski, Hyesun Park, Olga R Brook, Rosemarie Forstner, Sumer K Wallace, Jeanne M Horowitz, Neil Horowitz, Marcia Javitt, Priyanka Jha, Aki Kido, Yulia Lakhman, Susanna I Lee, Lucia Manganaro, Katherine E Maturen, Stephanie Nougaret, Liina Poder, Gaiane M Rauch, Caroline Reinhold, Evis Sala, Isabelle Thomassin-Naggara, Herbert Alberto Vargas, Aradhana Venkatesan, Olivera Nikolic, Andrea G Rockall

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives: Imaging evaluation is an essential part of treatment planning for patients with ovarian cancer. Variation in the terminology used for describing ovarian cancer on computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging can lead to ambiguity and inconsistency in clinical radiology reports. The aim of this collaborative project between Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) Uterine and Ovarian Cancer (UOC) Disease-focused Panel (DFP) and the European Society of Uroradiology (ESUR) Female Pelvic Imaging (FPI) Working Group was to develop an ovarian cancer reporting lexicon for CT and MR imaging.

Methods: Twenty-one members of the SAR UOC DFP and ESUR FPI …

The Microrna-183/96/182 Cluster Inhibits Lung Cancer Progression And Metastasis By Inducing An Interleukin-2-Mediated Antitumor Cd8+ Cytotoxic T-Cell Response, Samrat T Kundu, B Leticia Rodriguez, Laura A Gibson, Amanda N Warner, Mabel G Perez, Rakhee Bajaj, Jared J Fradette, Caleb A Class, Luisa M Solis, Frank R Rojas Alvarez, Ignacio I Wistuba, Lixia Diao, Fengju Chen, Mohit Sachdeva, Jing Wang, David G Kirsch, Chad J Creighton, Don L Gibbons

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Here, Kundu et al. investigated the role of the microRNA-183/96/182 cluster (m96cl) in lung cancer and used a novel conditional m96cl mouse to establish that loss of m96cl accelerated the growth of K-Ras mutant autochthonous lung adenocarcinomas. Overall, the authors identified a novel mechanistic role of the m96cl in the suppression of lung cancer growth and metastasis by inducing an IL2-mediated systemic CD8+ CTL immune response.

Definitive Radiotherapy For Extracranial Oligoprogressive Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma As A Strategy To Defer Systemic Therapy Escalation, Brian De, Aradhana M Venkatesan, Pavlos Msaouel, Amol J Ghia, Jing Li, Debra N Yeboa, Quynh-Nhu Nguyen, Andrew J Bishop, Eric Jonasch, Amishi Y Shah, Matthew T Campbell, Jennifer Wang, Amado J Zurita-Saavedra, Jose A Karam, Christopher G Wood, Surena F Matin, Nizar M Tannir, Chad Tang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To study whether delivering definitive radiotherapy (RT) to sites of oligoprogression in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) enabled deferral of systemic therapy (ST) changes without compromising disease control or survival.

Patients and methods: We identified patients with mRCC who received RT to three or fewer sites of extracranial progressive disease between 2014 and 2019 at a large tertiary cancer centre. Inclusion criteria were: (1) controlled disease for ≥3 months before oligoprogression, (2) all oligoprogression sites treated with a biologically effective dose of ≥100 Gy, and (3) availability of follow-up imaging. Time-to-event end-points were calculated from the start of RT. …

Rhoa-Rock Competes With Yap To Regulate Amoeboid Breast Cancer Cell Migration In Response To Lymphatic-Like Flow, Amina Mohammadalipour, Miguel F Diaz, Megan Livingston, Adesuwa Ewere, Allen Zhou, Paulina D Horton, Loretta T Olamigoke, John M Lamar, John P Hagan, Hyun J Lee, Pamela L Wenzel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Lymphatic drainage generates force that induces prostate cancer cell motility via activation of Yes-associated protein (YAP), but whether this response to fluid force is conserved across cancer types is unclear. Here, we show that shear stress corresponding to fluid flow in the initial lymphatics modifies taxis in breast cancer, whereas some cell lines use rapid amoeboid migration behavior in response to fluid flow, a separate subset decrease movement. Positive responders displayed transcriptional profiles characteristic of an amoeboid cell state, which is typical of cells advancing at the edges of neoplastic tumors. Regulation of the HIPPO tumor suppressor pathway and YAP …

Home Cooking Quality Assessment Tool Validation Using Community Science And Crowdsourcing Approaches, Margaret Raber, Nalini Ranjit, Larkin L Strong, Karen Basen-Engquist

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To refine a measure of home cooking quality (defined as the usage level of practices with the potential to influence the nutrient content of prepared foods) and conduct a construct validation of the revised tool, the Healthy Cooking Questionnaire 2 (HCQ2).

Design: Two validation approaches are described: (1) a community science approach used to refine and validate Healthy Cooking Questionnaire (HCQ) constructs, and (2) responses to the revised HCQ (HCQ2) in a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers to determine questionnaire comprehension.

Setting: The Community Scientist Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center facilitated discussion …

Benefits Of, Barriers To, And Needs For An Artificial Intelligence-Powered Medication Information Voice Chatbot For Older Adults: Interview Study With Geriatrics Experts, Meghana Gudala, Mary Ellen Trail Ross, Sunitha Mogalla, Mandi Lyons, Padmavathy Ramaswamy, Kirk Roberts

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: One of the most complicated medical needs of older adults is managing their complex medication regimens. However, the use of technology to aid older adults in this endeavor is impeded by the fact that their technological capabilities are lower than those of much of the rest of the population. What is needed to help manage medications is a technology that seamlessly integrates within their comfort levels, such as artificial intelligence agents.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the benefits, barriers, and information needs that can be provided by an artificial intelligence-powered medication information voice chatbot for older adults.

METHODS: …

Targeting Cd123 In Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm Using Allogeneic Anti-Cd123 Car T Cells, Tianyu Cai, Agnès Gouble, Kathryn L Black, Anna Skwarska, Ammar S Naqvi, Deanne Taylor, Ming Zhao, Qi Yuan, Mayumi Sugita, Qi Zhang, Roman Galetto, Stéphanie Filipe, Antonio Cavazos, Lina Han, Vinitha Kuruvilla, Helen Ma, Connie Weng, Chang-Gong Liu, Xiuping Liu, Sergej Konoplev, Jun Gu, Guilin Tang, Xiaoping Su, Gheath Al-Atrash, Stefan Ciurea, Sattva S Neelapu, Andrew A Lane, Hagop Kantarjian, Monica L Guzman, Naveen Pemmaraju, Julianne Smith, Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko, Marina Konopleva

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is a rare hematologic malignancy with poor outcomes with conventional therapy. Nearly 100% of BPDCNs overexpress interleukin 3 receptor subunit alpha (CD123). Given that CD123 is differentially expressed on the surface of BPDCN cells, it has emerged as an attractive therapeutic target. UCART123 is an investigational product consisting of allogeneic T cells expressing an anti-CD123 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), edited with TALEN

Comparison Of Five Supervised Feature Selection Algorithms Leading To Top Features And Gene Signatures From Multi-Omics Data In Cancer, Tapas Bhadra, Saurav Mallik, Neaj Hasan, Zhongming Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: As many complex omics data have been generated during the last two decades, dimensionality reduction problem has been a challenging issue in better mining such data. The omics data typically consists of many features. Accordingly, many feature selection algorithms have been developed. The performance of those feature selection methods often varies by specific data, making the discovery and interpretation of results challenging.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, we performed a comprehensive comparative study of five widely used supervised feature selection methods (mRMR, INMIFS, DFS, SVM-RFE-CBR and VWMRmR) for multi-omics datasets. Specifically, we used five representative datasets: gene expression …

Dance Of The Golgi: Understanding Golgi Dynamics In Cancer Metastasis, Rakhee Bajaj, Amanda N Warner, Jared F Fradette, Don L Gibbons

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Golgi apparatus is at the center of protein processing and trafficking in normal cells. Under pathological conditions, such as in cancer, aberrant Golgi dynamics alter the tumor microenvironment and the immune landscape, which enhances the invasive and metastatic potential of cancer cells. Among these changes in the Golgi in cancer include altered Golgi orientation and morphology that contribute to atypical Golgi function in protein trafficking, post-translational modification, and exocytosis. Golgi-associated gene mutations are ubiquitous across most cancers and are responsible for modifying Golgi function to become pro-metastatic. The pharmacological targeting of the Golgi or its associated genes has been …

Gene Therapy And Biomedical Applications, Sarah Dundore, Leena Pattarkine

Harrisburg University Research Symposium: Highlighting Research, Innovation, & Creativity

Gene therapy has many uses today through the new treatment options and its potential to treat uncurable diseases. (Class Project)

Venetoclax Combinations Delay The Time To Deterioration Of Hrqol In Unfit Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Keith W Pratz, Panayiotis Panayiotidis, Christian Recher, Xudong Wei, Brian A Jonas, Pau Montesinos, Vladimir Ivanov, Andre C Schuh, Courtney D Dinardo, Jan Novak, Vlatko Pejsa, Don Stevens, Su-Peng Yeh, Inho Kim, Mehmet Turgut, Nicola Fracchiolla, Kazuhito Yamamoto, Yishai Ofran, Andrew H Wei, Cat N Bui, Katy Benjamin, Rajesh Kamalakar, Jalaja Potluri, Wellington Mendes, Jacob Devine, Walter Fiedler

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Phase 3 trials Viale-A and Viale-C evaluated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with AML unfit for intensive chemotherapy who received venetoclax (VEN) + (AZA) (Viale-A) or low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) (Viale-C) or placebo (PBO) + AZA or LDAC. Patient-reported outcomes included: EORTC QLQ-C30 global health status (GHS/QoL) and physical functioning (PF), PROMIS Cancer Fatigue Short Form 7a (Fatigue), and EQ-5D-5L health status visual analog scale (HS-VAS). Time to deterioration (TTD), defined as worsening from baseline in meaningful change thresholds (MCT) of ≥10, 5, or 7 points for GHS/QoL or PF, fatigue, and HS-VAS, respectively, was assessed; differences between groups …

Hereditary Retinoblastoma Ipsc Model Reveals Aberrant Spliceosome Function Driving Bone Malignancies, Jian Tu, Zijun Huo, Yao Yu, Dandan Zhu, An Xu, Mo-Fan Huang, Ruifeng Hu, Ruoyu Wang, Julian A Gingold, Yi-Hung Chen, Kuang-Lei Tsai, Nicolas R Forcioli-Conti, Sarah X L Huang, Thomas R Webb, Jie Su, Danielle A Bazer, Peilin Jia, Jason T Yustein, Lisa L Wang, Mien-Chie Hung, Zhongming Zhao, Chad D Huff, Jingnan Shen, Ruiying Zhao, Dung-Fang Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The RB1 gene is frequently mutated in human cancers but its role in tumorigenesis remains incompletely defined. Using an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) model of hereditary retinoblastoma (RB), we report that the spliceosome is an up-regulated target responding to oncogenic stress in RB1-mutant cells. By investigating transcriptomes and genome occupancies in RB iPSC–derived osteoblasts (OBs), we discover that both E2F3a, which mediates spliceosomal gene expression, and pRB, which antagonizes E2F3a, coregulate more than one-third of spliceosomal genes by cobinding to their promoters or enhancers. Pharmacological inhibition of the spliceosome in RB1-mutant cells leads to global intron retention, decreased cell …

Ror Activation By Nobiletin Enhances Antitumor Efficacy Via Suppression Of Iκb/Nf-Κb Signaling In Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Eunju Kim, Yoon-Jin Kim, Zhiwei Ji, Jin Muk Kang, Marvin Wirianto, Keshav Raj Paudel, Joshua A Smith, Kaori Ono, Jin-Ah Kim, Kristin Eckel-Mahan, Xiaobo Zhou, Hyun Kyoung Lee, Ji Young Yoo, Seung-Hee Yoo, Zheng Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by poor response to standard therapies and therefore unfavorable clinical outcomes. Better understanding of TNBC and new therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. ROR nuclear receptors are multifunctional transcription factors with important roles in circadian pathways and other processes including immunity and tumorigenesis. Nobiletin (NOB) is a natural compound known to display anticancer effects, and our previous studies showed that NOB activates RORs to enhance circadian rhythms and promote physiological fitness in mice. Here, we identified several TNBC cell lines being sensitive to NOB, by itself or in combination. Cell and xenograft …

Time Dependent Analysis Of Rat Microglial Surface Markers In Traumatic Brain Injury Reveals Dynamics Of Distinct Cell Subpopulations, Assaf Gottlieb, Naama Toledano-Furman, Karthik S Prabhakara, Akshita Kumar, Henry W Caplan, Supinder Bedi, Charles S Cox, Scott D Olson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a cascade of cellular responses, which produce neuroinflammation, partly due to the activation of microglia. Accurate identification of microglial populations is key to understanding therapeutic approaches that modify microglial responses to TBI and improve long-term outcome measures. Notably, previous studies often utilized an outdated convention to describe microglial phenotypes. We conducted a temporal analysis of the response to controlled cortical impact (CCI) in rat microglia between ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres across seven time points, identified microglia through expression of activation markers including CD45, CD11b/c, and p2y12 receptor and evaluated their activation state using additional …

Cytospin-A Regulates Colorectal Cancer Cell Division And Migration By Modulating Stability Of Microtubules And Actin Filaments, Fan Fan, Jason Roszik, Ling Xia, Susmita Ghosh, Rui Wang, Xiangcang Ye, David Hawke, Lee M Ellis, Rajat Bhattacharya

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Simple Summary

In this study, we report the effects of depleting cytospin-A (CYTSA), also known as the sperm antigen with calponin homology and coiled-coil domain (SPECC1L) protein, on the proliferation and migration of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. Mutations in this protein have been previously linked to different developmental disorders. In our studies, depletion of CYTSA in various CRC cells led to significant decreases in proliferation, increases in cell death, and increased formation of multinucleated cells. Knocking down CYTSA also led to severe inhibition of CRC cell migration and invasion. These effects could be related to a significant decrease in the …

Convection Enhanced Delivery Of The Oncolytic Adenovirus Delta24-Rgd In Patients With Recurrent Gbm: A Phase I Clinical Trial Including Correlative Studies, Erik H P Van Putten, Anne Kleijn, Victor W Van Beusechem, David Noske, Cor H J Lamers, Anna L De Goede, Sander Idema, Daphna Hoefnagel, Jenneke J Kloezeman, Juan Fueyo, Frederick F Lang, Charlotte E Teunissen, René M Vernhout, Cathy Bakker, Winald Gerritsen, David T Curiel, Arnold Vulto, Martine L M Lamfers, Clemens M F Dirven

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Testing safety of Delta24-RGD (DNX-2401), an oncolytic adenovirus, locally delivered by convection enhanced delivery (CED) in tumor and surrounding brain of patients with recurrent glioblastoma.

Patients and methods: Dose-escalation phase I study with 3+3 cohorts, dosing 107 to 1 × 1011 viral particles (vp) in 20 patients. Besides clinical parameters, adverse events, and radiologic findings, blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), brain interstitial fluid, and excreta were sampled over time and analyzed for presence of immune response, viral replication, distribution, and shedding.

Results: Of 20 enrolled patients, 19 received the oncolytic adenovirus Delta24-RGD, which was found to be safe and feasible. …

Applying Requisite Imagination To Safeguard Electronic Health Record Transitions, Dean F Sittig, Priti Lakhani, Hardeep Singh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Over the next decade, many health care organizations (HCOs) will transition from one electronic health record (EHR) to another; some forced by hospital acquisition and others by choice in search of better EHRs. Herein, we apply principles of Requisite Imagination, or the ability to imagine key aspects of the future one is planning, to offer 6 recommendations on how to proactively safeguard these transitions. First, HCOs should implement a proactive leadership structure that values communication. Second, HCOs should implement proactive risk assessment and testing processes. Third, HCOs should anticipate and reduce unwarranted variation in their EHR and clinical processes. Fourth, …

Targeting Non-Coding Rnas To Overcome Cancer Therapy Resistance, Baoqing Chen, Mihnea P Dragomir, Chen Yang, Qiaoqiao Li, David Horst, George A Calin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

It is now well known that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), rather than protein-coding transcripts, are the preponderant RNA transcripts. NcRNAs, particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), are widely appreciated as pervasive regulators of multiple cancer hallmarks such as proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, metastasis, and genomic instability. Despite recent discoveries in cancer therapy, resistance to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy continue to be a major setback. Recent studies have shown that ncRNAs also play a major role in resistance to different cancer therapies by rewiring essential signaling pathways. In this review, we present the intricate mechanisms through …

Distinct Molecular And Immune Hallmarks Of Inflammatory Arthritis Induced By Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors For Cancer Therapy, Sang T Kim, Yanshuo Chu, Mercy Misoi, Maria E Suarez-Almazor, Jean H Tayar, Huifang Lu, Maryam Buni, Jordan Kramer, Emma Rodriguez, Zulekha Hussain, Sattva S Neelapu, Jennifer Wang, Amishi Y Shah, Nizar M Tannir, Matthew T Campbell, Don L Gibbons, Tina Cascone, Charles Lu, George R Blumenschein, Mehmet Altan, Bora Lim, Vincente Valero, Monica E Loghin, Janet Tu, Shannon N Westin, Aung Naing, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Noha Abdel-Wahab, Hussein A Tawbi, Patrick Hwu, Isabella C Glitza Oliva, Michael A Davies, Sapna P Patel, Jun Zou, Andrew Futreal, Adi Diab, Linghua Wang, Roza Nurieva

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are associated with immune-related adverse events (irAEs), including arthritis (arthritis-irAE). Management of arthritis-irAE is challenging because immunomodulatory therapy for arthritis should not impede antitumor immunity. Understanding of the mechanisms of arthritis-irAE is critical to overcome this challenge, but the pathophysiology remains unknown. Here, we comprehensively analyze peripheral blood and/or synovial fluid samples from 20 patients with arthritis-irAE, and unmask a prominent Th1-CD8

Cngpld: Case-Control Copy-Number Analysis Using Gaussian Process Latent Difference, David J H Shih, Ruoxing Li, Peter Müller, W Jim Zheng, Kim-Anh Do, Shiaw-Yih Lin, Scott L Carter

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

MOTIVATION: Cross-sectional analyses of primary cancer genomes have identified regions of recurrent somatic copy-number alteration, many of which result from positive selection during cancer formation and contain driver genes. However, no effective approach exists for identifying genomic loci under significantly different degrees of selection in cancers of different subtypes, anatomic sites or disease stages.

RESULTS: CNGPLD is a new tool for performing case-control somatic copy-number analysis that facilitates the discovery of differentially amplified or deleted copy-number aberrations in a case group of cancer compared with a control group of cancer. This tool uses a Gaussian process statistical framework in order …

Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation For Large B-Cell Lymphoma With Secondary Central Nervous System Involvement, Serkan Akin, Chitra Hosing, Issa Khouri, Sairah Ahmed, Amin Alousi, Nathan Fowler, Jacinth Joseph, Jonathan Truxillo, Jeremy L Ramdial, Farzaneh Maadani, Gabriela Rondon, May Daher, Jin S Im, Raphael Steiner, Jason Westin, Swaminathan P Iyer, Bouthaina Dabaja, Paolo Anderlini, Uday R Popat, Muzaffar H Qazilbash, Christopher R Flowers, Elizabeth Shpall, Richard E Champlin, Yago Nieto, Samer A Srour

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Secondary central nervous system large B-cell lymphoma (SCNSL) is rare, with a generally poor prognosis. There is limited data about the role of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in these high-risk patients. We explored in this study treatment outcomes and prognostic factors for patients with SCNSL who underwent ASCT. We included all consecutive patients who underwent ASCT at our institution. Primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). One-hundred two patients were identified. Median age at transplant was 56 (range, 21-71) years. With a median follow-up of 56 (range, 1-256) months, the median PFS and OS were 40 …

Predicting The Need For Therapeutic Intervention And Mortality In Acute Pancreatitis: A Two-Center International Study Using Machine Learning, Na Shi, Lan Lan, Jiawei Luo, Ping Zhu, Thomas R W Ward, Peter Szatmary, Robert Sutton, Wei Huang, John A Windsor, Xiaobo Zhou, Qing Xia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Current approaches to predicting intervention needs and mortality have reached 65-85% accuracy, which falls below clinical decision-making requirements in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP). We aimed to accurately predict therapeutic intervention needs and mortality on admission, in AP patients, using machine learning (ML).

METHODS: Data were obtained from three databases of patients admitted with AP: one retrospective (Chengdu) and two prospective (Liverpool and Chengdu) databases. Intervention and mortality differences, as well as potential predictors, were investigated. Univariate analysis was conducted, followed by a random forest ML algorithm used in multivariate analysis, to identify predictors. The ML performance matrix was …

Ndrg1 In Aggressive Breast Cancer Progression And Brain Metastasis, Emilly S Villodre, Xiaoding Hu, Bedrich L Eckhardt, Richard Larson, Lei Huo, Ester C Yoon, Yun Gong, Juhee Song, Shuying Liu, Naoto T Ueno, Savitri Krishnamurthy, Stefan Pusch, Debu Tripathy, Wendy A Woodward, Bisrat G Debeb

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: N-Myc downstream regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) suppresses metastasis in many human malignancies, including breast cancer, yet has been associated with worse survival in patients with inflammatory breast cancer. The role of NDRG1 in the pathobiology of aggressive breast cancers remains elusive.

METHODS: To study the role of NDRG1 in tumor growth and brain metastasis in vivo, we transplanted cells into cleared mammary fat pads or injected them in tail veins of SCID/Beige mice (n = 7-10 per group). NDRG1 protein expression in patient breast tumors (n = 216) was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. Kaplan-Meier method with 2-sided log-rank test …

Bismuth Nanoparticle And Polyhydroxybutyrate Coatings Enhance The Radiopacity Of Absorbable Inferior Vena Cava Filters For Fluoroscopy-Guided Placement And Longitudinal Computed Tomography Monitoring In Pigs, Jossana A Damasco, Steven Y Huang, Joy Vanessa D Perez, John Andrew T Manongdo, Katherine A Dixon, Malea L Williams, Megan C Jacobsen, Roland Barbosa, Gino Martin Canlas, Gouthami Chintalapani, Adam D Melancon, Rick R Layman, Natalie W Fowlkes, Elizabeth M Whitley, Marites P Melancon

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Inferior vena cava filters (IVCFs) constructed with poly-

Lymphocyte Depletion Rate As A Biomarker Of Radiation Dose To Circulating Lymphocytes During Fractionated Partial-Body Radiation Therapy, Susannah G Ellsworth, Anirudh Yalamanchali, Tim Lautenschlaeger, Stuart A Grossman, Clemens Grassberger, Steven H Lin, Radhe Mohan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Radiation causes exponential depletion of circulating lymphocyte populations; in turn, radiation-induced lymphopenia is associated with worse survival for many solid tumors, possibly owing to attenuated antitumor immune responses. Identifying reliable and reproducible methods of calculating the radiation dose to circulating immune cells may facilitate development of techniques to reduce the risk and severity of radiation-induced toxic effects to circulating lymphocytes.

Methods and materials: Patient-specific lymphocyte loss rates were derived from a clinical data set including 684 adult patients with solid tumors. Multivariable linear regression was used to model the relationship between the lymphocyte loss rate and physical parameters of …

Exploiting 4–1bb Immune Checkpoint To Enhance The Efficacy Of Oncolytic Virotherapy For Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas, Virginia Laspidea, Montserrat Puigdelloses, Sara Labiano, Lucía Marrodán, Marc Garcia-Moure, Marta Zalacain, Marisol Gonzalez-Huarriz, Naiara Martínez-Vélez, Iker Ausejo-Mauleon, Daniel De La Nava, Guillermo Herrador-Cañete, Javier Marco-Sanz, Elisabeth Guruceaga, Carlos E De Andrea, María Villalba, Oren Becher, Massimo Squatrito, Verónica Matía, Jaime Gállego Pérez-Larraya, Ana Patiño-García, Sumit Gupta, Candelaria Gomez-Manzano, Juan Fueyo, Marta M Alonso

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) are aggressive pediatric brain tumors, and patient survival has not changed despite many therapeutic efforts, emphasizing the urgent need for effective treatments. Here, we evaluated the anti-DIPG effect of the oncolytic adenovirus Delta-24-ACT, which was engineered to express the costimulatory ligand 4-1BBL to potentiate the antitumor immune response of the virus. Delta-24-ACT induced the expression of functional 4-1BBL on the membranes of infected DIPG cells, which enhanced the costimulation of CD8+ T lymphocytes. In vivo, Delta-24-ACT treatment of murine DIPG orthotopic tumors significantly improved the survival of treated mice, leading to long-term survivors that developed …

The Impact Of Pediatric Opioid-Related Visits On Us Emergency Departments, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer, Marylou Cardenas-Turanzas, Irma T Ugalde, Christine Bakos-Block, Angela L Stotts, Lisa Cleveland, Steven Shoptaw, James R Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: While there is significant research exploring adults' use of opioids, there has been minimal focus on the opioid impact within emergency departments for the pediatric population.

METHODS: We examined data from the Agency for Healthcare Research, the National Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), and death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sociodemographic and financial variables were analyzed for encounters during 2014-2017 for patients under age 18, matching diagnoses codes for opioid-related overdose or opioid use disorder.

RESULTS: During this period, 59,658 children presented to an ED for any diagnoses involving opioids. The majority (68.5%) of visits were …

Hsp90-Cdc37 Functions As A Chaperone For The Oncogenic Fgfr3-Tacc3 Fusion, Tao Li, Farideh Mehraein-Ghomi, M Elizabeth Forbes, Sanjeev V Namjoshi, E Ashley Ballard, Qianqian Song, Ping-Chieh Chou, Xuya Wang, Brittany C Parker Kerrigan, Frederick F Lang, Glenn Lesser, Waldemar Debinski, Xuejun Yang, Wei Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The FGFR3-TACC3 (F3-T3) fusion gene was discovered as an oncogenic molecule in glioblastoma and bladder cancers, and has subsequently been found in many cancer types. Notably, F3-T3 was found to be highly expressed in both untreated and matched recurrence glioblastoma under the concurrent radiotherapy and temozolomide (TMZ) treatment, suggesting that targeting F3-T3 is a valid strategy for treatment. Here, we show that the F3-T3 protein is a client of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90), forming a ternary complex with the cell division cycle 37 (CDC37). Deprivation of HSP90 or CDC37 disrupts the formation of the ternary complex, which destabilizes glycosylated …