Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Sequence-Based Antigenic Change Prediction By A Sparse Learning Method Incorporating Co-Evolutionary Information., Jialiang Yang, Tong Zhang, Xiu-Feng Wan Sep 2014

Sequence-Based Antigenic Change Prediction By A Sparse Learning Method Incorporating Co-Evolutionary Information., Jialiang Yang, Tong Zhang, Xiu-Feng Wan

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

Rapid identification of influenza antigenic variants will be critical in selecting optimal vaccine candidates and thus a key to developing an effective vaccination program. Recent studies suggest that multiple simultaneous mutations at antigenic sites accumulatively enhance antigenic drift of influenza A viruses. However, pre-existing methods on antigenic variant identification are based on analyses from individual sites. Because the impacts of these co-evolved sites on influenza antigenicity may not be additive, it will be critical to quantify the impact of not only those single mutations but also multiple simultaneous mutations or co-evolved sites. Here, we developed and applied a computational method, …


Evidence Of Positive Selection In Mitochondrial Complexes I And V Of The African Elephant., Tabitha M. Finch, Nan Zhao, Dmitry Korkin, Katy H. Frederick, Lori S. Eggert Apr 2014

Evidence Of Positive Selection In Mitochondrial Complexes I And V Of The African Elephant., Tabitha M. Finch, Nan Zhao, Dmitry Korkin, Katy H. Frederick, Lori S. Eggert

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

As species evolve, they become adapted to their local environments. Detecting the genetic signature of selection and connecting that to the phenotype of the organism, however, is challenging. Here we report using an integrative approach that combines DNA sequencing with structural biology analyses to assess the effect of selection on residues in the mitochondrial DNA of the two species of African elephants. We detected evidence of positive selection acting on residues in complexes I and V, and we used homology protein structure modeling to assess the effect of the biochemical properties of the selected residues on the enzyme structure. Given …


Extreme Evolutionary Conservation Of Functionally Important Regions In H1n1 Influenza Proteome, Samantha Warren, Xiu-Feng Wan, Gavin Conant, Dmitry Korkin Nov 2013

Extreme Evolutionary Conservation Of Functionally Important Regions In H1n1 Influenza Proteome, Samantha Warren, Xiu-Feng Wan, Gavin Conant, Dmitry Korkin

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

No abstract provided.


A Joint Matrix Completion And Filtering Model For Influenza Serological Data Integration., Xiao-Tong Yuan, Tong Zhang, Xiu-Feng Wan Jul 2013

A Joint Matrix Completion And Filtering Model For Influenza Serological Data Integration., Xiao-Tong Yuan, Tong Zhang, Xiu-Feng Wan

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

Antigenic characterization based on serological data, such as Hemagglutination Inhibition (HI) assay, is one of the routine procedures for influenza vaccine strain selection. In many cases, it would be impossible to measure all pairwise antigenic correlations between testing antigens and reference antisera in each individual experiment. Thus, we have to combine and integrate the HI tables from a number of individual experiments. Measurements from different experiments may be inconsistent due to different experimental conditions. Consequently we will observe a matrix with missing data and possibly inconsistent measurements. In this paper, we develop a new mathematical model, which we refer to …


Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle And One-Carbon Metabolism Pathways Are Important In Edwardsiella Ictaluri Virulence., Neeti Dahal, Hossam Abdelhamed, Jingjun Lu, Attila Karsi, Mark L. Lawrence Jun 2013

Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle And One-Carbon Metabolism Pathways Are Important In Edwardsiella Ictaluri Virulence., Neeti Dahal, Hossam Abdelhamed, Jingjun Lu, Attila Karsi, Mark L. Lawrence

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

Edwardsiella ictaluri is a Gram-negative facultative intracellular pathogen causing enteric septicemia of channel catfish (ESC). The disease causes considerable economic losses in the commercial catfish industry in the United States. Although antibiotics are used as feed additive, vaccination is a better alternative for prevention of the disease. Here we report the development and characterization of novel live attenuated E. ictaluri mutants. To accomplish this, several tricarboxylic acid cycle (sdhC, mdh, and frdA) and one-carbon metabolism genes (gcvP and glyA) were deleted in wild type E. ictaluri strain 93-146 by allelic exchange. Following bioluminescence tagging of the E. ictaluri ?sdhC, ?mdh, …


A Perspective On Multiple Waves Of Influenza Pandemics, Anna Mummert, Howard Weiss, Li-Ping Long, José M. Amigó, Xiu-Feng Wan Apr 2013

A Perspective On Multiple Waves Of Influenza Pandemics, Anna Mummert, Howard Weiss, Li-Ping Long, José M. Amigó, Xiu-Feng Wan

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

BACKGROUND: A striking characteristic of the past four influenza pandemic outbreaks in the United States has been the multiple waves of infections. However, the mechanisms responsible for the multiple waves of influenza or other acute infectious diseases are uncertain. Understanding these mechanisms could provide knowledge for health authorities to develop and implement prevention and control strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We exhibit five distinct mechanisms, each of which can generate two waves of infections for an acute infectious disease. The first two mechanisms capture changes in virus transmissibility and behavioral changes. The third mechanism involves population heterogeneity (e.g., demography, geography), where …


Role Of An Iron-Dependent Transcriptional Regulator In The Pathogenesis And Host Response To Infection With Streptococcus Pneumoniae., Radha Gupta, Minny Bhatty, Edwin Swiatlo, Bindu Nanduri Feb 2013

Role Of An Iron-Dependent Transcriptional Regulator In The Pathogenesis And Host Response To Infection With Streptococcus Pneumoniae., Radha Gupta, Minny Bhatty, Edwin Swiatlo, Bindu Nanduri

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

Iron is a critical cofactor for many enzymes and is known to regulate gene expression in many bacterial pathogens. Streptococcus pneumoniae normally inhabits the upper respiratory mucosa but can also invade and replicate in lungs and blood. These anatomic sites vary considerably in both the quantity and form of available iron. The genome of serotype 4 pneumococcal strain TIGR4 encodes a putative iron-dependent transcriptional regulator (IDTR). A mutant deleted at idtr (?idtr) exhibited growth kinetics similar to parent strain TIGR4 in vitro and in mouse blood for up to 48 hours following infection. However, ?idtr was significantly attenuated in a …


Stallion Sperm Transcriptome Comprises Functionally Coherent Coding And Regulatory Rnas As Revealed By Microarray Analysis And Rna-Seq., Pranab J. Das, Fiona M. Mccarthy, Monika Vishnoi, Nandina Paria, Cathy Gresham, Gang Li, Priyanka Kachroo, A. Kendrick Sudderth, Sheila Teague, Charles C. Love, Dickson D. Varner, Bhanu P. Chowdhary, Terje Raudsepp Feb 2013

Stallion Sperm Transcriptome Comprises Functionally Coherent Coding And Regulatory Rnas As Revealed By Microarray Analysis And Rna-Seq., Pranab J. Das, Fiona M. Mccarthy, Monika Vishnoi, Nandina Paria, Cathy Gresham, Gang Li, Priyanka Kachroo, A. Kendrick Sudderth, Sheila Teague, Charles C. Love, Dickson D. Varner, Bhanu P. Chowdhary, Terje Raudsepp

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

Mature mammalian sperm contain a complex population of RNAs some of which might regulate spermatogenesis while others probably play a role in fertilization and early development. Due to this limited knowledge, the biological functions of sperm RNAs remain enigmatic. Here we report the first characterization of the global transcriptome of the sperm of fertile stallions. The findings improved understanding of the biological significance of sperm RNAs which in turn will allow the discovery of sperm-based biomarkers for stallion fertility. The stallion sperm transcriptome was interrogated by analyzing sperm and testes RNA on a 21,000-element equine whole-genome oligoarray and by RNA-seq. …


Investigation Of The Role Of Tnf-A Converting Enzyme (Tace) In The Inhibition Of Cell Surface And Soluble Tnf-A Production By Acute Ethanol Exposure., Maltzan Kristine Von, Wei Tan, Stephen B. Pruett Sep 2012

Investigation Of The Role Of Tnf-A Converting Enzyme (Tace) In The Inhibition Of Cell Surface And Soluble Tnf-A Production By Acute Ethanol Exposure., Maltzan Kristine Von, Wei Tan, Stephen B. Pruett

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a fundamental role in the immune system by detecting pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) to sense host infection. Ethanol at doses relevant for humans inhibits the pathogen induced cytokine response mediated through TLRs. The current study was designed to investigate the mechanisms of this effect by determining whether ethanol inhibits TLR3 and TLR4 mediated TNF-? secretion through inhibition of transcription factor activation or post-transcriptional effects. In NF-?B reporter mice, activation of NF-?B in vivo by LPS was inhibited by ethanol (LPS alone yielded 170,000?35,300 arbitrary units of light emission; LPS plus ethanol yielded 56,120?16880, p = …


Identifying Blood Biomarkers And Physiological Processes That Distinguish Humans With Superior Performance Under Psychological Stress., Amanda M. Cooksey, Nausheen Momen, Russell Stocker, Shane C. Burgess Dec 2009

Identifying Blood Biomarkers And Physiological Processes That Distinguish Humans With Superior Performance Under Psychological Stress., Amanda M. Cooksey, Nausheen Momen, Russell Stocker, Shane C. Burgess

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Attrition of students from aviation training is a serious financial and operational concern for the U.S. Navy. Each late stage navy aviator training failure costs the taxpayer over $1,000,000 and ultimately results in decreased operational readiness of the fleet. Currently, potential aviators are selected based on the Aviation Selection Test Battery (ASTB), which is a series of multiple-choice tests that evaluate basic and aviation-related knowledge and ability. However, the ASTB does not evaluate a person's response to stress. This is important because operating sophisticated aircraft demands exceptional performance and causes high psychological stress. Some people are more resistant to …


Zebrafish Kidney Phagocytes Utilize Macropinocytosis And Ca+-Dependent Endocytic Mechanisms., Claudia Hohn, Sang-Ryul Lee, Lesya M. Pinchuk, Lora Petrie-Hanson Feb 2009

Zebrafish Kidney Phagocytes Utilize Macropinocytosis And Ca+-Dependent Endocytic Mechanisms., Claudia Hohn, Sang-Ryul Lee, Lesya M. Pinchuk, Lora Petrie-Hanson

College of Veterinary Medicine Publications and Scholarship

BACKGROUND: The innate immune response constitutes the first line of defense against invading pathogens and consists of a variety of immune defense mechanisms including active endocytosis by macrophages and granulocytes. Endocytosis can be used as a reliable measure of selective and non-selective mechanisms of antigen uptake in the early phase of an immune response. Numerous assays have been developed to measure this response in a variety of mammalian and fish species. The small size of the zebrafish has prevented the large-scale collection of monocytes/macrophages and granulocytes for these endocytic assays. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Pooled zebrafish kidney hematopoietic tissues were used as …