Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Insights Into Microbiome And Metabolic Signatures Of Children Undergoing Peanut Oral Immunotherapy, Andrea C Blackman, Santosh Thapa, Alamelu Venkatachalam, Thomas D Horvath, Jessica K Runge, Sigmund J Haidacher, Kathleen M Hoch, Anthony M Haag, Ruth Ann Luna, Aikaterini Anagnostou

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Peanut oral immunotherapy has emerged as a novel, active management approach for peanut-allergic sufferers, but limited data exist currently on the role of the microbiome in successful desensitization.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the oral and gut microbiome in a cohort of 17 children undergoing peanut oral immunotherapy with the aim to identify the microbiome signatures associated with successful desensitization. We also set out to characterize their fecal metabolic profiles after successful therapy.

METHODS: Participants gradually built up their daily dose from 2 mg (starting dose) to 300 mg (maintenance dose) within approximately 40 weeks. We collected a buccal and stool …

A Mouse Holder For Awake Functional Imaging In Unanesthetized Mice: Applications In 31p Spectroscopy, Manganese-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies, And Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Lindsay C Fadel, Ivany V Patel, Jonathan Romero, I-Chih Tan, Shelli R Kesler, Vikram Rao, S A Amali S Subasinghe, Russell S Ray, Jason T Yustein, Matthew J Allen, Brian W Gibson, Justin J Verlinden, Stanley Fayn, Nicole Ruggiero, Caitlyn Ortiz, Elizabeth Hipskind, Aaron Feng, Chijindu Iheanacho, Alex Wang, Robia G Pautler

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Anesthesia is often used in preclinical imaging studies that incorporate mouse or rat models. However, multiple reports indicate that anesthesia has significant physiological impacts. Thus, there has been great interest in performing imaging studies in awake, unanesthetized animals to obtain accurate results without the confounding physiological effects of anesthesia. Here, we describe a newly designed mouse holder that is interfaceable with existing MRI systems and enables awake in vivo mouse imaging. This holder significantly reduces head movement of the awake animal compared to previously designed holders and allows for the acquisition of improved anatomical images. In addition to applications in …

Qualitative Interviews To Understand Health Care Providers’ Experiences Of Prescribing Licensed Peanut Oral Immunotherapy, Aikaterini Anagnostou, Claire Lawrence, Stephen A Tilles, Susan Laubach, Sarah M Donelson, Mohamed Yassine, Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: This research sought to explore health care providers' (HCPs) experiences of delivering the first US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Commission (EC) approved peanut oral immunotherapy (peanut OIT; Palforzia). Semi-structured qualitative interviews with HCPs who had initiated treatment with ≥ 3 patients in the first nine months following FDA approval sought to identify challenges faced and successful implementation strategies.

RESULTS: Eight allergists and three nurse practitioners from eight sites based in the United States participated. The HCPs included in this research were motivated to implement this novel treatment, however, entered the process with some reservations. HCPs described …

Spectral Library-Based Single-Cell Proteomics Resolves Cellular Heterogeneity, Lakmini Senavirathna, Cheng Ma, Ru Chen, Sheng Pan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Dissecting the proteome of cell types and states at single-cell resolution, while being highly challenging, has significant implications in basic science and biomedicine. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based single-cell proteomics represents an emerging technology for system-wide, unbiased profiling of proteins in single cells. However, significant challenges remain in analyzing an extremely small amount of proteins collected from a single cell, as a proteome-wide amplification of proteins is not currently feasible. Here, we report an integrated spectral library-based single-cell proteomics (SLB-SCP) platform that is ultrasensitive and well suited for a large-scale analysis. To overcome the low MS/MS signal intensity intrinsically associated with a …

An Auto-Inhibited State Of Protein Kinase G And Implications For Selective Activation, Rajesh Sharma, Jeong Joo Kim, Liying Qin, Philipp Henning, Madoka Akimoto, Bryan Vanschouwen, Gundeep Kaur, Banumathi Sankaran, Kevin R Mackenzie, Giuseppe Melacini, Darren E Casteel, Friedrich W Herberg, Choel Kim

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinases (PKGs) are key mediators of the nitric oxide/cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling pathway that regulates biological functions as diverse as smooth muscle contraction, cardiac function, and axon guidance. Understanding how cGMP differentially triggers mammalian PKG isoforms could lead to new therapeutics that inhibit or activate PKGs, complementing drugs that target nitric oxide synthases and cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases in this signaling axis. Alternate splicing of PRKG1 transcripts confers distinct leucine zippers, linkers, and auto-inhibitory (AI) pseudo-substrate sequences to PKG Iα and Iβ that result in isoform-specific activation properties, but the mechanism of enzyme auto-inhibition and its alleviation …

Association Between Social Vulnerability Index And Cardiovascular Disease: A Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Study, Vardhmaan Jain, Mahmoud Al Rifai, Safi U Khan, Ankur Kalra, Fatima Rodriguez, Zainab Samad, Yashashwi Pokharel, Arunima Misra, Laurence S Sperling, Jamal S Rana, Waqas Ullah, Ankit Medhekar, Salim S Virani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background Social and environmental factors play an important role in the rising health care burden of cardiovascular disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) from US census data as a tool for public health officials to identify communities in need of support in the setting of a hazardous event. SVI (ranging from a least vulnerable score of 0 to a most vulnerable score of 1) ranks communities on 15 social factors including unemployment, minoritized groups status, and disability, and groups them under 4 broad themes: socioeconomic status, housing and transportation, minoritized groups, and …

Surgical Extraction Of Traumatic Lodgment Of A Pen Nib Between The Eye And Nasal Bridge Of An Infant: A Case Report, Krishna Shah, Vaishali Prajapati, Smeet Desai, Karishma Dhaval Desai, Mayur B Wanjari, Deepika Singhal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Unintentional eye injuries are common in small children. If left unobserved by parents or caretakers, it is challenging to assess as the kids are in distress and pain. Penetrating trauma in or near the eye requires urgent treatment as it can lead to infection and other complications. Early diagnosis and management help avoid further complications. An 11-month-old female was presented by her parents at a tertiary care clinic with inconsolable crying and swelling over the right eye's upper lid for one day. There was a history of possible trauma with a pen while the child was playing. During the examination, …

Glutathione Peroxidase 2 Is A Metabolic Driver Of The Tumor Immune Microenvironment And Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Response, Kazi Mokim Ahmed, Ratna Veeramachaneni, Defeng Deng, Nagireddy Putluri, Vasanta Putluri, Maria F Cardenas, David A Wheeler, William K Decker, Andy I Frederick, Sawad Kazi, Andrew G Sikora, Vlad C Sandulache, Mitchell J Frederick

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The existence of immunologically 'cold tumors' frequently found across a wide spectrum of tumor types represents a significant challenge for cancer immunotherapy. Cold tumors have poor baseline pan-leukocyte infiltration, including a low prevalence of cytotoxic lymphocytes, and not surprisingly respond unfavorably to immune checkpoint (IC) inhibitors. We hypothesized that cold tumors harbor a mechanism of immune escape upstream and independent of ICs that may be driven by tumor biology rather than differences in mutational neoantigen burden.

METHODS: Using a bioinformatic approach to analyze TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) RNA sequencing data we identified genes upregulated in cold versus hot …

A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Gene-Gene Interaction Study Of Lung Cancer Susceptibility In Europeans With A Trans-Ethnic Validation In Asians, Ruyang Zhang, Sipeng Shen, Yongyue Wei, Ying Zhu, Yi Li, Jiajin Chen, Jinxing Guan, Zoucheng Pan, Yuzhuo Wang, Meng Zhu, Junxing Xie, Xiangjun Xiao, Dakai Zhu, Yafang Li, Demetrios Albanes, Maria Teresa Landi, Neil E Caporaso, Stephen Lam, Adonina Tardon, Chu Chen, Stig E Bojesen, Mattias Johansson, Angela Risch, Heike Bickeböller, H-Erich Wichmann, Gadi Rennert, Susanne Arnold, Paul Brennan, James D Mckay, John K Field, Sanjay S Shete, Loic Le Marchand, Geoffrey Liu, Angeline S Andrew, Lambertus A Kiemeney, Shan Zienolddiny-Narui, Annelie Behndig, Mikael Johansson, Angela Cox, Philip Lazarus, Matthew B Schabath, Melinda C Aldrich, Juncheng Dai, Hongxia Ma, Yang Zhao, Zhibin Hu, Rayjean J Hung, Christopher I Amos, Hongbing Shen, Feng Chen, David C Christiani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Although genome-wide association studies have been conducted to investigate genetic variation of lung tumorigenesis, little is known about gene-gene (G × G) interactions that may influence the risk of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODS: Leveraging a total of 445,221 European-descent participants from the International Lung Cancer Consortium OncoArray project, Transdisciplinary Research in Cancer of the Lung and UK Biobank, we performed a large-scale genome-wide G × G interaction study on European NSCLC risk by a series of analyses. First, we used BiForce to evaluate and rank more than 58 billion G × G interactions from 340,958 single-nucleotide polymorphisms …

Reconstructive Outcomes Of Multilayered Closure Of Large Skull Base Dural Defects Following Open Anterior Craniofacial Resection, Justin Shi, Tokunbo Ayeni, Kathleen Kelly Gallagher, Akash J Patel, Ali Jalali, David J Hernandez, Angela D Haskins, Vlad C Sandulache, Erich M Sturgis, Andrew T Huang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Introduction  Standardized reconstruction protocols for large open anterior skull base defects with dural resection are not well described. Here we report the outcomes and technique of a multilayered reconstructive algorithm utilizing local tissue, dural graft matrix, and microvascular free tissue transfer (MVFTT) for reconstruction of these deformities.

Design  This study is a retrospective review.

Results  Eleven patients (82% males) met inclusion criteria, with five (45%) having concurrent orbital exenteration and eight (73%) requiring maxillectomy. All patients required dural resection with or without intracranial tumor resection, with the average dural defect being 36.0 ± 25.9 cm ² . Dural graft matrices …

Roles And Responsibilities Of Medicine Subinternship Directors : Medicine Subinternship Director Roles, Nicholas S Duca, Cindy J Lai, Temple A Ratcliffe, Irene Alexandraki, Nadia Ismail, Michael Kisielewski, Jackcy Jacob, Katherine Walsh, Diane L Levine, Karen Szauter, Harish Jasti, Amber T Pincavage, Jeffrey Larochelle, Susan A Glod

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The internal medicine (IM) subinternship (also referred to as acting internship) plays a crucial part in preparing medical students for residency. The roles, responsibilities, and support provided to subinternship directors have not been described.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to describe the current role of IM subinternship directors with respect to their responsibilities, salary support, and reporting structure.

DESIGN: Nationally representative, annually recurring thematic survey of IM core clerkship directors with membership in an academic professional association as of September 2017.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 129 core clinical medicine clerkship directors at Liaison Committee on Medical Education fully accredited U.S./U.S.-territory-based medical …

Becoming A Doctor During A Pandemic: Impact On Medical Student Social Identity Formation, Sanghamitra M Misra, Nital P Appelbaum, Maria A Jaramillo, Ruifei Wang, Connor T Hoch, Nadia Ismail, Jennifer Christner

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic required modifications to undergraduate medical education that likely affected medical students' social identity formation (SIF). SIF is shaped by experiences throughout the medical education continuum. This commentary explores factors potentially affecting medical student SIF during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on students' perceptions of being part of the healthcare team, their role in medicine, and their engagement during the pandemic. Based on such considerations, we propose that educators should aim to design effective learning environments to support a full educational experience that encompasses acquiring medical knowledge and building strong social identities even during a pandemic.

Immune Phenotype Of The Cd4+ T Cells In The Aged Lymphoid Organs And Lacrimal Glands, Claudia M Trujillo-Vargas, Kelsey E Mauk, Humberto Hernandez, Rodrigo G De Souza, Zhiyuan Yu, Jeremias G Galletti, Jana Dietrich, Friedrich Paulsen, Cintia S De Paiva

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Aging is associated with a massive infiltration of T lymphocytes in the lacrimal gland. Here, we aimed to characterize the immune phenotype of aged CD4+ T cells in this tissue as compared with lymphoid organs. To perform this, we sorted regulatory T cells (Tregs, CD4+CD25+GITR+) and non-Tregs (CD4+CD25negGITRneg) in lymphoid organs from female C57BL/6J mice and subjected these cells to an immunology NanoString® panel. These results were confirmed by flow cytometry, live imaging, and tissue immunostaining in the lacrimal gland. Importantly, effector T helper 1 (Th1) genes were highly upregulated on aged Tregs, including the master regulator Tbx21. Among …

Salivary Biomarker Evaluation Of Chronic Pancreatitis Patients Reveals Alterations In Human Proteins, Cytokines, Prostaglandin E2 Levels, And Bacterial Diversity, Richard T Waldron, Elaina K Jones, Vincent I Anani, Jolaine M Hines, Jing Zhao, Aurelia Lugea, Marcio A Diniz, Sungjin Kim, Aida Habtezion, Kristi L Hoffman, Joseph F Petrosino, William E Fisher, Liang Li, Ryan J Lennon, Ravinder Jit Singh, Santhi Swaroop Vege, Stephen J Pandol, Mark D Topazian

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a chronic fibroinflammatory condition of the pancreas difficult to diagnose in early stages. Novel biomarkers useful to facilitate early diagnosis or treatment responses may be found in biofluids. Although saliva can be easily and noninvasively collected from patients, useful salivary biomarkers from CP patients have not yet been identified.

METHODS: Here, we analyzed the proteome by quantitative proteomics, cytokine/chemokine levels by Luminex analysis, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels by a mass spectrometry-based assay, and bacterial species diversity by 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid sequencing in saliva samples from confirmed CP patients and healthy controls.

RESULTS: Our results …

Aspirin Use Is Associated With Decreased Inpatient Mortality In Patients With Covid-19: A Meta-Analysis, Aswin Srinivasan, Jonathan Brown, Pavitra Parimala Krishnamani, Brendon Cornett, Ramesh Babu Kesavan, Siva T Sarva, Syed Arman Raza, Waleed Tallat Kayani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Thromboembolism is a major cause of death in patients who suffer from COVID-19. Studies examining the effects of aspirin (ASA) on mortality relating to this phenomenon have showed conflicting results with varying degrees and certainties of evidence. We performed an aggregate data meta-analysis of fourteen studies encompassing 164,539 COVID-19 patients, which showed a reduced risk of in-hospital mortality associated with ASA use in eight studies that reported risk ratios (RR 0.90; 95 % CI 0.82–0.98; I2 = 27.33 %, P = 0.01), six studies that reported hazard ratios (HR 0.56; 95 % CI 0.41–0.76, P ≤ 0.01; I2 = 85.92 …

Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Kinase 2 Regulates Hepatic Fuel Metabolism, Brittany A Stork, Adam Dean, Andrea R Ortiz, Pradip Saha, Nagireddy Putluri, Maricarmen D Planas-Silva, Iqbal Mahmud, Kimal Rajapakshe, Cristian Coarfa, Stefan Knapp, Philip L Lorenzi, Bruce E Kemp, Benjamin E Turk, John W Scott, Anthony R Means, Brian York

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: The liver is the primary internal metabolic organ that coordinates whole body energy homeostasis in response to feeding and fasting. Genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2) has been shown to significantly improve hepatic health and peripheral insulin sensitivity upon overnutrition with high fat diet. However, the precise molecular underpinnings that explain this metabolic protection have remained largely undefined.

METHODS: To characterize the role of CaMKK2 in hepatic metabolism, we developed and challenged liver-specific CaMKK2 knockout (CaMKK2

RESULTS: Consistent with previous findings, we show that hepatic CaMKK2 ablation significantly improves indices of peripheral insulin …

Patients With Lung Cancer Of Different Racial Backgrounds Harbor Distinct Immune Cell Profiles, Yitian Xu, Licheng Zhang, Jose Thaiparambil, Sunny Mai, Dimuthu Nuwan Perera, Jilu Zhang, Ping-Ying Pan, Cristian Coarfa, Kenneth Ramos, Shu-Hsia Chen, Randa El-Zein

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

UNLABELLED: Tumors accumulated with infiltrated immune cells (hot tumors) have a higher response rate to immune checkpoint blockade, when compared with those with minimal T-cell infiltration (cold tumors). We report here that patients with lung cancer with different racial backgrounds harbored distinct immune cell profiles in the tumor microenvironment. Compared with African Americans (AA), Caucasian Americans (CA) exhibited increased immune cell infiltration and vasculature, and increased survival. Changes of survival and immune profile were most pronounced among active smokers and nonsmokers, compared with former smokers and total patients. Neighborhood analysis showed that immune cells accumulated around cancer cells in CAs …

Identifying Factors Associated With Detection Of Sessile Gastric Polyps In Patients With Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, Gautam N Mankaney, Michael Cruise, Shashank Sarvepalli, Amit Bhatt, David Liska, Carol A Burke

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background and study aims  Gastric cancer (GC) is increasingly reported and a leading cause of death in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). Identifying features in patients with FAP who harbor sessile gastric polyps, likely precursors to GC, may lead to alterations in endoscopic surveillance in those patients and allow endoscopic intervention to decrease the risk of GC. The aim of this study was to identify demographic and clinical factors in patients with FAP who harbor sessile gastric polyps.

Patients and methods  We retrospectively compared demographic, clinical, and endoscopic features in consecutive adult patients with FAP who presented for a …

Identifying Bone Matrix Impairments In A Mouse Model Of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (Nf1) By Clinically Translatable Techniques, Rafay Ahmed, Sasidhar Uppuganti, Shrey Derasari, Joshua Meyer, Jacquelyn S Pennings, Florent Elefteriou, Jeffry S Nyman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Three-to-four percent of children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) present with unilateral tibia bowing, fracture, and recalcitrant healing. Alkaline phosphatase enzyme therapy prevented poor bone mineralization and poor mechanical properties in mouse models of NF1 skeletal dysplasia; but transition to clinical trials is hampered by the lack of a technique that i) identifies NF1 patients at risk of tibia bowing and fracture making them eligible for trial enrollment and ii) monitors treatment effects on matrix characteristics related to bone strength. Therefore, we assessed the ability of matrix-sensitive techniques to provide characteristics that differentiate between cortical bone from mice characterized by …

Implementation Of A Virtual Huddle To Support Patient Care During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Uma Ayyala, Shazia Raheem, Jefferson L Triozzi, Andrew Hunter, Elwyn Welch, Stephen Bujarski, Christina Kao, Lavannya Pandit, Kanta Velamuri, Venkata D Bandi

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: During a surge of COVID-19 cases, the volume of acute care patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure placed a high burden of responsibility on internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine, and clinical pharmacy services.

OBSERVATIONS: We describe the COVID-19 Tele-Huddle Program, a novel approach to communication between key stakeholders in COVID-19 patient care through a daily video conferencing huddle. The program was implemented during a 4-week surge in COVID-19 cases at a large, academic medical center in Houston, Texas. Data collected during the COVID-19 Tele-Huddle Program included the type and number of interventions implemented, number of patients discussed, and …

Integrated Multi-Omic Characterization Of Congenital Heart Disease, Matthew C Hill, Zachary A Kadow, Hali Long, Yuka Morikawa, Thomas J Martin, Emma J Birks, Kenneth S Campbell, Jeanne Nerbonne, Kory Lavine, Lalita Wadhwa, Jun Wang, Diwakar Turaga, Iki Adachi, James F Martin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The heart, the first organ to develop in the embryo, undergoes complex morphogenesis that when defective results in congenital heart disease (CHD). With current therapies, more than 90% of patients with CHD survive into adulthood, but many suffer premature death from heart failure and non-cardiac causes1. Here, to gain insight into this disease progression, we performed single-nucleus RNA sequencing on 157,273 nuclei from control hearts and hearts from patients with CHD, including those with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and tetralogy of Fallot, two common forms of cyanotic CHD lesions, as well as dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. We …

Use Of Point-Of-Care Ultrasound And Focus-Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography To Diagnose Acute Right Heart Failure Due To Fat Emboli In A Parturient, Stephanie O Ibekwe, Varun Potluri, Raja Palvadi, Gavin T Best

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Fat embolism syndrome (FES), causing right heart dysfunction, is a rare disease that is often difficult to diagnose with imaging modalities such as computed tomography (CT). FES is the clinical presentation that follows the entry of fat globules into the systemic circulation, which typically results in respiratory failure, scattered petechiae, cardiovascular collapse, and neurological sequelae. It is mostly observed in the cases of orthopedic trauma but may occur in any circumstance where fat can enter the circulatory system. In this case report, the authors describe an atypical presentation of FES in a 24-week parturient. The use of bedside point-of-care ultrasonography …

Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown On The Management Of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Cross-Sectional Study, Vaishali Prajapati, Krishna Shah, Dhruvi Shah, Mayur B Wanjari, Deepika Singhal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Introduction Worldwide, diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the leading causes of vision loss. Early treatment and screening for DR have a major role in reducing the rate of the disease and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-related restrictions have altered real-world practice patterns in managing DR. Aims and objectives To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management of DR amongst patients presenting to a tertiary eye care center in Gujarat, India. Methods This is a cross-sectional study comparison of ophthalmic findings of 72 patients who presented to a tertiary care hospital with the manifestation of DR …

Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial Of Losartan For Pediatric Nafld, Miriam B Vos, Mark L Van Natta, Niviann M Blondet, Srinivasan Dasarathy, Mark Fishbein, Paula Hertel, Ajay K Jain, Saul J Karpen, Joel E Lavine, Saeed Mohammad, Laura A Miriel, Jean P Molleston, Marialena Mouzaki, Arun Sanyal, Emily P Sharkey, Jeffrey B Schwimmer, James Tonascia, Laura A Wilson, Stavra A Xanthakos, Nash Clinical Research Network

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To date, no pharmacotherapy exists for pediatric NAFLD. Losartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, has been proposed as a treatment due to its antifibrotic effects.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network conducted a multicenter, double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial in children with histologically confirmed NAFLD at 10 sites (September 2018 to April 2020). Inclusion criteria were age 8-17 years, histologic NAFLD activity score ≥ 3, and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ≥ 50 U/l. Children received 100 mg of losartan or placebo orally once daily for 24 weeks. The primary outcome was change in ALT …

A Sensor-Controlled Digital Game For Heart Failure Self-Care Based On Behavioral Change Frameworks, Kavita Radhakrishnan, Atami Sagna Demain, Christine Julien, Katelyn Leggio, Matthew O'Hair, Emily T Hebért Arsers, Grace Lee, Tom Baranowski

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Self-care behaviors are critical to manage the adverse impact of heart failure disease. However, engaging in self-care behaviors such as physical activity or daily weight-monitoring can be difficult due to lack of knowledge or motivation. Digital games can serve as an alternative to traditional patient education to provide information and motivate engagement in critical self-care behaviors. In this paper, we describe a sensor-controlled digital game (SCDG) in which game play is driven by the player's real life self-care behaviors. We also present the design and development of the next iteration of the SCDG based on playtesting results and behavioral theoretical …

Cross-Ancestry Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis Of 61,047 Cases And 947,237 Controls Identifies New Susceptibility Loci Contributing To Lung Cancer, Jinyoung Byun, Younghun Han, Yafang Li, Jun Xia, Erping Long, Jiyeon Choi, Xiangjun Xiao, Meng Zhu, Wen Zhou, Ryan Sun, Yohan Bossé, Zhuoyi Song, Ann Schwartz, Christine Lusk, Thorunn Rafnar, Kari Stefansson, Tongwu Zhang, Wei Zhao, Rowland W Pettit, Yanhong Liu, Xihao Li, Hufeng Zhou, Kyle M Walsh, Ivan Gorlov, Olga Gorlova, Dakai Zhu, Susan M Rosenberg, Susan Pinney, Joan E Bailey-Wilson, Diptasri Mandal, Mariza De Andrade, Colette Gaba, James C Willey, Ming You, Marshall Anderson, John K Wiencke, Demetrius Albanes, Stephan Lam, Adonina Tardon, Chu Chen, Gary Goodman, Stig Bojeson, Hermann Brenner, Maria Teresa Landi, Stephen J Chanock, Mattias Johansson, Thomas Muley, Angela Risch, H-Erich Wichmann, Heike Bickeböller, David C Christiani, Gad Rennert, Susanne Arnold, John K Field, Sanjay Shete, Loic Le Marchand, Olle Melander, Hans Brunnstrom, Geoffrey Liu, Angeline S Andrew, Lambertus A Kiemeney, Hongbing Shen, Shanbeh Zienolddiny, Kjell Grankvist, Mikael Johansson, Neil Caporaso, Angela Cox, Yun-Chul Hong, Jian-Min Yuan, Philip Lazarus, Matthew B Schabath, Melinda C Aldrich, Alpa Patel, Qing Lan, Nathaniel Rothman, Fiona Taylor, Linda Kachuri, John S Witte, Lori C Sakoda, Margaret Spitz, Paul Brennan, Xihong Lin, James Mckay, Rayjean J Hung, Christopher I Amos

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

To identify new susceptibility loci to lung cancer among diverse populations, we performed cross-ancestry genome-wide association studies in European, East Asian and African populations and discovered five loci that have not been previously reported. We replicated 26 signals and identified 10 new lead associations from previously reported loci. Rare-variant associations tended to be specific to populations, but even common-variant associations influencing smoking behavior, such as those with CHRNA5 and CYP2A6, showed population specificity. Fine-mapping and expression quantitative trait locus colocalization nominated several candidate variants and susceptibility genes such as IRF4 and FUBP1. DNA damage assays of prioritized genes in lung …

A Novel Approach To The Removal Of A Silastic Band Via The Peroral Endoscopic Tunneling-Silastic Bandectomy Technique, Wasif M Abidi, Salmaan Jawaid

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The peroral endoscopic tunneling-silastic bandectomy technique to remove a silastic band causing a vertical banded gastroplasty stenosis. This method is a viable alternative to surgical removal of foreign bodies outside the gastrointestinal lumen.

Proteomes Of Extracellular Vesicles From Pancreatic Cancer Cells And Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts, Sharon Pan, Lisa A Lai, Diane M Simeone, David W Dawson, Yuanqing Yan, Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, Ru Chen, Teresa A Brentnall

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid bound vesicles secreted by cells into the extracellular environment. Studies have implicated EVs in cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasis, angiogenesis, and mediating the interaction of tumor cells and microenvironment. A systematic characterization of EVs from pancreatic cancer cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) would be valuable for studying the roles of EV proteins in pancreatic tumorigenesis.

METHODS: Proteomic and functional analyses were applied to characterize the proteomes of EVs released from 5 pancreatic cancer lines, 2 CAF cell lines, and a normal pancreatic epithelial cell line (HPDE).

RESULTS: More than 1400 nonredundant proteins were identified …

Pathological Implication Of Protein Post-Translational Modifications In Cancer, Sheng Pan, Ru Chen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) profoundly influence protein functions and play crucial roles in essentially all cell biological processes. The diverse realm of PTMs and their crosstalk is linked to many critical signaling events involved in neoplastic transformation, carcinogenesis and metastasis. The pathological roles of various PTMs are implicated in all aspects of cancer hallmark functions, cancer metabolism and regulation of tumor microenvironment. Study of PTMs has become an important area in cancer research to understand cancer biology and discover novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. With a limited scope, this review attempts to discuss some PTMs of high frequency with recognized …

Performance Evaluation Of The Xt Microslide Assay Pairs On The Vitros Xt 7600 Compared To Vitros Single Microslide Assays On Vitros 5600, Lily Olayinka, Estella Tam, Sridevi Devaraj

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Pediatric hospitals are always challenged by specimen volumes and thus any innovation in this realm is very welcome. With the introduction of Microslide assay pairs, we aimed to evaluate the analytical performance of the Vitros XT MicroSlide assay pairs on the Vitros XT 7600 compared to single MicroSlides.

DESIGN: Performance characteristics included within-run precision, analytical measurable range, method comparison, and interference verification. We compared six XT MicroSlide pairs on the Vitros XT 7600 with twelve corresponding single slide assays on the Vitros 5600 system.

RESULTS: The XT MicroSlides on Vitros XT 7600 demonstrated excellent precision, equivalent analytical measurable range, …