Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Breakthrough Medicines During The Covid-19 Pandemic Era, Eswara Naga Hanuma Kumar Ghali, Vijian Dhevan, Shravan K. Narmala, Meena Jaggi, Subhash C. Chauhan, Murali M. Yallapu

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Photography: A Culturally Sensitive Bereavement Aid?, Rebecca M. Reséndiz Rodriguez

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Rare Coding Variants In Rcn3 Are Associated With Blood Pressure, Karen Y. He, Tanika N. Kelly, Heming Wang, Jingjing Liang, Luke Zhu, Brian E. Cade, Themistocles L. Assimes, Lewis C. Becker, Amber L. Beitelshees, Ravi Duggirala

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Background: While large genome-wide association studies have identified nearly one thousand loci associated with variation in blood pressure, rare variant identification is still a challenge. In family-based cohorts, genome-wide linkage scans have been successful in identifying rare genetic variants for blood pressure. This study aims to identify low frequency and rare genetic variants within previously reported linkage regions on chromosomes 1 and 19 in African American families from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Genetic association analyses weighted by linkage evidence were completed with whole genome sequencing data within and across TOPMed ancestral groups consisting of 60,388 individuals of …

In Silico Cd4 + T-Cell Multiepitope Prediction And Hla Distribution Analysis For Marburg Virus—A Strategy For Vaccine Designing, Anupam Dhasmana, Swati Dhasmana, Ahmad Alsulimani, Sudhir Kotnala, Vivek Kumar Kashyap, Shafiul Haque, Meena Jaggi, Murali M. Yallapu, Subhash C. Chauhan

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Marburg, a RNA virus (MRV), is responsible for causing hemorrhagic fever that affects humans and non-human primates. World Health Organization (WHO), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considered this as an extremely dangerous virus, thus categorised as risk group 4, category A priority pathogen and category “A” bioterrorism agent, respectively. Despite of all these alarming concerns, no prophylaxis arrangements are available against this virus till date. In fact, the construction of immunogenic vaccine candidates by traditional molecular immunology methods is time consuming and very expensive. Considering these concerns, herein, we have designed CD4 …

The Ctsa University Of Texas Health Science Center (Uthsc) Northeast—Tyler And Rio Grande Valley Success Story: How Rural, Underserved Academic Communities Rapidly Built A Robust Engine For Collaborative Covid-19 Clinical Research, Steven Idell, David D. Mcpherson, Jessica Martin, Andrew N. Dentino, Luis Ostrosky- Zeichner, Julia V. Philley, Paul Mcgaha, Megan Devine, Jacqueline Bronicki, Daniel D. Karp

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

In 2018, The University of Texas Health Science Center– Tyler and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley were invited to develop clinical research units for an existing Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium with the objective to equip medically underserved, economically disadvantaged communities and subsequently to deploy COVID-19 clinical trials in response to a public health emergency.

Physical Activity Level And Stroke Risk In Us Population: A Matched Case-Control Study Of 102,578 Individuals, Sherief Ghozy, Ahmad Helmy Zayan, Amr Ehab El-Qushayri, Kate Elizabeth Parker, Joseph Varney, Kevin M. Kallmes, Sara Morsy, Alzhraa Salah Abbas, Jose Danilo B Diestro, Ameer E. Hassan

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Background: Stroke has been linked to a lack of physical activity; however, the extent of the association between inactive lifestyles and stroke risk has yet to be characterized across large populations.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the association between activity-related behaviors and stroke incidence.

Methods: Data from 1999 to 2018 waves of the concurrent cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were extracted. We analyzed participants characteristics and outcomes for all participants with data on whether they had a stroke or not and assessed how different forms of physical activity affect the incidence of disease.

Results: Of the …

The Impact Of Aging On The Lung Alveolar Environment, Predetermining Susceptibility To Respiratory Infections, Jordi B. Torrelles, Blanca I. Restrepo, Yidong Bai, Corinna Ross, Larry S. Schlesinger, Joanne Turner

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Respiratory infections are one of the top causes of death in the elderly population, displaying susceptibility factors with increasing age that are potentially amenable to interventions. We posit that with increasing age there are predictable tissue-specific changes that prevent the immune system from working effectively in the lung. This mini-review highlights recent evidence for altered local tissue environment factors as we age focusing on increased tissue oxidative stress with associated immune cell changes, likely driven by the byproducts of age-associated inflammatory disease. Potential intervention points are presented.

Phage-Encoded Cationic Antimicrobial Peptide Required For Lysis, Ashley Holt, Jesse Cahill, Jolene Ramsey, Cody Martin, Chandler O’Leary, Russell Moreland Iii, Lori T. Maddox, Thushara Galbadage, Riti Sharan, Preeti Sule

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Abstract: Most phages of Gram-negative bacteria hosts encode spanins for disruption of the outer membrane, which is the last step in host lysis. However, bioinformatic analysis indicates that ∼15% of these phages lack a spanin gene, suggesting they have an alternate way of disrupting the outer membrane (OM). Here, we show that the T7-like coliphage phiKT causes an explosive cell lysis associated with spanin activity despite not encoding spanins. A putative lysis cassette cloned from the phiKT late gene region includes the hypothetical novel gene 28 located between the holin and endolysin genes and supports inducible lysis in Escherichia …

Fbxw7-Mediated Erk3 Degradation Regulates The Proliferation Of Lung Cancer Cells, Hyun-Jung An, Cheol-Jung Lee, Ga-Eun Lee, Youngwon Choi, Dohyun Jeung, Weidong Chen, Hye Suk Lee, Han Chang Kang, Joo Young Lee, Dae Joon Kim

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 3 (ERK3) is an atypical member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, members of which play essential roles in diverse cellular processes during carcinogenesis, including cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and invasion. Unlike other MAPKs, ERK3 is an unstable protein with a short half-life. Although deubiquitination of ERK3 has been suggested to regulate the activity, its ubiquitination has not been described in the literature. Here, we report that FBXW7 (F-box and WD repeat domain-containing 7) acts as a ubiquitination E3 ligase for ERK3. Mammalian two-hybrid assay and immunoprecipitation results demonstrated that ERK3 is a novel binding partner …

Adipose Tissue Uses In Peripheral Nerve Surgery, Allison Podsednik, Raysa Cabrejo, Joseph Rosen

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Currently, many different techniques exist for the surgical repair of peripheral nerves. The degree of injury dictates the repair and, depending on the defect or injury of the peripheral nerve, plastic surgeons can perform nerve repairs, grafts, and transfers. All the previously listed techniques are routinely performed in human patients, but a novel addition to these peripheral nerve surgeries involves concomitant fat grafting to the repair site at the time of surgery. Fat grafting provides adipose-derived stem cells to the injury site. Though fat grafting is performed as an adjunct to some peripheral nerve surgeries, there is no clear evidence …

Genetic Influences On Dentognathic Morphology In The Jirel Population Of Nepal, Anna M. Hardin, Ryan P. Knigge, Dana L. Duren, Sarah Williams-Blangero, Janardan Subedi, Michael Mahaney, Richard J. Sherwood

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Patterns of genetic variation and covariation impact the evolution of the craniofacial complex and contribute to clinically significant malocclusions in modern human populations. Previous quantitative genetic studies have estimated the heritabilities and genetic correlations of skeletal and dental traits in humans and nonhuman primates, but none have estimated these quantitative genetic parameters across the dentognathic complex. A large and powerful pedigree from the Jirel population of Nepal was leveraged to estimate heritabilities and genetic correlations in 62 maxillary and mandibular arch dimensions, incisor and canine lengths, and post-canine tooth crown areas (N ≥ 739). Quantitative genetic parameter estimation was performed …

Enigma-Anxiety Working Group: Rationale For And Organization Of Large-Scale Neuroimaging Studies Of Anxiety Disorders, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Nynke A. Groenewold, Moji Aghajani, Gabrielle F. Freitag, Anita Harrewijn, Kevin Hilbert, Neda Jahanshad, Sophia I. Thomopoulos, Paul M. Thompson, Anderson M. Winkler

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and disabling but seem particularly tractable to investigation with translational neuroscience methodologies. Neuroimaging has informed our understanding of the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, but research has been limited by small sample sizes and low statistical power, as well as heterogenous imaging methodology. The ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group has brought together researchers from around the world, in a harmonized and coordinated effort to address these challenges and generate more robust and reproducible findings. This paper elaborates on the concepts and methods informing the work of the working group to date, and describes the initial approach of the …

Genetic And Genomic Architecture In Eight Strains Of The Laboratory Opossum Monodelphis Domestica, Xiao Xiong, Paul B. Samollow, Wenqi Cao, Richard Metz, Chao Zhang, Ana C. Leandro, John L. Vandeberg, Xu Wang

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

The gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica) is an established laboratory-bred marsupial model for biomedical research. It is a critical species for comparative genomics research, providing the pivotal phylogenetic outgroup for studies of derived vs ancestral states of genomic/epigenomic characteristics for eutherian mammal lineages. To characterize the current genetic profile of this laboratory marsupial, we examined 79 individuals from eight established laboratory strains. Double digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing and whole-genome resequencing experiments were performed to investigate the genetic architecture in these strains. A total of 66,640 highquality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified. We analyzed SNP density, average heterozygosity, nucleotide …

Research Symposium 2022: International Conference On Health Disparities: Treatment And Recovery From Opioid And Alcohol Use Disorders And Related Comorbidities (Ichd-Recover), The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley. School Of Medicine

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Highlights From International Conference On Cancer Health Disparities 2021, Murali M. Yallapu, Jorge L. Teniente, Andrew Tsin, Subhash C. Chauhan

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

The first International Conference on Cancer Health Disparities (ICCHD) was held on August 13-14, 2021, in Harlingen, TX, USA. This two-day ICCHD-2021 was organized by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, School of Medicine (UTRGV-SOM). About 200 national and international delegates from 10 countries attended this hybrid meeting in person and through online digital platforms. The event delegates were representatives from National Institutes of Health (NIH), Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), and the City of Harlingen, in addition to clinicians, faculty, researchers, scientists, bioinformaticians, geneticists, bioethicists, and others. Under the theme of Cancer Health Disparities, this …

Threat Imminence Reveals Links Among Unfolding Of Anticipatory Physiological Response, Cortical-Subcortical Intrinsic Functional Connectivity, And Anxiety, Rany Abend, Sonia G. Ruiz, Mira A. Bajaj, Anita Harrewijn, Julia O. Linke, Lauren Y. Atlas, Anderson M. Winkler, Daniel S. Pine

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Excessive expression of fear responses in anticipation of threat occurs in anxiety, but understanding of underlying pathophysiological mechanisms is limited. Animal research indicates that threat-anticipatory defensive responses are dynamically organized by threat imminence and rely on conserved circuitry. Insight from basic neuroscience research in animals on threat imminence could guide mechanistic research in humans mapping abnormal function in this circuitry to aberrant defensive responses in pathological anxiety.

50 pediatric anxiety patients and healthy-comparisons (33 females) completed an instructed threat-anticipation task whereby cues signaled delivery of painful (threat) or non-painful (safety) thermal stimulation. Temporal changes in skin-conductance indexed anxiety effects on …

The Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics Through Meta-Analysis Consortium: 10 Years Of Global Collaborations In Human Brain Mapping, Paul M. Thompson, Neda Jahanshad, Lianne Schmaal, Jessica A. Turner, Anderson M. Winkler, Sophia I. Thomopoulos, Gary F. Egan, Peter Kochunov

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

This Special Issue of Human Brain Mapping is dedicated to a 10-year anniversary of the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium. It reports updates from a broad range of international neuroimaging projects that pool data from around the world to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience. Since ENIGMA was formed in December 2009, the initiative grew into a worldwide effort with over 2,000 participating scientists from 45 countries, and over 50 working groups leading large-scale studies of human brain disorders. Over the last decade, many lessons were learned on how best to pool brain data from diverse sources. Working groups …

The International Database Of Central Arterial Properties For Risk Stratification: Research Objectives And Baseline Characteristics Of Participants, Lucas S. Aparicio, Qi-Fang Huang, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Dong-Mei Wei, Lutgarde Thijs, Fang-Fei Wei, Natasza Gilis-Malinowska, Chang-Sheng Sheng, José Boggia, Teemu J. Niiranen

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

OBJECTIVE

To address to what extent central hemodynamic measurements, improve risk stratification, and determine outcome-based diagnostic thresholds, we constructed the International Database of Central Arterial Properties for Risk Stratification (IDCARS), allowing a participant-level meta-analysis. The purpose of this article was to describe the characteristics of IDCARS participants and to highlight research perspectives.

METHODS

Longitudinal or cross-sectional cohort studies with central blood pressure measured with the SphygmoCor devices and software were included.

RESULTS

The database included 10,930 subjects (54.8% women; median age 46.0 years) from 13 studies in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. The prevalence of office hypertension was 4,446 …

Liver Cystic Disease, Alfarooq Alshaikhli, Alsadiq Al-Hillan

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Hepatic cysts (HCs) have been a common reason for consultation by gastroenterologists and hepatologists. HCs are defined as small abnormal fluid-filled lesions that develop within the liver tissue and usually arise from within hepatocytes, biliary cell epithelium, mesenchymal tissue, or metastases from extrahepatic organs. Hepatic cysts can be from an infectious or non-infectious source. They are common and usually asymptomatic. This activity reviews the evaluation and treatment of liver cystic lesions and highlights the role of the interprofessional team in evaluating and treating patients with this condition.

Objectives:

• Describe the etiology of different hepatic cyst lesions.
• Identify the most common …

Management Of Oral Cavity Mucormycosis In A Ketoacidotic Patient With Targeted Debridement And A Palate Obturator, Jennifer Adams, Adam Bender-Heine

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

Mucormycosis is an opportunistic mycosis common in poorly-controlled insulin dependent diabetic patients particularly with ketoacidosis. It often begins as a nasal and paranasal sinus infection with inhalation of spores into the paranasal sinuses of a susceptible host. In this case report we review the clinical symptoms, relevant imaging, and management of a diabetic patient with mucormycosis threatening his better seeing eye. This case report offers the clinician a review of important clinical and diagnostic findings that can help direct the need for orbital exenteration. In addition, various reconstruction options are considered to help guide informed management.

Mega‐Analysis Methods In Enigma: The Experience Of The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Working Group, André Zugman, Anita Harrewijn, Elise M. Cardinale, Hannah Zwiebel, Gabrielle F. Freitag, Katy E. Werwath, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Nynke A. Groenewold, Moji Aghajani, Anderson M. Winkler

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

The ENIGMA group on Generalized Anxiety Disorder (ENIGMA-Anxiety/GAD) is part of a broader effort to investigate anxiety disorders using imaging and genetic data across multiple sites worldwide. The group is actively conducting a mega-analysis of a large number of brain structural scans. In this process, the group was confronted with many methodological challenges related to study planning and implementation, between-country transfer of subject-level data, quality control of a considerable amount of imaging data, and choices related to statistical methods and efficient use of resources. This report summarizes the background information and rationale for the various methodological decisions, as well as …