Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Single-Chain Variable Fragments: Targeting Snake Venom Phospholipase A2 And Serine Protease, Ying Jia, Ariane Garcia, Elizabeth Reyes

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Snakebite is a critical global public health issue, causing substantial mortality and morbidity, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. The development of innovative antivenoms targeting snake venom toxins is therefore of paramount importance. In this study, we adopted an epitope-directed approach to design three degenerate 15-mer peptides based on amino acid sequence alignments of snake venom phospholipase A2s (PLA2s) and snake venom serine proteases (SVSPs) from snake (Crotalus atrox). By leveraging their immunogenic and inhibitory profiles, these peptides were specifically designed to target the Asp49 and Lys49 variants of PLA2 and SVSP toxins. Groups of five mice were immunized with …

The Quic-Sp: A Spanish Language Tool Assessing Unpredictability In Early Life Is Linked To Physical And Mental Health, Sabrina R. Liu, Natasha A. Bailey, Sara Romero-González, Amy Moors, Belinda Campos, Elysia P. Davis, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Accumulating evidence indicates that unpredictable signals in early life represent a unique form of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) associated with disrupted neurodevelopmental trajectories in children and adolescents. The Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC) was developed to assess early life unpredictability, encompassing social, emotional, and physical unpredictability in a child’s environment, and has been validated in three independent cohorts. However, the importance of identifying ACEs in diverse populations, including non-English speaking groups, necessitates translation of the QUIC. The current study aims to translate and validate a Spanish language version of the QUIC (QUIC-SP) and assess its associations with mental and …

Adverse Side Effects Of Hemodialysis In Patients With End-Stage Chronic Renal Disease At Kassala Dialysis Center, Sudan, Muzamil Ahmed, Mustafa Khairelseed, Muzdlefa Ahmed, Mutaz Mohammed, Mutaz Omara

Iraqi National Journal of Medicine

Background: Hemodialysis is a treatment for advanced renal failure; however, various complications can arise following the procedure. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the incidence of adverse side effects during hemodialysis in patients with chronic renal failure. Methods: This descriptive hospital-based study was conducted on 105 patients treated with hemodialysis between November 2020 and January 2021 at the Kassala Dialysis Center in Kassala City, Kassala State, Sudan. Data were collected through interviews using a questionnaire designed to address the research questions. The data were analyzed using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16. Results: The findings indicated …

Case Report: A Durable Response To Anastrozole Re-Challenge With Everolimus In A Patient With Advanced-Stage Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer, Vincent Emma P Weiss

Iraqi National Journal of Medicine

Estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease characterized by its dependence on estrogen for growth and progression. Although hormonal therapy remains the cornerstone of treatment, many patients eventually develop resistance, leading to recurrence and disease progression. This case report describes a durable response to a rechallenge with Anastrozole (Arimidex) in combination with Everolimus (Afinitor), an mTOR inhibitor, in a patient with advanced (stage IV) ER+ metastatic breast cancer.

Heartmate 3 Left Ventricular Assist Device Infection-Related Left Ventricular Pseudoaneurysm: Extirpation In The Setting Of Left Ventricular Recovery, Hari K. Rajagopal, Mark J. Zucker, J. Eduardo Rame, Louis E. Samuels, Keshava Rajagopal

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

A Paper-Based Hpv E7 Oncoprotein Assay For Cervical Precancer Detection At The Point Of Care, Chelsey A Smith, Sai Paul, Karen E Haney, Sonia G Parra, Meaghan Bond, Leticia López, Mauricio Maza, Juan Felix, Preetha Ramalingam, Pablo Escobar, Philip E Castle, Kathleen M Schmeler, Rebecca R Richards-Kortum

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cervical cancer, while preventable through screening and treatment of cervical precancer, remains a global challenge with a disproportionately high burden of disease in resource-limited settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Lack of affordable, easy-to-use screening and diagnostic tests contributes to this disparity. Most commercially available tests are not appropriate for use in LMICs due to resource constraints. Specifically, HPV mRNA and oncoprotein tests that have high specificity for cervical precancer and cancer require complex sample preparation protocols and expensive instrumentation. To address these limitations, an HPV E7 oncoprotein assay for HPV16, 18, and 45 was developed that is …

Spatial Transcriptome Reveals Histology-Correlated Immune Signature Learnt By Deep Learning Attention Mechanism On H&E-Stained Images For Ovarian Cancer Prognosis, Chun Wai Ng, Kwong-Kwok Wong, Barrett C Lawson, Sammy Ferri-Borgogno, Samuel C Mok

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The ability to predict the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer can greatly improve disease management. However, the knowledge on the mechanism of the prediction is limited. We sought to deconvolute the attention feature learnt by a deep learning convolutional neural networks trained with whole-slide images (WSIs) of hematoxylin-and-eosin (H&E)-stained tumor samples using spatial transcriptomic data.

Methods: In this study, 773 WSIs of H&E-stained tumor sections from 335 patients with treatment naïve high-grade serous ovarian cancer who were included in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-Cancer study were used to train, and validate, and to test a ResNet101 CNN …

Joint Fluid Multi-Omics Improves Diagnostic Confidence During Evaluation Of Children With Presumed Septic Arthritis, Yolanda Peña-López, Naureen G Tareen, Bo Zhang, Indu Raman, Carlos A Arana, Chengsong Zhu, Yang Liu, Pratibha Selvakumar, Nicolai S C Van Oers, Simrat Morris, Lora V Hooper, Lawson A B Copley, Prithvi Raj

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: An accurate diagnosis of septic versus reactive or autoimmune arthritis remains clinically challenging. A multi-omics strategy comprising metagenomic and proteomic technologies were undertaken for children diagnosed with presumed septic arthritis to advance clinical diagnoses and care for affected individuals.

Methods: Twelve children with suspected septic arthritis were prospectively enrolled to compare standard of care tests with a rapid multi-omics approach. The multi-omics combined bacterial 16S rRNA metagenomics, single cell transcriptomics, and proteomics on knee joint fluid specimens. The diagnostic value of the multi-omics was ascertained relative to standard of care culture and PCR-negative results.

Results: Ten children with suspected …

Atm Expression And Activation In Ataxia Telangiectasia Patients With And Without Class Switch Recombination Defects, Fereshte Salami, Tannaz Moeini Shad, Nazanin Fathi, Hanieh Mojtahedi, Marzie Esmaeili, Sepideh Shahkarami, Ladan Gol Mohammad Pour Afrakoti, Parisa Amirifar, Samaneh Delavari, Hassan Nosrati, Azadehsadat Razavi, Mohammad Reza Ranjouri, Mahsa Yousefpour, Zahra Hamidi Esfahani, Gholamreza Azizi, Mahmoudreza Ashrafi, Nima Rezaei, Reza Yazdani, Hassan Abolhassani

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase plays a critical role in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair. Ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) patients exhibit abnormalities in immunoglobulin isotype expression and class switch recombination (CSR). This study investigates the role of residual ATM kinase expression and activity in the severity of A-T disease.

METHODS: A-T patients with defined genetic diagnoses were classified based on CSR and based on the severity of their medical complications. Isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from any patient were evaluated before and after exposure to 0.5 Gy ionizing radiation for one minute. Western blotting was performed to identify the expression …

Piezo1-Mediated Mechanotransduction Regulates Collagen Synthesis On Nanostructured 2d And 3d Models Of Fibrosis, Neda Rashidi, Natalia S Harasymowicz, Alireza Savadipour, Nancy Steward, Ruhang Tang, Sara Oswald, Farshid Guilak

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Progressive fibrosis can lead to tissue malfunction and organ failure due to the pathologic accumulation of a collagen-rich extracellular matrix. In vitro models provide useful tools for deconstructing the roles of specific biomechanical or biological mechanisms, such as substrate micro- and nanoscale architecture, in these processes for identifying potential therapeutic targets. Here, we investigated how the mechanosensitive ion channel PIEZO1 influences fibrotic gene and protein expression in adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs). Specifically, we examined the role of PIEZO1 and the mechanosensitive transcription factors YAP/TAZ in sensing aligned or non-aligned substrate architecture to regulate collagen formation. We utilized both 2D microphotopatterned …

Dna Polymerase Zeta Can Efficiently Replicate Structures Formed By At/Ta Repeat Sequences And Prevent Their Deletion, Mili Das, Suzanne E Hile, Jennifer Brewster, Jan Leendert Boer, Rachel Bezalel-Buch, Qiong Guo, Wei Yang, Peter M Burgers, Kristin A Eckert, Catherine H Freudenreich

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Long AT repeat tracts form non-B DNA structures that stall DNA replication and cause chromosomal breakage. AT repeats are abundant in human common fragile sites (CFSs), genomic regions that undergo breakage under replication stress. Using an in vivo yeast model system containing AT-rich repetitive elements from human CFS FRA16D, we find that DNA polymerase zeta (Pol ζ) is required to prevent breakage and subsequent deletions at hairpin and cruciform forming (AT/TA)n sequences, with little to no role at an (A/T)28 repeat or a control non-structure forming sequence. DNA polymerase eta is not protective for deletions at AT-rich structures, while DNA …

Methylgrapher: Genome-Graph-Based Processing Of Dna Methylation Data From Whole Genome Bisulfite Sequencing, Wenjin Zhang, Juan F Macias-Velasco, Xiaoyu Zhuo, Edward A Belter, Chad Tomlinson, John Garza, Nina Tekkey, Daofeng Li, Ting Wang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Genome graphs, including the recently released draft human pangenome graph, can represent the breadth of genetic diversity and thus transcend the limits of traditional linear reference genomes. However, there are no genome-graph-compatible tools for analyzing whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) data. To close this gap, we introduce methylGrapher, a tool tailored for accurate DNA methylation analysis by mapping WGBS data to a genome graph. Notably, methylGrapher can reconstruct methylation patterns along haplotype paths precisely and efficiently. To demonstrate the utility of methylGrapher, we analyzed the WGBS data derived from five individuals whose genomes were included in the first Human Pangenome …

The Gift Of Life, Nicole Gunawansa

Eastern Virginia Medical Journal

This article does not have an Abstract

Perspectives On A Recently Merged Family Medicine Residency Program: A Post-Match Survey Of Ranked, Unmatched Applicants, John E. Snellings, Karo G. Ohanian, Ismail El Moudden

Eastern Virginia Medical Journal

Introduction: Residency program mergers are a topic of much consternation and relatively little scholarly investigation in graduate medical education. After undergoing a residency merger in July 2020, the newly formed Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) Family Medicine Residency Program investigated the effects of the merger on the perspectives of the applicant pool for the subsequent 2020–2021 recruiting season. Methods: We conducted an anonymous survey of EVMS Family Medicine applicants during the 2020– 2021 recruiting season. Students who interviewed with the residency and were subsequently placed on the program’s National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) rank order list (ROL) but did not …

A Half Century Of Criminalizing Serious Mental Illness: Observations And Considerations, Arthur J. Lurigio

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

This article describes the difficulties of working with people with serious mental illnesses (PSMIs) at every stage of the criminal justice process—from arrest to post- incarceration release from prison. The needs of PSMI for mental health and social services are complex and require different case management plans and strategies at various points in the process. Severe mental illnesses (SMIs), such as schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder, stem from abnormalities in the brain structure and neuroprocessing that cause significant distress and dysfunction. People with serious mental illnesses typically suffer from a variety of other related problems (e.g., addiction) that can …

Mental Health Courts: Is There Any Hope For Mental Illness In An Outdated Criminal Justice System?, Brock Imel

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Mental health awareness is an ever-growing field of study that has garnered more attention in America after the COVID-19 pandemic. As far back as colonial America, mental illness was considered taboo in society and often reprimanded with punishable crimes. This article seeks to divulge into the history of mental health and its relation to the law, as well as how the creation of mental health courts has led to a decrease in recidivism.

This article aims to provide the reader with an understanding of the evolving field of mental health courts and provide state legislatures foundational knowledge for creating and …

A More Than Virtual Glimpse Into Academia, Jared Bergman

Virginia Dental Journal

Jared Bergman, a VCU dental student, rekindled his passion for teaching through the ADEA ADCFP fellowship, integrating virtual reality into dental education and pursuing a career in oral and maxillofacial surgery.

The Biggest Yet, Rob Marino

Virginia Dental Journal

The Third Annual Piedmont Smiles MOM event, held on November 2, 2024, at Liberty High School in Bealeton, provided essential dental care to 267 residents from rural communities. Supported by various foundations and local businesses, the event featured volunteer dentists and students from VCU and Howard University. The record turnout highlighted the growing need for affordable dental care in the region.

Dental Detective Series - Word Search, Zaneta Hamlin Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Virginia Board Of Dentistry Meeting Notes December 13, 2024, Ursula Klostermyer Dds, Phd

Virginia Dental Journal

The Virginia Board of Dentistry (BOD) meeting on December 13, 2024, covered various topics, including the approval of previous meeting minutes, updates on regulatory matters, and discussions on the dental workforce shortage, particularly concerning dental hygienists. The BOD considered proposals to allow foreign-trained dentists to perform dental hygiene duties and to increase dental hygiene program class sizes to address the shortage. The meeting also included reports on recent conferences, the adoption and repeal of several guidance documents, and a review of disciplinary actions. The BOD plans to respond to a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding dental hygienist …

Revisiting Your Communications Strategies In 2025, Michaela Mishoe

Virginia Dental Journal

Refresh your dental practice's communication strategies in 2025 by updating your website, leveraging email marketing, using AI tools for content creation, and planning ahead with a social media editorial calendar.

From The Headlines, Adel Rizkalla Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

Experts warn that some dentists are unnecessarily extracting healthy teeth for profit through implants, raising ethical concerns about patient autonomy, nonmaleficence, and veracity in dental care.

Through The Looking Glass, Sarah Glass

Virginia Dental Journal

Through the Looking Glass with Dr. Sarah Glass" explores various oral pathology cases presented by Collin Johnson, a third-year dental student.

2025 Dental Days At The Capitol, Laura Givens

Virginia Dental Journal

The Virginia Dental Association (VDA) held its 2025 Dental Days at the Capitol event in Richmond, where dentists, dental students, and other dental professionals gathered to advocate for the profession. Governor Glenn Youngkin and Senator Todd Pillion, DDS, addressed the attendees, highlighting recent initiatives to expand dental coverage, access, workforce, and education. The event focused on addressing the dental workforce shortage and included meetings with legislators to discuss key issues. Participants were encouraged to contact their legislators, sign up for legislative alerts, and contribute to the VDA Political Action Committee.

Vda Pac Update, Laura Givens

Virginia Dental Journal

The VDA PAC Update calls for Virginia Dental Association (VDA) members to contribute to the VDA Political Action Committee (PAC) to ensure dentistry's interests are represented in the 2025 Virginia General Assembly session. Members can contribute through the VDA website or when paying their dues.

Commit To Supporting Your Team’S Mental Health With Safehaven, Shannon Jacobs

Virginia Dental Journal

The Virginia Dental Association (VDA) has partnered with the Medical Society of Virginia to offer the SafeHaven™ program to its members, their teams, and immediate family members. SafeHaven™ provides confidential support for mental health and well-being, including peer coaching, counseling services, leadership development, peer support groups, and a WorkLife Concierge. The program aims to help dental professionals manage stress, burnout, and other mental health challenges without fear of stigma or professional consequences.

Trust Is Not Given; It Is Earned, Ryan Dunn

Virginia Dental Journal

Ryan Dunn, CEO of the Virginia Dental Association, emphasizes the importance of trust in the dental profession and the association's efforts. He highlights the erosion of trust in institutions and media, noting that people increasingly rely on their own research and local sources. Dunn suggests strategies for maintaining trust, including engaging with patients respectfully, leveraging local components, using alternative media, and empowering members to share the benefits of the association.

Transforming Dentistry, James Mercer Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

Dr. James Mercer, the new ADA Trustee for the 16th District, discusses the ADA's innovative approach to membership revenue growth. He acknowledges his predecessor, Dr. Gary Oyster, and shares his background in oral maxillofacial surgery. Dr. Mercer emphasizes the need for uncoupling dues from financial sustainability and increasing non-dues revenue to allow for a low monthly subscription to membership. He highlights the ADA's transformational changes under the leadership of Dr. Ray Cohlmia, the new executive director, who aims to increase membership and non-dues revenue.

You’Ve Got Mail, Sarah Friend Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

The Virginia Dental Journal has transitioned to a digital-only publication as of 2025, following a decision by the Virginia Dental Association’s Board of Directors in September 2023. This change aligns with the broader shift towards digital communication. The Journal is now accessible through the ADA Commons platform, which offers secure, long-term storage and increased discoverability. The platform also allows authors to contribute and access readership metrics. The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) will also switch to digital in 2025. Readers are encouraged to ensure their email addresses are up to date to receive notifications about new editions.

Involved Or Committed, Justin Norbo Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

Dr. Justin Norbo, in his message, emphasizes the importance of being fully present and committed in various roles, whether in professional or personal life. He reflects on a speech by ADA President Dr. Brett Kessler, who highlighted the need for leaders to focus on their current responsibilities without distractions. Dr. Norbo extends this idea, urging members of the Virginia Dental Association (VDA) to not just be involved but to be committed to making a difference. He encourages members to actively participate in VDA activities, recruit new members, support the VDA PAC, and volunteer for community services. The overarching message is …