Diseases Commons^™

Strengthening Neglected Tropical Disease Research Through Enhancing Research-Site Capacity: An Evaluation Of A Novel Web Application To Facilitate Research Collections, Tanzin Furtado, Samuel Franzen, Francois Van Loggerenberg, Gwenaelle Carn, Shannon Grahek, Megan Mcbride, Maureen Power, Barbara Savarese, Margaret Ann Snowden, Gwynn Stevens, Almarie Uys, Trudie Lang

Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rationale, Design, And Method Of The Diabetes & Women’S Health Study – A Study Of Long-Term Health Implications Of Glucose Intolerance In Pregnancy And Their Determinants, Cuilin Zhang, Frank B. Hu, Sjurdur F. Olsen, Allan Vaag, Robert Gore-Langton, Jorge E. Chavarro, Wei Bao, Edwina Yeung, Katherine Bowers, Louise Groth Grunnet, Seth Sherman, Michele Kiely, Marin Strøm, Susanne Hansen, Aiyi Liu, James Mills, Ruzong Fan

Publications and Research

Women who develop gestational diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy are at substantially increased risk for type 2 diabetes and comorbidities after pregnancy. Little is known about the role of genetic factors and their interactions with environmental factors in determining the transition from gestational diabetes mellitus to overt type 2 diabetes mellitus. These critical data gaps served as the impetus for this Diabetes & Women’s Health study with the overall goal of investigating genetic factors and their interactions with risk factors amenable to clinical or public health interventions in relation to the transition of gestational diabetes mellitus to …

Novel Biomarkers Can Be Used As Targets To Combat Cancer, Harini Krishnan

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Cancer kills almost 8 million people per year worldwide. Therefore, about 13 people die from cancer every minute. Clearly, current cancer treatments are not completely effective. Moreover, many chemotherapeutic reagents are not very specific for cancer cells.

These agents attack rapidly dividing cells, including a wide array of normal cells, in addition to cancer cells, in the body. This lack of specificity can cause collateral damage and significant side effects in patients. More targeted therapies are needed to successfully combat cancer. Specific cancer biomarkers need to identified and characterized in order to develop better targeted anti-cancer drugs.

Tumor cells can …

The Impact Of Polio Eradication On Routine Immunization And Primary Health Care: A Mixed-Methods Study, Svea Closser, Kelly Cox, Thomas M. Parris, R Matthew Landis, Judith Justice, Ranjani Gopinath, Kenneth Maes, Hailom Banteyerga Amaha, Ismaila Zango Mohammed, Rashid Jooma

Section of Neurosurgery

Background: After 2 decades of focused efforts to eradicate polio, the impact of eradication activities on health systems continues to be controversial. This study evaluated the impact of polio eradication activities on routine immunization (RI) and primary healthcare (PHC).
Methods: Quantitative analysis assessed the effects of polio eradication campaigns on RI and maternal healthcare coverage. A systematic qualitative analysis in 7 countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa assessed impacts of polio eradication activities on key health system functions, using data from interviews, participant observation, and document review.
Results: Our quantitative analysis did not find compelling evidence of widespread and …

Body Mass Index Or Body Fat! Which Is A Better Obesity Scale For Pakistani Population?, Syeda Sadia Fatima, Rehana Rehman, Bushra Chaudhry

Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences

Ojective: To compare two methods of classifying obesity based on body mass index and body fat percentage.
Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2012 to August 2013 at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi. Male and female volunteers between the ages 15-65 years were selected using simple random sampling. They were classified into different groups for body mass index and body fat percentage measured through bioelectrical impedance scale. The subjects were sub-grouped into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. SPSS 11 was used for statistical analysis.
Results: The mean age of the 828 healthy volunteers was 25.67±10.10 years. A …

Neural Stem Cells As A Model To Study Huntington’S Disease, Rawan Bakhsh

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a heritable neurodegenerative disorder that affects muscle coordination and diminishes cognitive abilities, by affecting the medium spiny neurons in the brain. In HD patients, neurons are damaged and destroyed because of the toxicity of the mutant Huntington protein (mHtt). The mechanism of how mHtt protein affects the neurons is unknown. In this study we explored the effects of mHtt expression by looking at changes in huntingtin localization, changes in the expression and co-localization of related proteins and differences in cell morphology. We examine how this expression affects the cytoskeletal structures using neural stem cells Q7 (wild …

Genome-Wide Association Study Of Saturated, Mono- And Polyunsaturated Red Blood Cell Fatty Acids In The Framingham Heart Offspring Study, Nathan L. Tintle, James V. Pottala, Sean Lacey, Vasan Ramachandran, Jason Westra, Ally Rogers, Jake Clark, Ben Olthoff, Martin Larson, William Harris, Gregory C. Shearer

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Most genome-wide association studies have explored relationships between genetic variants and plasma phospholipid fatty acid proportions, but few have examined apparent genetic influences on the membrane fatty acid profile of red blood cells (RBC). Using RBC fatty acid data from the Framingham Offspring Study, we analyzed over 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for association with 14 RBC fatty acids identifying 191 different SNPs associated with at least 1 fatty acid. Significant associations (p<1×10⁻⁸) were located within five distinct 1 MB regions. Of particular interest were novel associations between (1) arachidonic acid and PCOLCE2 (regulates apoA-I maturation …

Technical Performance Score Is Associated With Outcomes After The Norwood Procedure., Meena Nathan, Lynn A. Sleeper, Richard G. Ohye, Peter C. Frommelt, Christopher A. Caldarone, James S. Tweddell, Minmin Lu, Gail D. Pearson, J William Gaynor, Christian Pizarro, Ismee A. Williams, Steven D. Colan, Carolyn Dunbar-Masterson, Peter J. Gruber, Kevin Hill, Jennifer Hirsch-Romano, Jeffrey P. Jacobs, Jonathan R. Kaltman, S Ram Kumar, David Morales, Scott M. Bradley, Kirk Kanter, Jane W. Newburger, Pediatric Heart Network Investigators, Girish S. Shirali

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Objectives: The technical performance score (TPS) has been reported in a single center study to predict the outcomes after congenital cardiac surgery. We sought to determine the association of the TPS with outcomes in patients undergoing the Norwood procedure in the Single Ventricle Reconstruction trial.

Methods: We calculated the TPS (class 1, optimal; class 2, adequate; class 3, inadequate) according to the predischarge echocardiograms analyzed in a core laboratory and unplanned reinterventions that occurred before discharge from the Norwood hospitalization. Multivariable regression examined the association of the TPS with interval to first extubation, Norwood length of stay, death or transplantation, …

Antiretroviral Therapy Enrollment Characteristics And Outcomes Among Hiv-Infected Adolescents And Young Adults Compared With Older Adults — Seven African Countries, 2004–2013, Andrew F. Auld, Simon G. Agolory, Ray W. Shiraishi, Fred Wabwire-Mangen, Gideon Kwesigabo, Modest Mulenga, Sebastian Hachizovu, Emeka Asadu, Moise Zanga Tuho, Virginie Ettiegne-Traore, Francisco Mbofana, Velephi Okello, Charles Azih, Julie A. Denison, Sharon Tsui, Olivier Koole, Harrison Kamiru, Harriet Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha, Charity Alfredo, Kebba Jobarteh, Solomon Odafe, Dennis Onotu, Kunomboa A. Ekra, Joseph S. Kouakou, Peter Ehrenkranz, George Bicego, Kwasi Torpey, Ya Diul Mukadi, Eric Van Praag, Joris Menten, Timothy Mastro, Carol Dukes Hamilton, Mahesh Swaminathan, E. Kainne Dokubo, Andrew L. Baughman, Thomas Spira, Robert Colebunders, David R. Bangsberg, Richard Marlink, Aaron Zee, Jonathan Kaplan, Tedd V. Ellerbrock

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) since 2005 has contributed to a decline of about 30% in the global annual number of human immunodeficiency (HIV)–related deaths and declines in global HIV incidence, estimated annual HIV-related deaths among adolescents have increased by about 50%, and estimated adolescent HIV incidence has been relatively stable. In 2012, an estimated 2,500 (40%) of all 6,300 daily new HIV infections occurred among persons aged 15–24 years. Difficulty enrolling adolescents and young adults in ART and high rates of loss to follow-up (LTFU) after ART initiation might be contributing to mortality and HIV incidence in this …

Understanding Adherence To Daily And Intermittent Regimens Of Oral Hiv Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Among Men Who Have Sex With Men In Kenya, Peter Mwangi Mugo, Eduard J. Sanders, Gaudensia Mutua, Elisabeth Van Der Elst, Omu Anzala, Burc Barin, David Bangsberg, Frances H. Priddy, Jessica E. Haberer

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

A qualitative assessment of Kenyan men who have sex with men taking daily and intermittent oral HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) found stigma, sex work, mobility, and alcohol impacted adherence. We analyzed quantitative data from the same cohort to explore different definitions of intermittent adherence. Volunteers were randomized to daily emtricitabine/tenofovir or placebo, or intermittent (prescription: Mondays/Fridays/after sex, maximum1 dose/day)emtricitabine/tenofovir or placebo (2:1:2:1), and followed for 4 months. By electronic monitoring, median adherence for daily dosing was 80 %. Median adherence for intermittent dosing was 71 % per a ‘‘relaxed’’ definition (accounting for off-prescription dosing) and 40 % per a ‘‘strict’’ …

Arkansas Animal Science Department Report 2014, David L. Kreider, Paul Beck

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Non-Communicable Diseases Into Primary Health Care: A Snapshot From Eastern Mediterranean Region, Shehla Zaidi, Abdul Latif Khan, Aftab Ali Mukhi, Yousuf Memon, Slim Slama, Samer Jabbour

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Metformin And Erlotinib Synergize To Inhibit Basal Breast Cancer, Ying-Ka Ingar Lau, Xing Du, Vinayak Rayannavar, Benjamin Hopkins, Jacquelyn Shaw, Eliana Bessler, Tiffany Thomas, Maira M. Pires, Megan Keniry

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Basal-like breast cancers (BBCs) are enriched for increased EGFR expression and decreased expression of PTEN. We found that treatment with metformin and erlotinib synergistically induced apoptosis in a subset of BBC cell lines. The drug combination led to enhanced reduction of EGFR, AKT, S6 and 4EBP1 phosphorylation, as well as prevented colony formation and inhibited mammosphere outgrowth. Our data with other compounds suggested that biguanides combined with EGFR inhibitors have the potential to outperform other targeted drug combinations and could be employed in other breast cancer subtypes, as well as other tumor types, with activated EGFR and PI3K signaling. Analysis …

Occurrence Of Rift Valley Fever In Cattle In Ijara District, Kenya, Nelson O. Owange, William O. Ogara, Hippolyte Affognon, Gathura B. Peter, Jacqueline Kasiiti, Sam Okuthe, W. Onyango-Ouma, Tobias Landmann, Rosemary Sang, Murithi Mbabu

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Ijara district in Kenya was one of the hotspots of rift valley fever (RVF) during the 2006/2007 outbreak which led to human and animal deaths causing huge economic and public health losses. The main constraint in the control and prevention of RVF is inadequate knowledge on its occurrence during the interepidemic period. This study was aimed at understanding the occurrence of RVF in cattle in Ijara to enable the development of improved community-based disease surveillance, prediction, control and prevention.Six herds each 700-1000 cattle were identified with participatory involvement of locals and project technical team of the project. One animal per …

Another Major Supplement, Creatine, Proven Ineffective In The Fight Against Huntington's Disease, Kenneth P. Serbin

At Risk for Huntington's Disease

No abstract provided.

The Space I Own, Alison P. Lauro

SURGE

***TRIGGER WARNING: Eating Disorders***

I don’t care what anyone says—being a woman is hard. Being a young woman has its own set of complications–we experience a lot of pressure to look a certain way, to act a certain way, to have a specific friend group; to act as social butterflies and to live up to a set of socially constructed beauty standards. And there are too many girls—myself included—who have fallen victim to this impossible set of expectations. [excerpt]

Human Papillomavirus And The Gardasil Vaccine: Medicalization And The Gendering Of Bodies And Bodily Risk, Lauren Camara

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Septal Myectomy In Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy High Risk Patients, Heather Geist, Matthew W. Martinez Md, James K. Wu Md

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Agenda (Pdf), Lsu Health Sciences Center - New Orleans

Usher Syndrome in Louisiana

No abstract provided.

Improving Outcomes In Diabetic Patients, Daniel Tseytlin Do, Cheryl A. Bloomfield Md, Ranjit R. Nair Md, Carolyn Casey, Vlad Vlatsis Do, Maura Bucciarelli Do, Chris Kern Do, Stephen Awuor Md, Arsha Shreedhar Md, Ron Julia Jr. Md

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Role Of A Genetic Variant On The 15q25.1 Lung Cancer Susceptibility Locus In Smoking-Associated Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Xuemei Ji, Weidong Zhang, Jiang Gui, Xia Fan, Weiwei Zhang, Yafang Li, Guangyu An, Dakai Zhu, Qiang Hu

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: The 15q25.1 lung cancer susceptibility locus, containing CHRNA5, could modify lung cancer susceptibility and multiple smoking related phenotypes. However, no studies have investigated the association between CHRNA5 rs3841324, which has been proven to have the highest association with CHRNA5 mRNA expression, and the risk of other smoking-associated cancers, except lung cancer. In the current study we examined the association between rs3841324 and susceptibility to smoking-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: In this case-control study we genotyped the CHRNA5 rs3841324 polymorphism with 400 NPC cases and 491 healthy controls who were Han Chinese and frequency-matched by age (±5 years), gender, and …

Progressive Ataxia In An Aids Patient On Antiretroviral Therapy, Misbahuddin Syed Md

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Is The United States Prepared For Ebola?, Lawrence O. Gostin, James G. Hodge Jr., Scott Burris

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The West African Ebola epidemic is a humanitarian crisis and a threat to international security. It is not surprising that isolated cases have emerged in Europe and North America, but a large outbreak in the United States, with its advanced health system, is unlikely. Yet the handling of the first domestically diagnosed Ebola case in Dallas, Texas, raised concerns about national public health preparedness. What were the critical health system vulnerabilities revealed in Dallas, and how can the country respond more effectively to novel diseases in a globalized world?

Ebola: A Crisis In Global Health Leadership, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

At the core of the present Ebola crisis in West Africa is a lack of global health leadership. WHO should be the global health leader, following its constitutional charge, yet it is significantly under-resourced, having a direct effect on its rapid response capacity. The Organization's response to this crisis has been constantly behind, from low funding appeals to its delay in declaring this outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern under the binding International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). The IHR themselves have proven insufficient, as countries have failed to cooperate in building the public health capacities that …

Public Health In The Age Of Ebola In West Africa, Michael T. Osterholm, Kristine A. Moore, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Ebola epidemic, with its fast-growing toll and real potential for spreading into much of Africa, including major cities, has the makings of a “Black Swan” event. Such events, using the term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, are: 1) unpredictable, outside the realm of regular expectations; 2) have a major impact, and; 3) are rationalized after the fact as being explainable and predictable.

We have learned from this outbreak the potential for an infectious disease to be politically, economically, and socially destabilizing, and that what kills us may be very different from what frightens us or substantially affects our social …

Assessment Of Anthelmintic Efficacy Of Mebendazole In School Children In Six Countries Where Soil-Transmitted Helminths Are Endemic, Bruno Levecke, Antonio Montresor, Marco Albonico, Shaali M. Ame, Jerzy M. Behnke, Jeffrey M. Bethony, +15 Additional Authors

Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

Robust reference values for fecal egg count reduction (FECR) rates of the most widely used anthelmintic drugs in preventive chemotherapy (PC) programs for controlling soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm) are still lacking. However, they are urgently needed to ensure detection of reduced efficacies that are predicted to occur due to growing drug pressure. Here, using a standardized methodology, we assessed the FECR rate of a single oral dose of mebendazole (MEB; 500 mg) against STHs in six trials in school children in different locations around the world. Our results are compared with those previously obtained …

Smarter Vaccine Design Will Circumvent Regulatory T Cell-Mediated Evasion In Chronic Hiv And Hcv Infection, Leonard Moise, Frances Terry, Andres H. Gutierrez, Ryan Tassone, Phyllis Losikoff, Stephen H. Gregory, Chris Bailey-Kellogg

Dartmouth Scholarship

Despite years of research, vaccines against HIV and HCV are not yet available, due largely to effective viral immunoevasive mechanisms. A novel escape mechanism observed in viruses that cause chronic infection is suppression of viral-specific effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells by stimulating regulatory T cells (Tregs) educated on host sequences during tolerance induction. Viral class II MHC epitopes that share a T cell receptor (TCR)-face with host epitopes may activate Tregs capable of suppressing protective responses. We designed an immunoinformatic algorithm, JanusMatrix, to identify such epitopes and discovered that among human-host viruses, chronic viruses appear more human-like than viruses …

Analysis Of Differential Mrna And Mirna Expression In An Alzheimer’S Disease Mouse Model, Amanda Hazy, Matthew Dalton

Other Undergraduate Scholarship

Research has shown that changes in gene expression play a critical role in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Our project will evaluate genome-wide RNA expression patterns from brain and blood in an AD mouse model. This analysis will provide insight regarding the mechanisms of AD pathology as well as determine a possible diagnostic tool utilizing RNA expression patterns found in the blood as biomarkers for AD.

Asynchronous Remodeling Is A Driver Of Failed Regeneration In Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Sherry Dadgar, Zuyi Wang, Helen Johnston, Akanchha Kesari, Kanneboyina Nagaraju, Yi-Wen Chen, D. Ashley Hill, Terence A. Partridge, Robert J. Freishtat, Javad Nazarian, Jianhua Xuan, Yue Wang, Eric P. Hoffman

Genomics and Precision Medicine Faculty Publications

We sought to determine the mechanisms underlying failure of muscle regeneration that is observed in dystrophic muscle through hypothesis generation using muscle profiling data (human dystrophy and murine regeneration). We found that transforming growth factor β-centered networks strongly associated with pathological fibrosis and failed regeneration were also induced during normal regeneration but at distinct time points. We hypothesized that asynchronously regenerating microenvironments are an underlying driver of fibrosis and failed regeneration. We validated this hypothesis using an experimental model of focal asynchronous bouts of muscle regeneration in wild-type (WT) mice. A chronic inflammatory state and reduced mitochondrial oxidative capacity are …

Olfactory Dysfunction Predicts 5-Year Mortality In Older Adults, Jayant M. Pinto, Kristen E. Wroblewski, David W. Kern, L Phillip Schumm, Martha K. Mcclintock

Psychology & Gerontology Faculty Publications

Prediction of mortality has focused on disease and frailty, although antecedent biomarkers may herald broad physiological decline. Olfaction, an ancestral chemical system, is a strong candidate biomarker because it is linked to diverse physiological processes. We sought to determine if olfactory dysfunction is a harbinger of 5-year mortality in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project [NSHAP], a nationally representative sample of older U.S. adults. 3,005 community-dwelling adults aged 57–85 were studied in 2005–6 (Wave 1) and their mortality determined in 2010–11 (Wave 2). Olfactory dysfunction, determined objectively at Wave 1, was used to estimate the odds of 5-year, …