Respiratory Tract Diseases Commons^™

Novel Mechanisms Of Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Lung Fibrosis, Joe E. Mouawad

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), also known as scleroderma, is an autoimmune disorder that affects the connective tissues and has the highest mortality rate among the rheumatic diseases. One of the hallmarks of SSc is fibrosis, which may develop systemically, affecting the skin and virtually any visceral organ in the body. Fibrosis of the lungs leads to interstitial lung disease (ILD), which is currently the leading cause of death in SSc. The identification of effective treatments to stop or reverse lung fibrosis has been the main challenge in reducing SSc mortality and improving patient outcomes and quality of life. Currently, only two …

Increases In Group A Streptococcal Infections In The Pediatric Population In Houston, Tx, 2022, Aya Aboulhosn, Misu A Sanson, Luis Alberto Vega, Maria G Segura, Lauren M Summer, Marritta Joseph, J Chase Mcneil, Anthony R Flores

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Beginning in October 2022, we observed a substantial increase in the total number of cases of invasive GAS disease (iGAS) in the pediatric population in Houston, TX. Emm12 GAS strains were disproportionately represented but the overall proportion of iGAS infections observed during the current spike was similar to pre-pandemic years.

Efficacy And Safety Of Azithromycin Versus Placebo To Treat Lower Respiratory Tract Infections Associated With Low Procalcitonin: A Randomised, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind, Non-Inferiority Trial, Ephraim L Tsalik, Nadine G Rouphael, Ruxana T Sadikot, Maria C Rodriguez-Barradas, Micah T Mcclain, Dana M Wilkins, Christopher W Woods, Geeta K Swamy, Emmanuel B Walter, Hana M El Sahly, Wendy A Keitel, Mark J Mulligan, Bonifride Tuyishimire, Elisavet Serti, Toshimitsu Hamasaki, Scott R Evans, Varduhi Ghazaryan, Marina S Lee, Ebbing Lautenbach, Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group, Trap-Lrti Study Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Lower respiratory tract infections are frequently treated with antibiotics, despite a viral cause in many cases. It remains unknown whether low procalcitonin concentrations can identify patients with lower respiratory tract infection who are unlikely to benefit from antibiotics. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of azithromycin versus placebo to treat lower respiratory tract infections in patients with low procalcitonin.

METHODS: We conducted a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, non-inferiority trial at five health centres in the USA. Adults aged 18 years or older with clinically suspected non-pneumonia lower respiratory tract infection and symptom duration from 24 h to 28 …

Treatment Outcomes For Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease: A Real-World, Multisite Study Of The Impact Of Immunosuppression On Pulmonary Function Trajectory, Scott M Matson, Misbah Baqir, Teng Moua, Michael Marll, Jessica Kent, Nicholas S Iannazzo, Ryan D Boente, John M Donatelli, Junqiang Dai, Francisco J Diaz, M Kristen Demoruelle, Mark B Hamblin, Susan K Mathai, Jay H Ryu, Kristen Pope, Christopher M Walker, Joyce S Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) is common in patients with RA and leads to significant morbidity and mortality. No randomized, placebo-controlled data are available that support the role of immunosuppression to treat RA-associated ILD, despite being widely used in clinical practice.

RESEARCH QUESTION: How does immunosuppression impact pulmonary function trajectory in a multisite retrospective cohort of patients with RA-associated ILD?

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Patients with RA who started treatment for ILD with mycophenolate, azathioprine, or rituximab were identified retrospectively from five ILD centers. Change in lung function before and after treatment was analyzed using a linear …

Ferroptosis Hijacking By Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Boyi Gan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A recent study from Nature Communications reveals that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can hijack epigenetic machinery in host cells and induce host cell ferroptosis, which promotes pathogen pathogenicity and spread. These findings also suggest new therapeutic strategies to treat tuberculosis.

Risk Factors For Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome After Initial Detection Of Pulmonary Impairment After Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Mansour Alkhunaizi, Badar Patel, Luis Bueno, Neel Bhan, Tahreem Ahmed, Muhammad H Arain, Rima Saliba, Gabriela Rondon, Burton F Dickey, Lara Bashoura, David E Ost, Liang Li, Shikun Wang, Elizabeth Shpall, Richard E Champlin, Rohtesh Mehta, Uday R Popat, Chitra Hosing, Amin M Alousi, Ajay Sheshadri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pulmonary chronic graft-versus-host-disease (cGVHD), or bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), is a highly morbid complication of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). The clinical significance of a single instance of pulmonary decline not meeting the criteria for BOS is unclear. We conducted a retrospective analysis in a cohort of patients who had an initial post-HCT decline in the absolute value of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) of ≥10% or mid-expiratory flow rate of ≥25% but not meeting the criteria for BOS (pre-BOS). We examined the impact of clinical variables in patients with pre-BOS on the risk for subsequent BOS. Pre-BOS developed …

Immunocompromised Host Pneumonia: Definitions And Diagnostic Criteria: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report, Guang-Shing Cheng, Kristina Crothers, Stefano Aliberti, Anne Bergeron, Michael Boeckh, Jason W Chien, Catia Cilloniz, Keira Cohen, Nathan Dean, Charles S Dela Cruz, Robert P Dickson, Alexander L Greninger, Chadi A Hage, Tobias M Hohl, Steven M Holland, Barbara E Jones, Joseph Keane, Mark Metersky, Rachel Miller, Anne Puel, Julio Ramirez, Marcos I Restrepo, Ajay Sheshadri, Bashar Staitieh, Jeffrey Tarrand, Kevin L Winthrop, Richard G Wunderink, Scott E Evans

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pneumonia imposes a significant clinical burden on people with immunocompromising conditions. Millions of individuals live with compromised immunity because of cytotoxic cancer treatments, biological therapies, organ transplants, inherited and acquired immunodeficiencies, and other immune disorders. Despite broad awareness among clinicians that these patients are at increased risk for developing infectious pneumonia, immunocompromised people are often excluded from pneumonia clinical guidelines and treatment trials. The absence of a widely accepted definition for immunocompromised host pneumonia is a significant knowledge gap that hampers consistent clinical care and research for infectious pneumonia in these vulnerable populations. To address this gap, the American Thoracic …

Phase 1a Clinical Study For Q-Griffithsin Intranasal Spray For Prevention Of Coronavirus, Megan Bezold, Kenneth Palmer, Nobuyuki Matoba, Elizabeth Cash

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmissible virus that causes acute respiratory disease with possible long-term complications, known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Griffithsin (GRFT; including the oxidation-resistant variant Q-GRFT used in this study) is an algal carbohydrate-binding protein exhibiting antiviral effects against many enveloped viruses, including all major variants of SARS- CoV-2 reported to date. Q-GRFT has been recombinantly manufactured in Nicotiana benthamiana plants, thoroughly purified, and formulated as an intranasal spray designed to be developed as a non-vaccine broad-spectrum prophylactic product for acute use. This is the first-in-human, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The …

View-Sharing For 4d Magnetic Resonance Imaging With Randomized Projection-Encoding Enables Improvements Of Respiratory Motion Imaging For Treatment Planning In Abdominothoracic Radiotherapy, Ergys Subashi, Li Feng, Yilin Liu, Scott Robertson, Paul Segars, Bastiaan Driehuys, Christopher R Kelsey, Fang-Fang Yin, Ricardo Otazo, Jing Cai

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The accuracy and precision of radiation therapy are dependent on the characterization of organ-at-risk and target motion. This work aims to demonstrate a 4D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for improving spatial and temporal resolution in respiratory motion imaging for treatment planning in abdominothoracic radiotherapy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The spatial and temporal resolution of phase-resolved respiratory imaging is improved by considering a novel sampling function based on quasi-random projection-encoding and peripheral k-space view-sharing. The respiratory signal is determined directly from k-space, obviating the need for an external surrogate marker. The average breathing curve is used to optimize …

Mechanical Ventilation In Patients With Cardiogenic Pulmonary Edema: A Sub-Analysis Of The Lung Safe Study, Laura Amado-Rodríguez, Raquel Rodríguez-Garcia, Giacomo Bellani, Tài Pham, Eddy Fan, Fabiana Madotto, John G Laffey, Guillermo M Albaiceta, Lung Safe Investigators

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Patients with acute respiratory failure caused by cardiogenic pulmonary edema (CPE) may require mechanical ventilation that can cause further lung damage. Our aim was to determine the impact of ventilatory settings on CPE mortality.

METHODS: Patients from the LUNG SAFE cohort, a multicenter prospective cohort study of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation, were studied. Relationships between ventilatory parameters and outcomes (ICU discharge/hospital mortality) were assessed using latent mixture analysis and a marginal structural model.

RESULTS: From 4499 patients, 391 meeting CPE criteria (median age 70 [interquartile range 59-78], 40% female) were included. ICU and hospital mortality were 34% and 40%, …

An Outbreak Of A Novel Recombinant Coxsackievirus A4 In A Kindergarten, Shandong Province, China, 2021, Juan Li, Nan Ni, Yanan Cui, Shuai Zong, Xue Yao, Tao Hu, Mengyuan Cao, Yong Zhang, Peiqiang Hou, Michael J Carr, Weijia Xing, Hong Zhou, Weifeng Shi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In 2021, twenty children exhibiting influenza-like illnesses were reported from a kindergarten in Shandong Province, China. Eleven genomes of Coxsackievirus A4 (CV-A4) were obtained from the pediatric cases, sharing <93% genome sequence identities with known CV-A4 strains. Further analyses suggested potential genetic recombination in the P3 region of the novel strains.

Airway Mucus Dysfunction In Covid-19, Burton F Dickey, Jichao Chen, R Stokes Peebles

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Immunogenomic Profiling Of Lung Adenocarcinoma Reveals Poorly Differentiated Tumors Are Associated With An Immunogenic Tumor Microenvironment, Neal Akhave, Jiexin Zhang, Erin Bayley, Meredith Frank, Shin-Heng Chiou, Carmen Behrens, Runzhe Chen, Xin Hu, Edwin Roger Parra, Won-Chul Lee, Stephen Swisher, Luisa Solis, Annikka Weissferdt, Cesar Moran, Neda Kalhor, Jianhua Zhang, Paul Scheet, Ara A Vaporciyan, Boris Sepesi, Don L Gibbons, John V Heymach, Jack J Lee, Ignacio I Wistuba, P Andrew Futreal, Jianjun Zhang, Junya Fujimoto, Alexandre Reuben

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Pathologists have routinely observed distinct histologic patterns of growth in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), which have been suggested to be associated with prognosis. Herein, we investigated the relationship between LUAD patterns of growth, as defined by the updated international association for the study of lung cancer (IASLC) grading criteria, and differences in the tumor immune microenvironment to identify predictors of response to immunotherapy.

METHODS: 174 resected stage I-III LUAD tumors were classified by histologic pattern of growth (i.e. solid, micropapillary, acinar, papillary, and lepidic) and then grouped as well differentiated, moderately differentiated, and poorly differentiated. Comprehensive multiplatform analysis including …

Gastrointestinal Microbiome Disruption And Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea In Children Receiving Antibiotic Therapy For Community-Acquired Pneumonia, Jiye Kwon, Yong Kong, Martina Wade, Derek J Williams, Clarence Buddy Creech, Scott Evans, Emmanuel B Walter, Judy M Martin, Jeffrey S Gerber, Jason G Newland, Meghan E Hofto, Mary Allen Staat, Henry F Chambers, Vance G Fowler, W Charles Huskins, Melinda M Pettigrew

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is a common side effect of antibiotics. We examined the gastrointestinal microbiota in children treated with β-lactams for community-acquired pneumonia. Data were from 66 children (n = 198 samples), aged 6-71 months, enrolled in the SCOUT-CAP trial (NCT02891915). AAD was defined as ≥1 day of diarrhea. Stool samples were collected on study days 1, 6-10, and 19-25. Samples were analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to identify associations between patient characteristics, microbiota characteristics, and AAD (yes/no). Nineteen (29%) children developed AAD. Microbiota compositional profiles differed between AAD groups (permutational multivariate analysis of variance, P < .03) and across visits (P < .001). Children with higher baseline relative abundances of 2 Bacteroides species were less likely to experience AAD. Higher baseline abundance of Lachnospiraceae and amino acid biosynthesis pathways were associated with AAD. Children in the AAD group experienced prolonged dysbiosis (P < .05). Specific gastrointestinal microbiota profiles are associated with AAD in children.

Identifying A Glucocorticoid-Activated Gpcr That Rapidly And Non-Genomically Increases Camp Levels In Mammalian Cells, Francisco Nunez

Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are steroid hormones that regulate diverse physiological processes. Synthetic versions of GCs are commonly used to treat inflammatory diseases such as asthma by modulating gene expression to suppressing several inflammatory activities. However, it is estimated that 5-10% of asthmatics are unresponsive to GCs, which may be explained by receptor desensitization and/or the presence of a neutrophilic endotype. One understudied phenomenon of GCs is their ability to induce rapid, non-genomic actions. For example, GCs can acutely modulate calcium concentrations levels, induce smooth muscle relaxation and modulate nitric oxide synthase activity, within minutes and sometimes seconds, which is too rapid …

Identification Of Pneumococcal Membrane Proteins Involved In Colonization/Biofilm Formation And Cognate Host Cellular Receptors, Yoonsung Hu

Theses and Dissertations

Colonization is prerequisite for infection and transmission of Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus. Currently available pneumococcal conjugate and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines can provide protection against a limited number of capsular serotypes. Implementation of vaccines has decreased the frequency of invasive pneumococcal disease and their colonization rates, but only in a serotype-dependent manner. This has led to serotype replacement in pneumococcal ecology and increased invasive disease caused by non-vaccine serotypes. Development of conserved protein-based vaccine that can provide protection against all pneumococcal serotypes is needed. Numerous surface proteins are conserved in all serotypes, and some are known to be involved in …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Efficacy Of Various Essential Oils Against The Sars Cov-2 Virus, Elizabeth Wagstaff, Chandrelyn Kraczek, Jack Brandon Lopez

Annual Research Symposium

A poster presentation and abstract for the Roseman Symposium. The project focuses on testing 3 essential oil blends and two disinfectants containing an essential oil blend against SARS CoV-2 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project procedure involves plaque assays, disinfection, and neutralization techniques.

Implementation Of A Drive-Through Covid-19 Mass Vaccination Site: Experiences From Louvax–Broadbent In Louisville, Kentucky, Ruth Carrico, Sarah Beth Hartlage, Valenchia Brown Msn, Aprn, Fnp-C, Sarah M. Bishop, Luanne Didelot, William Hayden, Beverly Williams Coleman, Sarah Tan, Delanor Manson, Kellie Kane, Dawn Balcom, Paul Kern

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Background: Response to the COVID-19 pandemic has required innovative approaches to vaccination, including methods to rapidly and safely immunize communities. A major challenge to such a response involved access to untapped healthcare worker resources. The Louisville, Kentucky, response involved the use of a large volunteer workforce to supplement local public health employees in planning and implementing a large-scale drive-through vaccination event. The objective of this manuscript was to outline processes involved in training a mass immunization workforce and implementating a large-scale COVID-19 community vaccination.

Approach: Competency-based and standardized training was provided for every volunteer before working their shift. Volunteers worked …

Pulmonary Function And Blood Dna Methylation: A Multiancestry Epigenome-Wide Association Meta-Analysis, Mikyeong Lee, Tianxiao Huan, Daniel L. Mccartney, Geetha Chittoor, Maaike De Vries, Lies Lahousse, Jennifer N. Nguyen, Jennifer A. Brody, Juan Castillo-Fernandez, Natalie Terzikhan, Cancan Qi, Roby Joehanes, Josine L. Min, Gordon J. Smilnak, Jessica R. Shaw, Chen Xi Yang, Elena Colicino, Thanh T. Hoang, Mairead L. Bermingham, Hanfei Xu, Anne E. Justice, Cheng-Jian Xu, Stephen S. Rich, Simon R. Cox, Judith M. Vonk, Ivana Prokić, Nona Sotoodehnia, Pei-Chien Tsai, Joel D. Schwartz, Janice M. Leung, Sinjini Sikdar, Rosie M. Walker, Sarah E. Harris, Diana A. Van Der Plaat, David J. Van Den Berg, Traci M. Bartz, Tim D. Spector, Pantel S. Vokonas, Riccardo E. Marioni, Adele M. Taylor, Yongmei Liu, R. Graham Barr, Leslie A. Lange, Andrea A. Baccarelli, Ma'en Obeidat, Myriam Fornage, Tianyuan Wang, James M. Ward, Alison A. Motsinger-Reif, Gibran Hemani, Gerard H. Koppelman, Jordana T. Bell, Sina A. Gharib, Guy Brusselle, H. Marike Boezen, Kari E. North, Daniel Levy, Kathryn L. Evans, Josée Dupris, Charles E. Breeze, Ani Manichaikul, Stephanie J. London

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Rationale: Methylation integrates factors present at birth and modifiable across the lifespan that can influence pulmonary function. Studies are limited in scope and replication.

Objectives: To conduct large-scale epigenome-wide meta-analyses of blood DNA methylation and pulmonary function.

Methods: Twelve cohorts analyzed associations of methylation at cytosine-phosphate-guanine probes (CpGs), using Illumina 450K or EPIC/850K arrays, with FEV₁, FVC, and FEV₁/FVC. We performed multiancestry epigenome-wide meta-analyses (total of 17,503 individuals; 14,761 European, 2,549 African, and 193 Hispanic/Latino ancestries) and interpreted results using integrative epigenomics.

Measurements and Main Results: We identified 1,267 CpGs (1,042 genes) differentially methylated (false discovery …

Assessment Of Combined Modality Therapy For Non-Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma: A Simulation Study Concerning Concurrent Chemo-Brachytherapy, Hadi Rezaei, Hesameddin Mostaghimi, Ali Reza Mehdizadeh

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Although surgery is the treatment of choice for early-stage non-small-cell lung carcinoma, almost two-thirds of patients do not have acceptable pulmonary function for extensive surgeries. The alternative approach for this large group of patients is sublobar resection along with low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy (BT). However, patients with resected lungs have a high risk of recurrence and are often treated with platinum-based (Pt-based) chemotherapy (CT). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the absorbed doses of lung and other thoracic organs, considering concurrent chemo-BT with LDR sources in two modalities: conventional vs. unconventional Pt-based CT. We used the MCNPX code for simulations …

Modeling Recurrence In Idiopathic Subglottic Stenosis With Mobile Peak Expiratory Flow, Kyle Kimura, Liping Du, Lynn D Berry, Li-Ching Huang, Sheau-Chiann Chen, David O Francis, Alexander Gelbard

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: We sought to establish normative peak expiratory flow (PEF) data for patients with idiopathic subglottic stenosis (iSGS), evaluate whether immediate changes in PEF after a procedure predict long-term treatment response, and test if a decline in longitudinal PEF is associated with disease recurrence.

STUDY DESIGN: International, prospective, 3-year multicenter cohort study of 810 patients with untreated, newly diagnosed, or previously treated iSGS.

METHODS: iSGS patients consented and enrolled in the North American Airway Collaborative (NoAAC) iSGS

RESULTS: Within the NoAAC iSGS1000 cohort, 810 patients participated in a 3-year, prospective study comparing surgical treatment efficacy and 385 had appropriate PEF …

Role Of Gut Microbiome In Covid-19: An Insight Into Pathogenesis And Therapeutic Potential, Ikram Hussain, Gabriel Liu Yuan Cher, Muhammad Abbas Abid, Muhammad Bilal Abid

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulted in an unprecedented global crisis. Although primarily a respiratory illness, dysregulated immune responses may lead to multi-organ dysfunction. Prior data showed that the resident microbial communities of gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts act as modulators of local and systemic inflammatory activity (the gut-lung axis). Evolving evidence now signals an alteration in the gut microbiome, brought upon either by cytokines from the infected respiratory tract or from direct infection of the gut, or both. Dysbiosis leads to a "leaky gut". The intestinal permeability then allows access to …

Global, Regional, And National Sex Differences In The Global Burden Of Tuberculosis By Hiv Status, 1990-2019: Results From The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2019, Jorge R. Ledesma, Hmwe Hmwe Kyu, Arianna Maever L. Amit, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Gbd 2019 Tuberculosis Collaborators, 328 Co-Authors

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Tuberculosis is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, causing more than a million deaths annually. Given an emphasis on equity in access to diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in global health targets, evaluations of differences in tuberculosis burden by sex are crucial. We aimed to assess the levels and trends of the global burden of tuberculosis, with an emphasis on investigating differences in sex by HIV status for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019.

Methods

We used a Bayesian hierarchical Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) platform to analyse 21 505 site-years of vital …

Assesment Of Antibiotic Resistant Gene Expression In Clinical Isolates Of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Dustin Esmond

Biology Theses

Increasing prevalence of nosocomial infections by antimicrobial resistant pathogens resulting in higher mortality rates and financial burden is of great concern. Pseudomonas aeruginosa represents one of six highly virulent “ESKAPE” pathogens that exhibit considerable intrinsic drug resistance as well as mechanisms for acquiring further resistance. As many of these mechanisms are regulated through gene expression, we sought to identify regulatory strategies and patterns at play in 23 clinical isolates collected from Baku, Azerbaijan and Tyler, Texas, USA. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed on six gene targets implicated in resistance and contrasted with antibiotic phenotypes. We found AmpC cephalosporinase …

Engineering And Characterization Of Human Β-Defensin-3 And Its Analogues And Microcin J25 Peptides Against Mannheimia Haemolytica And Bovine Neutrophils, Harpreet Dhingra, Kamaljit Kaur, Baljit Singh

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Mannheimia haemolytica-induced bovine respiratory disease causes loss of millions of dollars to Canadian cattle industry. Current antimicrobials are proving to be ineffective and leave residues in meat. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) may be effective against M. haemolytica while minimizing the risk of drug residues. Cationic AMPs can kill bacteria through interactions with the anionic bacterial membrane. Human β-Defensin 3 (HBD3) and microcin J25 (MccJ25) are AMPs with potent activity against many Gram-negative bacteria. We tested the microbicidal activity of wild-type HBD3, three HBD3 peptide analogues (28 amino acid, 20AA, and 10AA) derived from the sequence of natural HBD3, and MccJ25 …

Predictors Of Mortality In Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients: A Mexican Population-Based Cohort Study., Fernando Mesta Dr., Ángel Mario Coll Dr., Miguel Ángel Ramírez M.Sc., Livan Delgado-Roche Dr.

BioMedicine

Objectives. COVID-19 outbreak brings a challenge to healthcare systems. The sex, age, and cardiometabolic comorbidities have been considered risk factors for disease severity. To evaluate the association between risk factors with death as well the risk of death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Methods. The present cross-sectional cohort study, includes hospitalized SARS‑CoV‑2 confirmed cases. Data analysis was performed using the National COVID‑19 Cases Report Database. Pearson´s χ² test and odds ratios (95% CI) were calculated to determine the association between variables. Thereafter, risk of death was evaluated by Cox proportional hazards model.

Results. A total of 67 …

Sodium Pyruvate Ameliorates Influenza A Virus Infection In Vitro And In Vivo, Jessica M. Reel

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Pyruvate is produced in duplicate at the end of glycolysis in addition to ATP and NADH. Pyruvate is the metabolite of choice in most cells, whether obtained exogenously or endogenously. Recently we found that the addition of pyruvate’s conjugate base, sodium pyruvate, to cell culture media dampened the immune response to influenza A virus (IAV) infection in cultured innate immune cells. Thus, I decided to investigate the mechanism and potential for treatment of IAV. In vitro using bone marrow derived macrophages that were infected with IAV we found that adding sodium pyruvate to the media decreased immune signaling pathways through …

H1n1 Influenza Virus (Swine Flu): A Comprehensive Insight Into Escalating Catch-22 Scenarios, Muhammad Shahzaib, Ehsan Ul Haq

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

Introduction: Viruses have always been a major cause of various disastrous pandemics in mankind’s history. H1N1 became a threat when its original strain was first discovered back in the swine flu pandemic of 2009. It became highly catastrophic on a large scale because none of the therapeutic interventions and methodologies that were already present at the time were effective against the virus.

Methods: A vast amount of literature and research is available regarding H1N1 influenza from different reputable sources online. The data were gathered with the contrasting and relative situations of 1918 and 2009 pandemics in mind. The overall extracted …

Ambient Air Quality And The Risk For Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Among Metro Manila Development Authority Traffic Enforcers In Metro Manila: An Exploratory Study, Xerxes Seposo, Audrey Lynn A. Arcilla, Jose Guillermo N. De Guzman Iii, Enrico Miguel S. Dizon, Andrea Nova R. Figuracion, Christina Micaela M. Morales, Pauleenaa Katriona A. Tugonon, Geminn Louis C. Apostol

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background

Air pollution and poor ambient air quality are significantly related to multiple health risks. One associated disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a preventable disease with several contributing factors and one of the leading causes of morbidity/mortality locally and globally. A potentially high-risk population are traffic enforcers who are constantly exposed to air pollution. In the Philippines, the MMDA has the widest coverage in traffic management. The study determined the risk of COPD among Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic enforcers in relation to ambient air quality level, as well as identified other factors that increase the risk …

Anti-Inflammatory Effects Of Α7-Nicotinic Ach Receptors Are Exerted Through Interactions With Adenylyl Cyclase-6, Simeng Zhu, Shiqian Huang, Guofang Xia, Jin Wu, Yan Shen, Ying Wang, Rennolds S. Ostrom, Ailian Du, Chengxing Shen, Congfeng Xu

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background and purpose

Alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (CHRNA7) suppress inflammation through diverse pathways in immune cells, so is potentially involved in a number of inflammatory diseases. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying CHRNA7’s anti‐inflammatory effects remain elusive.

Experimental approach

The anti‐inflammatory effects of CHRNA7 agonists in both murine macrophages (RAW 264.7) and bone marrow‐derived macrophages (BMDM) stimulated with LPS were examined. The role of adenylyl cyclase 6 (AC6) in Toll‐like Receptor 4 (TLR4) degradation was explored via overexpression and knockdown. A mouse model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was used to confirm key findings.

Results

Anti‐inflammatory effects of CHRNA7 were …