Medical Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating The Association Of Influenza Vaccination On Long-Term Covid-19 Symptoms In U.S. Adults, Ratnakar Pingili

Capstone Experience

Objective. To evaluate the association of influenza vaccination in the past 12 months with Long COVID effects and clinical and sociodemographic factors.

Methods. Cross-sectional study with data from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), covering 415,132 non-institutionalized U.S. adults with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and influenza vaccination reported within the last 12 months. Logistic regression was conducted between influenza vaccination (exposure) and Long COVID (outcome), controlling for demographic variables, pre-existing health conditions, and socioeconomic status.

Results. Of 120,603 participants, 21.89% reported Long COVID symptoms and 42.04% had received an influenza vaccine. Findings indicate a statistically significant 13% reduction …

Psychological Trauma Alters T-Lymphocyte Inflammation And Redox Through Sympathetic Mechanisms, Safwan K. Elkhatib

Theses & Dissertations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating psychiatric disorder characterized by distinctive symptom clusters, including intrusive memories (i.e., flashbacks), avoidance of related stimuli, affective changes, and hyperarousal. Strikingly, patients with PTSD face a significantly increased risk for a number of inflammation-driven pathologies, ranging from cardiovascular to autoimmune disease. Yet, the exact etiology of this increased risk remains unknown. The immune system is known to be strongly influenced by the sympathetic nervous system, and sympathetic overactivity is a hallmark of PTSD. Lymphoid organs, such as the spleen, are richly innervated by sympathetic nerve fibers which terminate near adaptive immune …

Erα As A Modulator Of The Sle1b Lupus Susceptibility Locus And B Cell Receptor Signaling, Jared H. Graham

Theses & Dissertations

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by loss of immune tolerance and the production of anti-nuclear autoantibodies. 90% of lupus patients are women, and this sex bias is due to the actions of estrogens, which promote lupus pathogenesis. Our lab has shown that estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) mediates the effect of estrogens in lupus and that ERa acts in a B cell intrinsic manner to promote the development of autoantibodies and SLE. Genetic factors also contribute to lupus. One major lupus susceptibility locus, Sle1, controls loss of tolerance and autoantibody development as well as immune cell …

Molecular Pathogenesis Of A Novel Subgroup Of Peripheral T-Cell Lymphomas, Jiayu Yu

Theses & Dissertations

Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma (PTCL) consists of numerous distinct disease entities. With the current diagnostic criteria over a third of the cases cannot be further classified and are called "not otherwise specified" (PTCL-NOS). Using gene expression profiling (GEP) of tumors, we identified two novels PTCL-NOS molecular subgroups either characterized by high expression of GATA3 (33%), which is associated with Th2 cell differentiation, or high expression of TBX21 (49%) which regulates Th1 cell maturation. Therefore, stratifying patients for diagnosis and identifying the underlying genetic basis to improve clinical therapy becomes critical to prognosis.

First, we performed DNA copy number analysis by using …

Monocyte Anti-Inflammatory Activity Is Dictated By Metabolic Status During Staphylococcus Aureus Biofilm Infection, Kelsey J. Yamada

Theses & Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus biofilms represent a significant cause of morbidity and economic burden and are often associated with nosocomial infections, including medically implanted devices. In particular, prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) are a growing concern due to the continued increase in orthopedic procedures. Staphylococcal species cause >50% of all PJIs, while S. aureus represents the most invasive and associated with the most morbidity. S. aureus-associated biofilm infections are recalcitrant to antibiotic therapy, due to both the acquisition of genetic elements and metabolic dormancy. Furthermore, S. aureus biofilm infections remain chronic because they cannot be cleared by the immune system. Recent studies …

Sequence-Specific Extracellular Micrornas Activate Tlr7, Niming Wu

Theses & Dissertations

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in the innate immune system. Emerging evidence shows that TLRs, especially endosomal TLRs, can participate in CNS diseases by increasing the production of proinflammatory cytokines via recognition of microRNAs (miRNAs), however which of the miRNAs are able to activate signaling and whether specific sequence motifs are involved remains incompletely defined. Here we found that numerous miRNAs induced TNF-a production across multiple myeloid cell types, including microglia, and that this effect was abolished in cells deficient of TLR7. In particular, miR-20a-5p and miR-148b-3p preferentially stimulate cytokine secretion compared to miR-20b-5p and miR-148a-3p, respectively, despite …

Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Regulate Mammary Tumor Growth And Metastasis By Modulating Tissue Microenvironments, Saraswoti Khadge

Theses & Dissertations

Omega (ω)-6 and ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential fatty acids (FAs) and the precursors of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators respectively. Epidemiological studies have shown a lower incidence of breast cancer (BC) in the countries where long-chain (LC)-ω-3FAs consumption is higher; however, the role of ω-3FAs in BC growth and metastasis is poorly understood. We used isocaloric, isolipidic ω-6 and ω-3 (contains LC-ω-3FAs) diets and a pair-fed model to evaluate the effects of dietary PUFAs in mammary tumor metastasis. Our studies have resulted in several novel observations including that dietary LC-ω-3FAs modulate mammary gland (MG) microenvironments in non-tumor bearing …

Microrna Expression And Disease Correlation In A Hispanic Lupus Cohort, Thandiwe Jere

Theses & Dissertations

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease with varying clinical presentation and severity in different ethnicities/races. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) modulate the immune system, and there is a growing interest in their role in SLE pathogenesis and disease presentation. Studies on miRNAs expression in SLE have been done in Caucasians and Asians but no comprehensive profiling has been done in Hispanics. This cross-sectional study of a Hispanic cohort of SLE patients (n =185) and healthy controls (HC) (n =185) from the Dominican Republic determined the expression of 10 selected miRNAs and their correlation to inflammatory markers and auto-antibody production in …

Muc4 Based Immunotherapy For Pancreatic Cancer, Kasturi Banerjee

Theses & Dissertations

Pancreatic Cancer (PC) is a lethal disease claiming approximately 45000 lives in the US in 2018, and it establishes an elaborate immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that aids in disease pathogenesis. Immunotherapy has emerged as a strategy to target tumor cells by reprogramming patient’s immune system. Challenges present in PC immunotherapy are: i) identifying a tumor-associated antigen that could be targeted, ii) identifying adjuvants that could efficiently deliver antigens, iii) eliciting robust anti-tumor responses and iv) overcoming peripheral tolerance and immunosuppression elicited by the tumor.

Firstly, we detected circulating autoantibodies to MUC4 present in PC patients and observed that IgM autoantibodies to …

Genetic Predisposition And M1 Macrophage Polarization Created By Elastin-Derived Peptides Drive Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Formation, Matthew A. Dale

Theses & Dissertations

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a dynamic vascular disease characterized by inflammatory cell invasion and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. Evidence has demonstrated a profound influence of genetic background on AAA formation. The work presented herein discusses two studies: the first demonstrates how genetic components can enhance the susceptibility to AAA formation and the second demonstrates how ECM degradation enhances AAA progression by influencing inflammatory cell phenotypes. An understanding of the pathways involved in AAA pathogenesis can help not only to identify potential patients at risk of AAA development, a heritable disease in which the incriminating component has yet to be …

The Role Of Glutaminase 1 In Hiv-1 Associated Neurocognitive Disorders And In Brain Development, Yi Wang

Theses & Dissertations

Glutaminase is the enzyme that converts glutamine into glutamate, which serves as a key excitatory neurotransmitter and one of the energy providers for cellular metabolism. Glutamate is essential for proper brain functioning but at excess levels, it is neurotoxic and has a key role in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative diseases, including HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). However, the detailed mechanism of glutamate-mediated neurotoxicity remains unclear. In part I, we identified the regulation of glutaminase 1 (GLS1) in the central nervous system (CNS) of HAND animal models including HIV-Tat transgenic (Tg) mouse and HIVE-SCID mouse, since GLS1 is the dominant …