Medical Specialties Commons^™

Efficient Recognition And Closed Reduction Of Locked Lateral Patella Dislocation, Justin Aflatooni, Scott D Mckay

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Patellar dislocation is not an uncommon injury in the general population that can often be managed in the emergency room with a closed reduction. However, rarely, the patella can become impacted on the lateral femoral condyle and become resistant to closed reduction techniques, which is known as a locked patellar dislocation. This injury is reported in the literature as requiring advanced imaging with a costly workup, operative intervention, or extensive manipulation under general anesthesia, and, to our knowledge, has never been documented to be closed reduced outside the operating room. In this report, we present a 17-year-old male with a …

Incidence Of Injury And Illness Among Paediatric Team Usa Athletes Competing In The 2020 Tokyo And 2022 Beijing Olympic And Paralympic Games, Eric G Post, Travis Anderson, Jeffrey S Shilt, Eric L Dugan, Stephanie C Clark, Emily G Larson, Kayle E Noble-Taylor, David M Robinson, Amber T Donaldson, Jonathan T Finnoff, William M Adams

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence of injuries and illnesses among paediatric Team USA athletes competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games.

METHODS: An electronic medical record system documented all injuries and illnesses that occurred while competing in the four Games periods. Incidence (IR) with 95% CI per 1000 athlete days were calculated for both injuries and illnesses. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated to compare injury and illness rates based on age (paediatric vs non-paediatric) sex, Games period and sport type.

RESULTS: Two hundred paediatric athletes (age range, 15-21 years) …

Linked-Read Based Analysis Of The Medulloblastoma Genome, Melissa Zwaig, Michael J Johnston, John J Y Lee, Hamza Farooq, Marco Gallo, Nada Jabado, Michael D Taylor, Jiannis Ragoussis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Medulloblastoma is the most common type of malignant pediatric brain tumor with group 4 medulloblastomas (G4 MBs) accounting for 40% of cases. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie this subgroup are still poorly understood. Point mutations are detected in a large number of genes at low incidence per gene while the detection of complex structural variants in recurrently affected genes typically requires the application of long-read technologies.

METHODS: Here, we applied linked-read sequencing, which combines the long-range genome information of long-read sequencing with the high base pair accuracy of short read sequencing and very low sample input requirements.

RESULTS: …

Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of The Anti-Ulcer Oral Mucosal Protective Agent Radoralex® In The Prevention And Treatment Of Radiation-Induced Oral Mucosal Reactions Induced During Treatment Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Jun Yin, Jirui Xie, Jiawei Lin, Chengyin Weng, Shun Lu, Peng Xu, Shuo Zhang, Cheng Luo, Yecai Huang, Lu Li, Jinyi Lang, Mei Feng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of antiulcer oral mucosal protectant-RADoralex® in the prevention and treatment of radiation-induced oral mucosal reactions elicited during intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A total of 90 patients with locally advanced NPC who developed post-treatment grade 1 oral mucositis were selected for this study. They were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 44) treated by mouth rinsing with the RADoralex® during radiochemotherapy and the control group (n = 43) treated by mouth rinsing with sodium bicarbonate solution, and the patients’ oral mucosal …

Habitat Imaging Biomarkers For Diagnosis And Prognosis In Cancer Patients Infected With Covid-19, Muhammad Aminu, Divya Yadav, Lingzhi Hong, Elliana Young, Paul Edelkamp, Maliazurina Saad, Morteza Salehjahromi, Pingjun Chen, Sheeba J Sujit, Melissa M Chen, Bradley Sabloff, Gregory Gladish, Patricia M De Groot, Myrna C B Godoy, Tina Cascone, Natalie I Vokes, Jianjun Zhang, Kristy K Brock, Naval Daver, Scott E Woodman, Hussein A Tawbi, Ajay Sheshadri, J Jack Lee, David Jaffray, D Code Team, Carol C Wu, Caroline Chung, Jia Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Cancer patients have worse outcomes from the COVID-19 infection and greater need for ventilator support and elevated mortality rates than the general population. However, previous artificial intelligence (AI) studies focused on patients without cancer to develop diagnosis and severity prediction models. Little is known about how the AI models perform in cancer patients. In this study, we aim to develop a computational framework for COVID-19 diagnosis and severity prediction particularly in a cancer population and further compare it head-to-head to a general population.

METHODS: We have enrolled multi-center international cohorts with 531 CT scans from 502 general patients and …

A Conserved Oxalyl-Coenzyme A Decarboxylase In Oxalate Catabolism, Ninghui Cheng, Vincent Paris, Xiaolan Rao, Xiaoqiang Wang, Paul A Nakata

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

The ability to biosynthesize oxalic acid can provide beneficial functions to plants; however, uncontrolled or prolonged exposure to this strong organic acid results in multiple physiological problems. Such problems include a disruption of membrane integrity, mitochondrial function, metal chelation, and free radical formation. Recent work suggests that a CoA-dependent pathway of oxalate catabolism plays a critical role in regulating tissue oxalate concentrations in plants. Although this CoA-dependent pathway of oxalate catabolism is important, large gaps in our knowledge of the enzymes catalyzing each step remain. Evidence that an oxalyl-CoA decarboxylase (OXC) catalyzes the second step in this pathway, accelerating the …

Effect Of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy On Intraoperative Core Temperature In Patients With Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Daniel D Kim, Sarah M Desnyder, Patrick M Dougherty, Juan P Cata

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Clinical evidence suggests that chemotherapeutic agents are associated with neuropathy and peripheral autonomic dysfunction. However, the possible effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on intraoperative temperature remain poorly characterised.

METHODS: We evaluated patients who underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer between April 2016 and July 2020. Propensity scores were used to match patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy with those who did not, and intraoperative core temperature patterns were analysed in the matched cohort. The independent associations between vasopressor use and heart rate during general anaesthesia in the matched cohort were also analysed.

RESULTS: Data from 1764 patients were analysed (882 patients …

Loss Of Ubiquitin-Specific Peptidase 18 Destabilizes 14-3-3Ζ Protein And Represses Lung Cancer Metastasis, Zibo Chen, Lin Zheng, Yulong Chen, Xiuxia Liu, Masanori Kawakami, Lisa Maria Mustachio, Jason Roszik, Katherine V Ferry-Galow, Ralph E Parchment, Xin Liu, Thorkell Andresson, Gerard Duncan, Jonathan M Kurie, Jaime Rodriguez-Canales, Xi Liu, Ethan Dmitrovsky

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cancer metastasis is a major cause of cancer-related mortality. Strategies to reduce metastases are needed especially in lung cancer, the most common cause of cancer mortality. We previously reported increased ubiquitin-specific peptidase 18 (USP18) expression in lung and other cancers. Engineered reduction of USP18 expression repressed lung cancer growth and promoted apoptosis. This deubiquitinase (DUB) stabilized targeted proteins by removing the complex interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15). This study explores if the loss of USP18 reduced lung cancer metastasis. USP18 knock-down in lung cancer cells was independently achieved using small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). USP18 knock-down reduced …

Human Papillomavirus Dose Reminder Preferences Among Parents From A Diverse Clinical Sample: A Qualitative Study, Jacqueline M Hirth, Kayla A Eboreime, Leslie E Cofie, Richard E Rupp, Abbey B Berenson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Reminders are an important method for encouraging patients to return for follow-up visits, such as for successive doses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. However, patients may have preferences for different types of reminders. This study examined which reminder methods parents of pediatric patients found most useful and their thoughts on how the reminders helped them to complete their children's HPV vaccine series. This qualitative study was conducted on a purposively sampled group of parents who participated in a multi-level intervention intended to improve uptake and completion of the HPV vaccine series. Parents who agreed to participate were interviewed by …

Kdm6b Variants May Contribute To The Pathophysiology Of Human Cerebral Folate Deficiency, Xiao Han, Xuanye Cao, Robert M Cabrera, Paula Andrea Pimienta Ramirez, Cuilian Zhang, Vincent T Ramaekers, Richard H Finnell, Yunping Lei

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

(1) Background: The genetic etiology of most patients with cerebral folate deficiency (CFD) remains poorly understood. KDM6B variants were reported to cause neurodevelopmental diseases; however, the association between KDM6B and CFD is unknown; (2) Methods: Exome sequencing (ES) was performed on 48 isolated CFD cases. The effect of KDM6B variants on KDM6B protein expression, Histone H3 lysine 27 epigenetic modification and FOLR1 expression were examined in vitro. For each patient, serum FOLR1 autoantibodies were measured; (3) Results: Six KDM6B variants were identified in five CFD patients, which accounts for 10% of our CFD cohort cases. Functional experiments indicated that these …

Prognostic Model For Predicting Overall And Cancer-Specific Survival Among Patients With Superficial Spreading Melanoma: A Seer Based Study, Qiang Ji, Jun Tang, Shulian Li, Junjie Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Skin malignant melanoma is one of the most aggressive skin tumors. Superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) is the most common histological type, which can originate from different body skin sites, and some patients can still accumulate regional lymph nodes and even have distant metastasis in some cases. This study used the relevant data from the monitoring, epidemiology and results database of the National Cancer Institute database to study the overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of SSM patients and established an SSM nomogram to evaluate the prognosis of patients. A total of 13,922 patients were collected from the monitoring, epidemiology …

Influence Of Waist Circumference Measurement Site On Visceral Fat And Metabolic Risk In Youth, Sojung Lee, Yejin Kim, Minsub Han

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although the rate of childhood obesity seems to have plateaued in recent years, the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents remains high. Childhood obesity is a major public health concern as overweight and obese youth suffer from many co-morbid conditions once considered exclusive to adults. It is now well demonstrated that abdominal obesity as measured by waist circumference (WC) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and metabolic dysfunction in youth. Despite the strong associations between WC and cardiometabolic risk factors, there is no consensus regarding the optimal WC measurement sites to assess abdominal obesity and obesity-related health …

Polycystin-1 Is A Crucial Regulator Of Bin1 Expression And T-Tubule Remodeling Associated With The Development Of Dilated Cardiomyopathy, Magda C Díaz-Vesga, Raúl Flores-Vergara, Jaime A Riquelme, Marcelo Llancaqueo, Gina Sánchez, Cecilia Vergara, Luis Michea, Paulina Donoso, Andrew F G Quest, Ivonne Olmedo, Zully Pedrozo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cardiomyopathy is commonly observed in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), even when they have normal renal function and arterial pressure. The role of cardiomyocyte polycystin-1 (PC1) in cardiovascular pathophysiology remains unknown. PC1 is a potential regulator of BIN1 that maintains T-tubule structure, and alterations in BIN1 expression induce cardiac pathologies. We used a cardiomyocyte-specific PC1-silenced (PC1-KO) mouse model to explore the relevance of cardiomyocyte PC1 in the development of heart failure (HF), considering reduced BIN1 expression induced T-tubule remodeling as a potential mechanism. PC1-KO mice exhibited an impairment of cardiac function, as measured by echocardiography, but no …

Measurement Of Force And Intramuscular Pressure Changes Related To Thrust Spinal Manipulation In An In Vivo Animal Model, William R Reed, Carla R Lima, Michael A K Liebschner, Christopher P Hurt, Peng Li, Maruti R Gudavalli

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Simple Summary

Spinal manipulation is recommended by clinical guidelines to treat low back pain. However, our understanding of how spinal manipulation alleviates pain and knowledge of the role that viscoelastic tissue properties play in the dampening of applied spinal manipulation forces in vivo is limited. Superficial and deep intramuscular pressures and applied forces were measured using miniature pressure catheters and a force transducer during low back spinal manipulation using a clinically available spinal manipulation device (Activator V) or a feedback motor in a deeply anesthetized animal model. Viscoelastic properties of muscle and other soft tissues greatly diminished applied spinal manipulative …

Serum Concentrations Of Losartan Metabolites Correlate With Improved Physical Function In A Pilot Study Of Prefrail Older Adults, Jessica L Lee, Cissy Zhang, Reyhan Westbrook, Mariann M Gabrawy, Lolita Nidadavolu, Huanle Yang, Ruth Marx, Yuqiong Wu, Nicole M Anders, Lina Ma, Marcela-Dávalos Bichara, Min-Ji Kwak, Brian Buta, Mohammed Khadeer, Gayane Yenokyan, Jing Tian, Qian-Li Xue, Helmy M Siragy, Robert M Carey, Rafael De Cabo, Luigi Ferrucci, Ruin Moaddel, Michelle A Rudek, Anne Le, Jeremy D Walston, Peter M Abadir

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Losartan is an oral antihypertensive agent that is rapidly metabolized to EXP3174 (angiotensin-subtype-1-receptor blocker) and EXP3179 (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma [PPARγ] agonist), which was shown in animal studies to reduce inflammation, enhance mitochondrial energetics, and improve muscle repair and physical performance. We conducted an exploratory pilot study evaluating losartan treatment in prefrail older adults (age 70-90 years, N = 25). Participants were randomized to control (placebo) or treatment (daily oral losartan beginning at 25 mg per day and increasing every 8 weeks) for a total of 6 months. Fatigue, hyperkalemia, and hypotension were the most observed side effects of losartan …

Targeting Myocardial Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter Ent1 Provides Cardioprotection By Enhancing Myeloid Adora2b Signaling, Jiaojiao Wang, Andre R Jordan, Huabin Zhu, Sarrah L Hasanali, Eric Thomas, Soum D Lokeshwar, Daley S Morera, Sung Alexander, Joseph Mcdaniels, Anuj Sharma, Karina Aguilar, Semih Sarcan, Tianyi Zhu, Mark S Soloway, Martha K Terris, Muthusamy Thangaraju, Luis E Lopez, Vinata B Lokeshwar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Hyaluronic acid (HA) promotes cancer metastasis; however, the currently approved treatments do not target HA. Metastatic renal carcinoma (mRCC) is an incurable disease. Sorafenib (SF) is a modestly effective antiangiogenic drug for mRCC. Although only endothelial cells express known SF targets, SF is cytotoxic to RCC cells at concentrations higher than the pharmacological-dose (5-µM). Using patient cohorts, mRCC models, and SF combination with 4-methylumbelliferone (MU), we discovered an SF target in RCC cells and targeted it for treatment.

METHODS: We analyzed HA-synthase (HAS1, HAS2, HAS3) expression in RCC cells and clinical (n = 129), TCGA-KIRC (n = 542), and …

Intestinal Iga-Coated Bacteria In Healthy- And Altered-Microbiomes (Dysbiosis) And Predictive Value In Successful Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, Herbert L Dupont, Zhi-Dong Jiang, Ashley S Alexander, Andrew W Dupont, Eric L Brown

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IgA-coated bacteria in the gut (IgA-biome) provide a homeostatic function in healthy people through inhibition of microbial invaders and by protecting the epithelial monolayer of the gut. The laboratory methods used to detect this group of bacteria require flow cytometry and DNA sequencing (IgA-Seq). With dysbiosis (reduced diversity of the microbiome), the IgA-biome also is impaired. In the presence of enteric infection, oral vaccines, or an intestinal inflammatory disorder, the IgA-biome focuses on the pathogenic bacteria or foreign antigens, while in other chronic diseases associated with dysbiosis, the IgA-biome is reduced in capacity. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), the use of …

The Impact Of Mutation Of Myelodysplasia-Related Genes In De Novo Acute Myeloid Leukemia Carrying Npm1 Mutation, Yi Wang, Andres E Quesada, Zhuang Zuo, L Jeffrey Medeiros, C Cameron Yin, Shaoying Li, Jie Xu, Gautam Borthakur, Yisheng Li, Chao Yang, Yasmin Abaza, Juehua Gao, Xinyan Lu, M James You, Yizhuo Zhang, Pei Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The impact of gene mutations typically associated with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with NPM1 mutation is unclear. Methods: Using a cohort of 107 patients with NPM1-mutated AML treated with risk-adapted therapy, we compared survival outcomes of patients without MDS-related gene mutations (group A) with those carrying concurrent FLT3-ITD (group B) or with MDS-related gene mutations (group C). Minimal measurable disease (MMD) status assessed by multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and/or next-generation sequencing (NGS) were reviewed. Results: Among the 69 patients treated intensively, group C showed significantly inferior progression-free survival (PFS, p < 0.0001) but not overall survival (OS, p = 0.055) compared to group A. Though groups A and C had a similar MMD rate, group C patients had a higher relapse rate (p = 0.016). Relapse correlated with MMD status at the end of cycle 2 induction (p = 0.023). Survival of group C patients was similar to that of group B. Conclusion: MDS-related gene mutations are associated with an inferior survival in NPM1-mutated AML.

Assembling A Global Database Of Child Pneumonia Studies To Inform Who Pneumonia Management Algorithm: Methodology And Applications, Helena Martin, Jennifer Falconer, Emmanuel Addo-Yobo, Satinder Aneja, Luis Martinez Arroyo, Rai Asghar, Shally Awasthi, Salem Banajeh, Abdul Bari, Sudha Basnet, Ashish Bavdekar, Nita Bhandari, Shinjini Bhatnagar, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Abdullah Brooks, Mandeep Chadha, Noel Chisaka, Monidarin Chou, Alexey W Clara, Tim Colbourn, Clare Cutland, Valérie D'Acremont, Marcela Echavarria, Angela Gentile, Brad Gessner, Christopher J Gregory, Tabish Hazir, Patricia L Hibberd, Siddhivinayak Hirve, Shubhada Hooli, Imran Iqbal, Prakash Jeena, Cissy B Kartasasmita, Carina King, Romina Libster, Rakesh Lodha, Juan M Lozano, Marilla Lucero, Norman Lufesi, William B Macleod, Shabir Ahmed Madhi, Joseph L Mathew, Irene Maulen-Radovan, Eric D Mccollum, Greta Mino, Charles Mwansambo, Mark I Neuman, Ngoc Tuong Vy Nguyen, Marta C Nunes, Pagbajabyn Nymadawa, Kerry-Ann F O'Grady, Jean-William Pape, Glaucia Paranhos-Baccala, Archana Patel, Valentina Sanchez Picot, Mala Rakoto-Andrianarivelo, Zeba Rasmussen, Vanessa Rouzier, Graciela Russomando, Raul O Ruvinsky, Salim Sadruddin, Samir K Saha, Mathuram Santosham, Sunit Singhi, Sajid Soofi, Tor A Strand, Mariam Sylla, Somsak Thamthitiwat, Donald M Thea, Claudia Turner, Philippe Vanhems, Nitya Wadhwa, Jianwei Wang, Syed Ma Zaman, Harry Campbell, Harish Nair, Shamim Ahmad Qazi, Yasir Bin Nisar, World Health Organization Pneumonia Research Partnership To Assess Who Recommendation (Prepare) Study Group

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The existing World Health Organization (WHO) pneumonia case management guidelines rely on clinical symptoms and signs for identifying, classifying, and treating pneumonia in children up to 5 years old. We aimed to collate an individual patient-level data set from large, high-quality pre-existing studies on pneumonia in children to identify a set of signs and symptoms with greater validity in the diagnosis, prognosis, and possible treatment of childhood pneumonia for the improvement of current pneumonia case management guidelines.

METHODS: Using data from a published systematic review and expert knowledge, we identified studies meeting our eligibility criteria and invited investigators to …

Feasibility And Effectiveness Of A Worksite-Weight-Loss Program For Cancer Prevention Among School-District Employees With Overweight And Obesity, Che Young Lee, Michael C Robertson, Hannah Johnston, Thuan Le, Margaret Raber, Ruth Rechis, Katherine Oestman, Alise Neff, Amber Macneish, Karen M Basen-Engquist

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The effects of Vibrant Lives, a 6-month worksite-weight-loss program, were examined in a cohort of school-district employees with overweight or obesity. The VL Basic (VLB) participants received materials and tailored text messages, the VL Plus (VLP) participants additionally received WIFI-enabled activity monitors and scales and participated in health challenges throughout the school year, and the VL Plus with Support (VLP + S) participants additionally received coaching support. The levels of program satisfaction and retention and changes in weight, physical activity (PA), and diet were compared across groups using Pearson chi-square tests, repeated-measure mixed models, and logistic regression. After the program, …

Cardiac Neural Crest And Cardiac Regeneration, Shannon Erhardt, Jun Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Neural crest cells (NCCs) are a vertebrate-specific, multipotent stem cell population that have the ability to migrate and differentiate into various cell populations throughout the embryo during embryogenesis. The heart is a muscular and complex organ whose primary function is to pump blood and nutrients throughout the body. Mammalian hearts, such as those of humans, lose their regenerative ability shortly after birth. However, a few vertebrate species, such as zebrafish, have the ability to self-repair/regenerate after cardiac damage. Recent research has discovered the potential functional ability and contribution of cardiac NCCs to cardiac regeneration through the use of various vertebrate …

The Maternal And Infant Environmental Health Riskscape Study Of Perinatal Disparities In Greater Houston: Rationale, Study Design And Participant Profiles, R Jeanne Ruiz, Kristyn Grimes, Elizabeth Spurlock, Angela Stotts, Thomas F Northrup, Yolanda Villarreal, Robert Suchting, Melissa Cernuch, Liza Rivera, Raymond P Stowe, Rita H Pickler

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Pregnant Mexican Americans (hereafter called Latinas) and Black/African American women are at increased risk for psychological distress, contributing to preterm birth and low birthweight; acculturative stress combined with perceived stress elevates depressive symptoms in Latinas. Based on our prior research using a psychoneuroimmunology framework, we identified psychological and neuroendocrine risk factors as predictors of preterm birth in Latina women that are also identified as risk factors for Black/African American women.

METHODS/DESIGN: In this prospective, randomized controlled trial with parallel group design we will explore psychosocial, neuroendocrine, and birth outcome effects of the Mastery Lifestyle Intervention (MLI). The MLI is …

Cerebellar High-Grade Glioma: A Translationally Oriented Review Of The Literature, Ashley L B Raghu, Jason A Chen, Pablo A Valdes, Walid Ibn Essayed, Elizabeth Claus, Omar Arnaout, Timothy R Smith, E Antonio Chiocca, Pier Paolo Peruzzi, Joshua D Bernstock

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

World Health Organization (WHO) grade 4 gliomas of the cerebellum are rare entities whose understanding trails that of their supratentorial counterparts. Like supratentorial high-grade gliomas (sHGG), cerebellar high-grade gliomas (cHGG) preferentially affect males and prognosis is bleak; however, they are more common in a younger population. While current therapy for cerebellar and supratentorial HGG is the same, recent molecular analyses have identified features and subclasses of cerebellar tumors that may merit individualized targeting. One recent series of cHGG included the subclasses of (1) high-grade astrocytoma with piloid features (HGAP, ~31% of tumors); (2) H3K27M diffuse midline glioma (~8%); and (3) …

Safety And Microbiological Activity Of Phage Therapy In Persons With Cystic Fibrosis Colonized With Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: Study Protocol For A Phase 1b/2, Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial, Pranita D Tamma, Maria Souli, Michael Billard, Joseph Campbell, Douglas Conrad, Damon W Ellison, Beth Evans, Scott R Evans, Kerryl E Greenwood-Quaintance, Andrey A Filippov, Holly S Geres, Toshimitsu Hamasaki, Lauren Komarow, Mikeljon P Nikolich, Thomas P Lodise, Seema U Nayak, Carmelle Norice-Tra, Robin Patel, David Pride, Janie Russell, Daria Van Tyne, Henry F Chambers, Vance G Fowlerjr, Robert T Schooley, Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Bacteriophages (phages) are a promising anti-infective option for human disease. Major gaps remain in understanding their potential utility.

METHODS: This is a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study of a single dose of intravenous phage in approximately 72 clinically stable adult cystic fibrosis volunteers recruited from up to 20 US sites with Pseudomonas aeruginosa airway colonization. The single dose of phage consists of a mixture of four anti-pseudomonal phages. Six sentinel participants will be sequentially enrolled with dose escalation of the phage mixture by one log

DISCUSSION: This trial will investigate the activity of phages in reducing P. aeruginosa colony counts …

Pertussis And Influenza Immunization: Perceived Attitude And Decision Of Postpartum Patients, Nutan B Hebballi, Tayler Parker, Elisa I Garcia, Dalya M Ferguson, Susan Lesser, Kuojen Tsao, Maryam Broussard, Susan H Wootton

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Vaccination of pregnant patients with tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) and influenza vaccine during influenza season can reduce maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality; nevertheless, vaccination rates remain suboptimal in this patient population. To investigate the effect of a brief educational counseling session on maternal Tdap and influenza vaccination and determine factors influencing women's decision in regards to receiving Tdap and or influenza vaccine during their pregnancy.

METHODS: A face-to-face semi-structured cross-sectional survey was administered to postpartum patients on their anticipated day of discharge (June 11-August 21, 2018). A brief educational counseling session about maternal …

Clinical Significance Of Glycolytic Metabolic Activity In Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Joann Jung, Sowon Park, Yeonwoo Jang, Sung-Hwan Lee, Yun Seong Jeong, Sun Young Yim, Ju-Seog Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

High metabolic activity is a hallmark of cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the molecular features of HCC with high metabolic activity contributing to clinical outcomes and the therapeutic implications of these characteristics are poorly understood. We aimed to define the features of HCC with high metabolic activity and uncover its association with response to current therapies. By integrating gene expression data from mouse liver tissues and tumor tissues from HCC patients (n = 1038), we uncovered three metabolically distinct HCC subtypes that differ in clinical outcomes and underlying molecular biology. The high metabolic subtype is characterized by poor …

Xatlas: Scalable Small Variant Calling Across Heterogeneous Next-Generation Sequencing Experiments, Jesse Farek, Daniel Hughes, William Salerno, Yiming Zhu, Aishwarya Pisupati, Adam Mansfield, Olga Krasheninina, Adam C English, Ginger Metcalf, Eric Boerwinkle, Donna M Muzny, Richard Gibbs, Ziad Khan, Fritz J Sedlazeck

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: The growing volume and heterogeneity of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data complicate the further optimization of identifying DNA variation, especially considering that curated high-confidence variant call sets frequently used to validate these methods are generally developed from the analysis of comparatively small and homogeneous sample sets.

Findings: We have developed xAtlas, a single-sample variant caller for single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and small insertions and deletions (indels) in NGS data. xAtlas features rapid runtimes, support for CRAM and gVCF file formats, and retraining capabilities. xAtlas reports SNVs with 99.11% recall and 98.43% precision across a reference HG002 sample at 60× whole-genome coverage …

Comparison Of Machine-Learning And Deep-Learning Methods For The Prediction Of Osteoradionecrosis Resulting From Head And Neck Cancer Radiation Therapy, Brandon Reber, Lisanne Van Dijk, Brian Anderson, Abdallah Sherif Radwan Mohamed, Clifton Fuller, Stephen Lai, Kristy Brock

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Deep-learning (DL) techniques have been successful in disease-prediction tasks and could improve the prediction of mandible osteoradionecrosis (ORN) resulting from head and neck cancer (HNC) radiation therapy. In this study, we retrospectively compared the performance of DL algorithms and traditional machine-learning (ML) techniques to predict mandible ORN binary outcome in an extensive cohort of patients with HNC.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients who received HNC radiation therapy at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from 2005 to 2015 were identified for the ML (n = 1259) and DL (n = 1236) studies. The subjects were followed for ORN …

The Effect Of Zinc Supplementation On The Course Of Covid-19 – A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Monika Olczak-Pruc, Lukasz Szarpak, Alla Navolokina, Jaroslaw Chmielewski, Lech Panasiuk, Raúl Juárez-Vela, Michal Pruc, Damian Swieczkowski, Ryszard Majer, Zubaid Rafique, Frank William Peacock

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Introduction and objective: Zinc is a trace element that plays a role in stimulating innate and acquired immunity. The aim of the study was to determine the antiviral effect of the administration of zinc in COVID-19 patients.

Material and methods: A literature search was performed in P Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane databases from 1 January 2020 - 22 August 2022. In addition, reference lists of the included articles and their related citations in PubMed were also reviewed for additional pertinent studies.

Results: A total of 9 eligible studies were identified. In-hospital mortality in zinc supplementation patients, and …

Truvari: Refined Structural Variant Comparison Preserves Allelic Diversity, Adam C English, Vipin K Menon, Richard A Gibbs, Ginger A Metcalf, Fritz J Sedlazeck

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The fundamental challenge of multi-sample structural variant (SV) analysis such as merging and benchmarking is identifying when two SVs are the same. Common approaches for comparing SVs were developed alongside technologies which produce ill-defined boundaries. As SV detection becomes more exact, algorithms to preserve this refined signal are needed. Here, we present Truvari-an SV comparison, annotation, and analysis toolkit-and demonstrate the effect of SV comparison choices by building population-level VCFs from 36 haplotype-resolved long-read assemblies. We observe over-merging from other SV merging approaches which cause up to a 2.2× inflation of allele frequency, relative to Truvari.