Organisms Commons^™

Estradiol Signaling Improves Extinction Memory Recall To Combat Cue-Induced Heroin Relapse In Rats, Jordan S. Carter

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

We are in the midst of an opioid use disorder (OUD) epidemic. While several treatments mitigate a range of factors contributing to return to use, or relapse, the power of drug-conditioned environmental cues to precipitate relapse have not been adequately addressed. One treatment modality targeting cue reactivity, cue exposure therapy (CET), exacerbated relapse in individuals with OUD, perhaps due to a deficit in extinction memory recall (EMR). Here, EMR is the ability to override the drug-cue association and prevent relapse. Interest remains in combatting cue-induced relapse, potentially by introducing a pharmacologic adjunct with CET to enhance EMR. In the following …

The Impact Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus And Maternal Oral Microbiome: A Scoping Review, Jaclyn P. Langan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common pregnancy-related metabolic disorder associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes. Recent research has highlighted the potential role of the oral microbiome in the pathophysiology of various systemic conditions, including diabetes mellitus. However, the impact of GDM on the maternal oral microbiome remains relatively understudied. Understanding alterations in the oral microbiome during pregnancy complicated by GDM could provide valuable insights into the mechanistic links between systemic metabolic disorders and oral health.

Objective: The objective of this scoping review was to comprehensively examine the existing literature on the relationship between GDM and maternal oral …

Unraveling The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Staphylococcus Aureus Carriage: A Comparative Research Of Pre- And Post-Pandemic Samples, Catherine G. Johnston

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant changes in the epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus carriage and disease. This study aims to assess these changes by leveraging respiratory samples collected from a longstanding cohort, comparing the genomic characteristics of S. aureus isolates from pre- and post-pandemic periods. We analyzed S. aureus genomes and phenotypically determined macrolide resistance to characterize population structure, antibiotic resistance, and virulence profiles. Changes in S. aureus carriage rates, macrolide resistance, disease occurrence, and population structure between samples collected pre- and post-pandemic were examined. By using respiratory samples, chart reviews, and risk factor questionnaires of 498 children from a …

Genome-Based Pathogenicity Potential Of Salmonella Isolated From Diverse Sources, Jared Mr Crocco

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Bacterial human pathogens are among the leading causes of death around the world, especially in low income and developing countries. One important element in a bacterium’s ability to cause disease are genes that directly contribute to pathogenicity called virulence factors. A second significant aspect are antimicrobial resistance genes which allow microorganisms to persist in the presence of antimicrobial agents. In this project I aimed to determine if Salmonella isolated from different sources differed in pathogenicity profiles based on the complement of genes identified through genomic analysis. Accordingly, Salmonella genomes were organized into 8 groups: animal, clinical, human, environmental, food, water …

Clostridioides Difficile: Identification Of Rival Organisms & Evaluation Of Non-Antibiotic Treatment Implementation, Justin Davis

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Clostrioides difficile is a common cause of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections. Patients receiving antibiotic treatment experience dysbiosis of gut microbiota, and C. difficile, normally held in check by the various other organisms, takes this opportunity to propagate. Symptoms of infection generally include diarrhea, colitis, dehydration, and fever. Understanding that C. difficile generally only causes illness when it is the dominant bacterium (i.e. when growth is relatively unchecked by other microbes), it is appropriate to investigate potential competitive organisms that may be introduced after antibiotic courses or during active C. difficile infection to effectively displace it. Fecal samples from the University …

Tim/Tam Receptors: A Potential Biomarker For Predicting Sensitivity To Zika Virus-Induced Oncolysis In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers, Shankari Somasekar

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) constitute 80-85% of lung cancers and are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. The most common cause is prolonged smoking. Current treatment options for NSCLC include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy, and immunotherapy. Although these medications are effective in the short term, patients often face issues of drug resistance and debilitating side effects with prolonged use. Currently, the use of Zika virus (ZIKV) is being researched as a possible alternative treatment for cancer, which minimizes side effects and the risk of drug resistance. TIM/TAM proteins are identified as the putative ZIKV receptors on …

Intra-Decadal Increase In Globally-Spread Magallana Gigas In Southern California Estuaries, Marah L Wolfe, Chelsea M Bowers-Doerning, Anabell Espinosa, Ty Frantz, William J Hoese, Joann G Lam, Kailee R Lamp, Rachael A Lyons, Justin K Nguyen, Bryce D Keyes, Jada Smith, Holly L Suther, Meaghan Swintek, Juliann C Vannordstrand, Danielle C Zacherl

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction and establishment of non-indigenous species (NIS) has been accelerated on a global scale by climate change. NIS Magallana gigas' (formerly Crassostrea gigas') global spread over the past several decades has been linked to warming waters, specifically during summer months, raising the specter of more spread due to predicted warming. We tracked changes in density and size distribution of M. gigas in two southern California, USA bays over the decade spanning 2010-2020 using randomly placed quadrats across multiple intertidal habitats (e.g., cobble, seawalls, riprap) and documented density increases by 2.2 to 32.8 times at 7 of the 8 sites surveyed …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Plants As Vectors For Environmental Prion Transmission, Christina M Carlson, Samuel Thomas, Matthew W Keating, Paulina Soto, Nicole M Gibbs, Haeyoon Chang, Jamie K Wiepz, Annabel G Austin, Jay R Schneider, Rodrigo Morales, Christopher J Johnson, Joel A Pedersen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Prions cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases and exhibit remarkable durability, which engenders a wide array of potential exposure scenarios. In chronic wasting disease of deer, elk, moose, and reindeer and in scrapie of sheep and goats, prions are transmitted via environmental routes and the ability of plants to accumulate and subsequently transmit prions has been hypothesized, but not previously demonstrated. Here, we establish the ability of several crop and other plant species to take up prions via their roots and translocate them to above-ground tissues from various growth media including soils. We demonstrate that plants can accumulate prions in above-ground tissues …

Identification Of Chronic Wasting Disease Prions In Decaying Tongue Tissues From Exhumed White-Tailed Deer, Paulina Soto, Francisca Bravo-Risi, Rebeca Benavente, Stuart Lichtenberg, Mitch Lockwood, J Hunter Reed, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions cause fatal neuropathies in farmed and free-ranging cervids. The deposition of prions in natural and humanmade environmental components has been implicated as a major mechanism mediating CWD spread in wild and captive populations. Prions can be deposited in the environment through excreta, tissues, and carcasses from pre-clinical and clinical animals. Furthermore, burial of CWD-positive animals may reduce but not completely mitigate prion spread from carcasses into the surrounding environment. Here, we analyzed exhumed, decaying deer carcasses for the presence of CWD prions. By analyzing tongue tissues through the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technique, we …

Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections: Patient Characteristics, Treatment, And Clinical Outcomes In One South Texas Acute Care Hospital, Kimberly A. Ambrosini, Jose Campo Maldonado

Research Colloquium

Background: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CA-UTIs) account for 40 percent of nosocomial infections worldwide. Their elimination is at the forefront of quality improvement in one South Texas acute care hospital.

Methods: Over a period of 6 months, five CA-UTIs occurred in one South Texas acute care hospital. These cases were identified via regular surveillance by Infection Prevention staff and the Laboratory Department of the hospital. This research reviews patient age, sex, length of stay, bacteria contracted, appropriate antibiotic use, patient characteristics, and overall outcomes.

Results: Between the months of July and December 2021, 5 CAUTIs were contracted. Patients ranged in …

Whole Genome Sequence Data Implicate Rbfox1 In Epilepsy Risk In Baboons, Mark Z. Kos, Melanie A. Carless, Lucy Blondell, Mary M. Leland, Koyle D. Knape, Harald H. H. Goring, Charles A. Szabo

Research Symposium

Background: Baboons exhibit a genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE) that resembles juvenile myoclonic epilepsy and may represent a suitable genetic model for human epilepsy. The genetic underpinnings of epilepsy were investigated in a baboon colony at the Southwest National Primate Research Center (San Antonio, TX) through the analysis of whole-genome sequence (WGS) data.

Methods: Baboon WGS data were obtained for 38 cases and 19 healthy controls from the NCBI Sequence Read Archive and, after standard QC filtering, two subsets of variants were examined: (1) 20,881 SNPs from baboon homologs of 19 candidate GGE genes; and (2) 36,169 protein-altering SNPs. Association tests …

Oral Dosages Of The Nsaid Aspirin Decreased The Growth Rate Of Species Found In The Human Gut Microbiome Including Akkermansia Muciniphila, Bacteroides Fragilis, Clostridium Sordellii, And Clostridium Difficile, Wyatt H. Greenbaum, Garrett J. Greenbaum, Anna Spiezio

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Over past few decades, new insight has been revealed in the scientific community about the importance of the human gut microbiome relating to general health. It is known that imbalances in the species that reside in the human gut can cause organism-wide problems in humans. When prescribing or injecting oral medications, the thought of the downstream effects on the gut microbiome are not always considered. By exposing known healthy members of the gut; Akkermansia muciniphila, Bacteroides fragilis, Clostridium sordellii, and Clostridium difficile to the Aspirin, this study attempted to provide insight into the effects of the drug on bacterial growth. …

Molecular Characterization Of Streptococcus Pneumoniae Causing Disease Among Children In Nigeria During The Introduction Of Pcv10 (Gsk), Stephanie W. Lo, Paulina A. Hawkins, Binta Jibir, Fatimah Hassan-Hanga, Mahmoud Gambo, Rasaq Olaosebikan, Grace Olanipekun, Huda Munir, Nicholas Kocmich, Amy Rezac-Elgohary, Safiya Gambo, Danstan Bagenda, Paul Fey, Robert F. Breiman, Lesley Mcgee, Stephen D. Bentley, Stephen K. Obaro, Community Acquired Pneumonia And Invasive Bacterial Disease Capibd Consortium

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a leading vaccine-preventable cause of childhood invasive disease. Nigeria has the second highest pneumococcal disease burden globally, with an estimated ~49 000 child deaths caused by pneumococcal infections each year. Ten-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (GSK; PCV10) was introduced in December 2014 in a phased approach. However, few studies have characterized the disease-causing pneumococci from Nigeria. This study assessed the prevalence of serotypes, antibiotic susceptibility and genomic lineages using whole genome sequencing and identified lineages that could potentially escape PCV10 (GSK). We also investigated the potential differences in pneumococcal lineage features between children with and without sickle …

Isolated Cerebral Mucormycosis And Aspergillosis Coinfection In An Immunocompromised Adult, George Sun, Allison Weiss, Joy Zhao, Mitchell Silver, Michael Demaio, Sara Dehbashi

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Opportunistic fungal infections are a major cause of mortality in immunosuppressed patients, with mucormycosis and aspergillosis as two of the most commonly identified fungal organisms. Coinfection with mucormycosis and aspergillosis is rare, but cases have been reported in literature, most commonly presenting as disseminated invasive fungal infection with cerebrorhino-orbital involvement in an immunocompromised patient. Infections are most commonly caused by direct implantation of spores with localised angioinvasion. Haematogenous spread is rare, with most cases secondary to haematological malignancies or intravenous drug use. Coinfection with mucormycosis and aspergillosis portends a poor prognosis, with a high mortality rate. Thus, prompt recognition and …

Analyzing Pseudomonas Aeruginosa With Bacteriophage Tags Using Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry, Jennifer C. Schinke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The number of daily bacterial infections is climbing and the CDC explains that this is due to the antibiotic-resistant threat in the United States. Finding a faster way of bacterial identification is necessary as it currently takes 1-4 days for a medical lab to culture and identify bacteria. Photoacoustic flow cytometry (PAFC) can be used as an alternative method resulting in swift identification within an hour (Edgar, 2019). Pseudomonas aeruginosa, cell line PA01, will be coated in up to a few hundred red dyed phages making it detectible by the photoacoustic flow cytometry system. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that …

Two Structurally Defined Aβ Polymorphs Promote Different Pathological Changes In Susceptible Mice, Ruben Gomez-Gutierrez, Ujjayini Ghosh, Wai-Ming Yau, Nazaret Gamez, Katherine Do, Carlos Kramm, Hamid Shirani, Laura Vegas-Gomez, Jonathan Schulz, Ines Moreno-Gonzalez, Antonia Gutierrez, K Peter R Nilsson, Robert Tycko, Claudio Soto, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Misfolded Aβ is involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the role of its polymorphic variants or conformational strains in AD pathogenesis is not fully understood. Here, we study the seeding properties of two structurally defined synthetic misfolded Aβ strains (termed 2F and 3F) using in vitro and in vivo assays. We show that 2F and 3F strains differ in their biochemical properties, including resistance to proteolysis, binding to strain-specific dyes, and in vitro seeding. Injection of these strains into a transgenic mouse model produces different pathological features, namely different rates of aggregation, formation of different plaque types, …

Impacts Of A Duf2207 Family Protein On Streptococcus Mutans Stress Tolerance Responses And Biofilm Formation, Xiaochang Huang, Camile G. Laird, Paul P. Riley, Zezhang Tom Wen

School of Dentistry Faculty Publications

Locus SMU.243 in Streptococcus mutans was annotated as a member of the DUF2207 family proteins highly conserved in all bacteria but with unknown function. To investigate its role in S. mutans physiology, a SMU.243-deficient mutant was constructed using allelic exchange mutagenesis, and the impacts of SMU.243 deletion on bacterial growth, stress tolerance response, and biofilm formation were analyzed. Compared to the wild-type UA159, S. mutans lacking SMU.243 displayed a reduced growth rate and a reduced overnight culture density (p < 0.01) when grown at low pH and in the presence of methyl viologen. Relative to the parent strain, the deficient mutant also had a reduced survival rate following incubation in a buffer of pH 2.8 (p < 0.01) and in a buffer containing hydrogen peroxide at 58 mM after 60 min (p < 0.001) and had a reduced capacity in biofilm formation especially in the presence of sucrose (p < 0.01). To study any ensuing functional/phenotypical links between SMU.243 and uppP, which is located immediately downstream of SMU.243 and encodes an undecaprenyl pyrophosphate phosphatase involved in recycling of carrier lipid undecaprenyl phosphate, a uppP deficient mutant was generated using allelic exchange mutagenesis. Unlike the SMU.243 mutant, deletion of uppP affected cell envelope biogenesis and caused major increases in susceptibility to bacitracin. In addition, two variant morphological mutants, one forming rough colonies and the other forming mucoid, smooth colonies, also emerged following the deletion of uppP. The results suggest that the SMU.243-encoded protein of the DUF2207 family in S. mutans plays an important role in stress tolerance response and biofilm formation, but unlike the downstream uppP, does not seem to be involved in cell envelope biogenesis, although the exact roles in S. mutans’ physiology awaits further investigation.

A Polycistronic System For Multiplexed And Precalibrated Expression Of Multigene Pathways In Fungi, Qun Yue, Jie Meng, Yue Qiu, Miaomiao Yin, Liwen Zhang, Weiping Zhou, Zhiqiang An, Zihe Liu, Qipeng Yuan, Wentao Sun, Chun Li, Huimin Zhao, István Molnár, Yuquan Xu, Shuobo Shi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Synthetic biology requires efficient systems that support the well-coordinated co-expression of multiple genes. Here, we discover a 9-bp nucleotide sequence that enables efficient polycistronic gene expression in yeasts and filamentous fungi. Coupling polycistronic expression to multiplexed, markerless, CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing, we develop a strategy termed HACKing (Highly efficient and Accessible system by CracKing genes into the genome) for the assembly of multigene pathways. HACKing allows the expression level of each enzyme to be precalibrated by linking their translation to those of host proteins with predetermined abundances under the desired fermentation conditions. We validate HACKing by rapidly constructing highly efficient Saccharomyces …

Vitamin B2 Enables Regulation Of Fasting Glucose Availability, Peter M Masschelin, Pradip Saha, Scott A Ochsner, Aaron R Cox, Kang Ho Kim, Jessica B Felix, Robert Sharp, Xin Li, Lin Tan, Jun Hyoung Park, Liping Wang, Vasanta Putluri, Philip L Lorenzi, Alli M Nuotio-Antar, Zheng Sun, Benny Abraham Kaipparettu, Nagireddy Putluri, David D Moore, Scott A Summers, Neil J Mckenna, Sean M Hartig

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) interacts with flavoproteins to mediate oxidation-reduction reactions required for cellular energy demands. Not surprisingly, mutations that alter FAD binding to flavoproteins cause rare inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) that disrupt liver function and render fasting intolerance, hepatic steatosis, and lipodystrophy. In our study, depleting FAD pools in mice with a vitamin B2-deficient diet (B2D) caused phenotypes associated with organic acidemias and other IEMs, including reduced body weight, hypoglycemia, and fatty liver disease. Integrated discovery approaches revealed B2D tempered fasting activation of target genes for the nuclear receptor PPARα, including those required for gluconeogenesis. We also found …

Testis-Specific Serine Kinase 3 Is Required For Sperm Morphogenesis And Male Fertility, Kaori Nozawa, Thomas X Garcia, Katarzyna Kent, Mei Leng, Antrix Jain, Anna Malovannaya, Fei Yuan, Zhifeng Yu, Masahito Ikawa, Martin M Matzuk

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: The importance of phosphorylation in sperm during spermatogenesis has not been pursued extensively. Testis-specific serine kinase 3 (Tssk3) is a conserved gene, but TSSK3 kinase functions and phosphorylation substrates of TSSK3 are not known.

OBJECTIVE: The goals of our studies were to understand the mechanism of action of TSSK3.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the localization of TSSK3 in sperm, used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate Tssk3 knockout (KO) mice in which nearly all of the Tssk3 open reading frame was deleted (ensuring it is a null mutation), analyzed the fertility of Tssk3 KO mice by breeding mice for 4 months, …

Time Is Ticking For Cervical Cancer, Vijay Kumar, Caitlin Bauer, John H. Stewart

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Cervical cancer (CC) is a major health problem among reproductive-age females and comprises a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the major risk factor associated with CC incidence. However, lifestyle is also a critical factor in CC pathogenesis. Despite HPV vaccination introduction, the incidence of CC is increasing worldwide. Therefore, it becomes critical to understand the CC tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) to develop immune cell-based vaccination and immunotherapeutic approaches. The current article discusses the immune environment in the normal cervix of adult females and its role in HPV infection. The subsequent sections discuss the alteration of different …

Equine Polyclonal Antibodies Prevent Acute Chikungunya Virus Infection In Mice, Douglas Barker, Xiaobing Han, Eryu Wang, Ashley Dagley, Deborah M. Anderson, Aruni Jha, Scott C. Weaver, Justin Julander, Cory Nykiforuk, Shantha Kodihalli

Office of Research Faculty and Staff Publications

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted pathogen that causes chikungunya disease (CHIK); the disease is characterized by fever, muscle ache, rash, and arthralgia. This arthralgia can be debilitating and long-lasting, seriously impacting quality of life for years. Currently, there is no specific therapy available for CHIKV infection. We have developed a despeciated equine polyclonal antibody (CHIKV-EIG) treatment against CHIKV and evaluated its protective efficacy in mouse models of CHIKV infection. In immunocompromised (IFNAR^−/−) mice infected with CHIKV, daily treatment for five consecutive days with CHIKV-EIG administered at 100 mg/kg starting on the day of infection prevented mortality, reduced …

Evidence-Based Guide To Using Artificial Introns For Tissue-Specific Knockout In Mice, Elena Mcbeath, Keigi Fujiwara, Marie-Claude Hofmann

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Up until recently, methods for generating floxed mice either conventionally or by CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas9 (CRISPR-associated protein 9) editing have been technically challenging, expensive and error-prone, or time-consuming. To circumvent these issues, several labs have started successfully using a small artificial intron to conditionally knockout (KO) a gene of interest in mice. However, many other labs are having difficulty getting the technique to work. The key problem appears to be either a failure in achieving correct splicing after the introduction of the artificial intron into the gene or, just as crucial, insufficient functional KO of the …

The Metabolic Profile Of Young, Watered Chickpea Plants Can Be Used As A Biomarker To Predict Seed Number Under Terminal Drought, Sarah J Purdy, David Fuentes, Purushothaman Ramamoorthy, Christopher Nunn, Brent N Kaiser, Andrew Merchant

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chickpea is the second-most-cultivated legume globally, with India and Australia being the two largest producers. In both of these locations, the crop is sown on residual summer soil moisture and left to grow on progressively depleting water content, finally maturing under terminal drought conditions. The metabolic profile of plants is commonly, correlatively associated with performance or stress responses, e.g., the accumulation of osmoprotective metabolites during cold stress. In animals and humans, metabolites are also prognostically used to predict the likelihood of an event (usually a disease) before it occurs, e.g., blood cholesterol and heart disease. We sought to discover metabolic …

Species Delineation And Comparative Genomics Within The Campylobacter Ureolyticus Complex, Joel J Maki, Mondraya Howard, Sara Connelly, Matthew Pettengill, Dwight J Hardy, Andrew Cameron

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Campylobacter ureolyticus is an emerging pathogen increasingly appreciated as a common cause of gastroenteritis and extra-intestinal infections in humans. Outside the setting of gastroenteritis, little work has been done to describe the genomic content and relatedness of the species, especially regarding clinical isolates. We reviewed the epidemiology of clinical C. ureolyticus cultured by our institution over the past 10 years. Fifty-one unique C. ureolyticus isolates were identified between January 2010 and August 2022, mostly originating from abscesses and blood cultures. To clarify the taxonomic relationships between isolates and to attribute specific genes with different clinical manifestations, we sequenced 19 available …

Assessing Coastline Recession For Adaptation Planning: Sea Level Rise Versus Storm Erosion, Roshanka Ranasinghe, David P Callaghan, Fan Li, David J Wainwright, Trang Minh Duong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Sixth Assessment report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states with high confidence that most sandy coasts around the world will experience an increase in coastal erosion over the twenty-first century. An increase in long term coastal erosion (coastline recession) along sandy coasts can translate into massive socio-economic impacts, unless appropriate adaptation measures are implemented in the next few decades. To adequately inform adaptation measures, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the relative importance of the physical processes driving coastline recession, as well as of linkages between consideration (or not) of certain processes …

Aging Manuka Honey Improves Antimicrobial Activity Against Pathogenic Bacteria, Rayna M. Carlson

2023 Symposium

Manuka honey (MH) has been documented to possess powerful anti-microbial properties through multiple mechanisms. These mechanisms include a low pH, high osmolarity, iron chelation, and its unique manuka factor (UMF), methylglyoxal (MGO). Although MGO is purported to be a major pillar in the honey’s antimicrobial properties, its activity is variable against different bacterial species. We hypothesize that MH’s other antimicrobial mechanisms may also exhibit variable activity against different bacterial species. Preliminary experiments to determine the Manuka honey minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for bacterial species, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus, suggested that some Manuka honey antimicrobial mechanisms …

Morphology Of The Ventral Process Of The Sixth Cervical Vertebra In Extinct And Extant Equus: Functional Implications, Sharon May-Davis, Robert Hunter, Richard White

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In this study, we examined the ventral process of C6 in extinct and extant Equus (sister taxa to Equus ferus caballus only) with the purpose of describing normal morphology and identifying anomalous variations relevant to recent studies describing a congenital malformation in E. ferus caballus. Overall, 83 specimens from 9 museums and 3 research/educational facilities were examined, totalling 71 extinct specimens from 12 species and 12 extant specimens from 5 species. The lateral view revealed that a large convexity exists in the ventral process between the cranial ventral tubercle (CrVT) and the caudal ventral tubercle (CVT) in the earliest …

Elucidating The Impact Of Sos-Response Timing In On Escherichia Coli Survival Following Treatment With Fluoroquinolone Topoisomerase Inhibitors, Stephanie Schofield

Honors Scholar Theses

Antibiotic treatment failure is a public health crisis, with a 2019 report stating that roughly 35,000 deaths occur in the United States yearly due to bacterial infections that are unresponsive to antibiotics (1). One complication in the treatment of bacterial infection is antibiotic persistence which further compromises our battle to effectively treat infection. Bacterial persisters can exist in clonal bacterial cultures and can tolerate antibiotic treatment by undergoing reversible phenotypic changes. They can survive drug concentrations that their genetically identical kin cannot. Some persisters remain in a slow growing state and are difficult to target with current antibiotics. A specific …