Organisms Commons^™

Additive Effects Of Cyclic Peptide [R4w4] When Added Alongside Azithromycin And Rifampicin Against Mycobacterium Avium Infection, Melissa Kelley, Kayvan Sasaninia, Arbi Abnousian, Ali Badaoui, James Owens, Abrianna Beever, Nala Kachour, Rakesh Kumar Tiwari, Vishwanath Venketaraman

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Mycobacterium avium (M. avium), a type of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), poses a risk for pulmonary infections and disseminated infections in immunocompromised individuals. Conventional treatment consists of a 12-month regimen of the first-line antibiotics rifampicin and azithromycin. However, the treatment duration and low antibiotic tolerability present challenges in the treatment of M. avium infection. Furthermore, the emergence of multidrug-resistant mycobacterium strains prompts a need for novel treatments against M. avium infection. This study aims to test the efficacy of a novel antimicrobial peptide, cyclic [R4W4], alongside the first-line antibiotics azithromycin and rifampicin in reducing M. avium survival. Colony-forming unit (CFU) …

The Temperature-Dependent Conformational Ensemble Of Sars-Cov-2 Main Protease (Mpro), Ali Ebrahim, Blake T. Riley, Desigan Kumaran, Babak Andi, Martin R. Fuchs, Sean Mcsweeney, Daniel A. Keedy

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic, instigated by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, continues to plague the globe. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease, or M^pro, is a promising target for development of novel antiviral therapeutics. Previous X-ray crystal structures of M^pro were obtained at cryogenic temperature or room temperature only. Here we report a series of high-resolution crystal structures of unliganded M^pro across multiple temperatures from cryogenic to physiological, and another at high humidity. We interrogate these datasets with parsimonious multiconformer models, multi-copy ensemble models, and isomorphous difference density maps. Our analysis reveals a temperature-dependent conformational landscape for M^pro, including …

Evaluation Of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha In Sleep-Deprived Menopausal- Induced Rats And The Impact On Bone Health, Nicole Ellsworth, Dwight Curry Iii, Cj Deleon, Frank Frisch

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Post-menopausal osteoporosis as a consequence of estrogen depletion is a growing concern for women in the United States. As more women take on executive positions and experience sleep deprivation, there is the potential for up regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha. It follows that the homeostatic imbalance of osteoclastic and osteoblastic activity leads to a greater risk of disease. Bisphosphonates generally, and Zolendronate specifically works by decreasing the number of osteoclasts. This current study investigated the impact of Zolendronate on the concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha-type (TNFɑ) in 32 ovariectomized Wistar rats. Throughout a five …

Development And Validation Of A Sensitive Uplc-Ms/Ms Method For The Quantitation Of [13c]Sucrose In Rat Plasma, Blood, And Brain: Its Application To The Measurement Of Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability, Mohammad K. Miah, Ulrich Bickel, Reza Mehvar

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Accurate and reproducible measurement of blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity is critical in the assessment of the pathophysiology of the central nervous system disorders and in monitoring therapeutic effects. The widely-used low molecular weight marker [14C]sucrose is non-specific in the absence of chromatographic separation. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a sensitive and reproducible LC-MS/MS method for the analysis of stable isotopemodified [13C12]sucrose in brain, plasma, and blood to determine BBB permeability to sucrose. After addition of internal standard (IS, [13C6]sucrose), the marker and IS were recovered from diluted rat blood, plasma, and brain homogenate by protein …

Anti-Tb And Antibacterial Activities Of Natural Products Extracts, Douglas Armstrong, Nathan Krause, Drew Frey

Faculty Scholarship – Chemistry

Samples of numerous plant species were received from the southwestern part of the USA from Richard Spjut, and plant samples were collected here in Illinois. All were extracted with typical solvents, giving crude residues, some of which were subjected to counter-current or flash chromatographic methods. Some of the crude extracts and chromatographic fractions had anti-tuberculosis and/or antibacterial activity.

In a general way, bioactive natural products are dealt with very well by Liang & Fang, 2006. More specifically, the southwestern part of the United States has a large variety of indigenous plants, many of which have not been investigated for their …

Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry For The Determination Of Methylprednisolone In Rat Plasma And Liver After Intravenous Administration Of Its Liver-Targeted Dextran Prodrug, Shuang-Qing Zhang, Helen R. Thorsheim, Suman Penugonda, Venkateswaran C. Pillai, Quentin R. Smith, Reza Mehvar

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

A specific and sensitive liquid chromatography (LC)-tandem mass spectrometric method for quantitative determination of methylprednisolone (MP) in rat plasma and liver was developed and validated using triamcinolone acetonide as an internal standard. Liquid-liquid extraction using tert-butyl methyl ether was used to extract the drug and the internal standard from plasma and liver. The separation of MP was performed on a C(18) column with a mobile phase of acetonitrile:0.5% formic acid aqueous solution (85:15, v/v) over 4 min. The assay was based on the selected reaction monitoring transitions at m/z 375 -> 161 for MP in plasma, 375 -> 357 for …