Public Health Commons^™

Invasion And Metastasis In Cancer: Molecular Insights And Therapeutic Targets, Yongxing Li, Fengshuo Liu, Qingjin Cai, Lijun Deng, Qin Ouyang, Xiang H-F Zhang, Ji Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The progression of malignant tumors leads to the development of secondary tumors in various organs, including bones, the brain, liver, and lungs. This metastatic process severely impacts the prognosis of patients, significantly affecting their quality of life and survival rates. Research efforts have consistently focused on the intricate mechanisms underlying this process and the corresponding clinical management strategies. Consequently, a comprehensive understanding of the biological foundations of tumor metastasis, identification of pivotal signaling pathways, and systematic evaluation of existing and emerging therapeutic strategies are paramount to enhancing the overall diagnostic and treatment capabilities for metastatic tumors. However, current research is …

Machine Learning-Enhanced Surface-Enhanced Spectroscopic Detection Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In The Human Placenta, Oara Neumann, Yilong Ju, Andres B Sanchez-Alvarado, Guodong Zhou, Weiwu Jiang, Bhagavatula Moorthy, Melissa A Suter, Ankit Patel, Peter Nordlander, Naomi J Halas

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The detection and identification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their derivatives, polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), are essential for environmental and health monitoring, for assessing toxicological exposure and their associated health risks. PAHs/PACs are the most dangerous chemicals found in tobacco smoke, and cigarette use during pregnancy can convey these molecules to the developing fetus through the placenta. This exposure is associated with many negative health outcomes, from premature birth to sudden infant death syndrome and adverse neurodevelopmental disorders. This study demonstrates the use of surface-enhanced Raman and surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopies for direct detection of PAHs/PACs in human placental …

Iroc Phantoms Accurately Detect Mlc Delivery Errors, Sharbacha S Edward, Julianne M Pollard-Larkin, Peter A Balter, Rebecca M Howell, Christine B Peterson, Stephen F Kry

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: We evaluated the impact of random and whole-bank multileaf collimator (MLC) delivery errors on dosimetric delivery accuracy in the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) phantom audits, as well as differences in delivery accuracy between the IROC phantom prescription and typical clinical fraction sizes.

Methods and materials: Plans were created for the IROC IMRT head and neck (H&N) and SBRT spine phantoms. MLC leaf errors were introduced into the plans: random shifts between -2 and 2 mm, and whole bank shifts of 0.5, 1, and 2 mm. Plans were recalculated and delivered on a Varian Truebeam, and the log …

Author Correction: Orthogonal And Multiplexable Genetic Perturbations With An Engineered Prime Editor And A Diverse Rna Array, Qichen Yuan, Hongzhi Zeng, Tyler C Daniel, Qingzhuo Liu, Yongjie Yang, Emmanuel C Osikpa, Qiaochu Yang, Advaith Peddi, Liliana M Abramson, Boyang Zhang, Yong Xu, Xue Gao

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Correction to: Nature Communications 10.1038/s41467-024-55134-9, published online 30 December 2024

In the version of the article initially published, there were errors in Fig. 3d, where in the x-axis labels now reading “GPP-shRNA1, GPP-shRNA2, GPP-shRNA3…,” the second and third labels were duplicates of the first. The figure is amended in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

A Morphological Investigation Of Alcohol-Induced Persister Formation, Isaac Young, Victor Jimenez

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Red Meat Consumption And Hypertension: An Updated Review, Tara S Allen, Michael Najem, Alexis C Wood, Danielle J Lee, Lorena S Pacheco, Lori B Daniels, Matthew A Allison

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Hypertension (HTN) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The global prevalence of HTN and related CVD mortality continues to rise. The development of HTN is influenced by genetic predisposition and modifiable risk factors, including diet. One area of ongoing debate is the relationship between red meat consumption and risk of HTN.

RECENT FINDINGS: Processed red meat has become increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis and morbidity of HTN, though randomized control trials comparing HTN-related outcomes associated with red meat subtypes have yielded heterogenous results. This review summarizes the existing relevant literature and highlights the methodological …

Genomic And Phenotypic Correlates Of Mosaic Loss Of Chromosome Y In Blood, Yasminka A Jakubek, Xiaolong Ma, Adrienne M Stilp, Fulong Yu, Jason Bacon, Justin W Wong, Francois Aguet, Kristin Ardlie, Donna K Arnett, Kathleen Barnes, Joshua C Bis, Tom Blackwell, Lewis C Becker, Eric Boerwinkle, Russell P Bowler, Matthew J Budoff, April P Carson, Jiawen Chen, Michael H Cho, Josef Coresh, Nancy J Cox, Paul S De Vries, Dawn L Demeo, David W Fardo, Myriam Fornage, Xiuqing Guo, Michael E Hall, Nancy Heard-Costa, Bertha Hidalgo, Marguerite Ryan Irvin, Andrew D Johnson, Eric Jorgenson, Eimear E Kenny, Michael D Kessler, Daniel Levy, Yun Li, Joao A C Lima, Yongmei Liu, Adam E Locke, Ruth J F Loos, Mitchell J Machiela, Rasika A Mathias, Braxton D Mitchell, Joanne M Murabito, Josyf C Mychaleckyj, Kari E North, Peter Orchard, Stephen C J Parker, Yash Pershad, Patricia A Peyser, Katherine A Pratte, Bruce M Psaty, Laura M Raffield, Susan Redline, Stephen S Rich, Jerome I Rotter, Sanjiv J Shah, Jennifer A Smith, Aaron P Smith, Albert Smith, Margaret A Taub, Hemant K Tiwari, Russell Tracy, Bjoernar Tuftin, Alexander G Bick, Vijay G Sankaran, Alexander P Reiner, Paul Scheet, Paul L Auer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mosaic loss of Y (mLOY) is the most common somatic chromosomal alteration detected in human blood. The presence of mLOY is associated with altered blood cell counts and increased risk of Alzheimer disease, solid tumors, and other age-related diseases. We sought to gain a better understanding of genetic drivers and associated phenotypes of mLOY through analyses of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of a large set of genetically diverse males from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We show that haplotype-based calling methods can be used with WGS data to successfully identify mLOY events. This approach enabled us to identify differences …

A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial Of Il-7 In Critically Ill Patients With Covid-19, Manu Shankar-Hari, Bruno Francois, Kenneth E Remy, Cristina Gutierrez, Stephen Pastores, Thomas Daix, Robin Jeannet, Jane Blood, Andrew H Walton, Reinaldo Salomao, Georg Auzinger, David Striker, Robert S Martin, Nitin J Anand, James Bosanquet, Teresa Blood, Scott Brakenridge, Lyle L Moldawer, Vidula Vachharajani, Cassian Yee, Felipe Dal-Pizzol, Michel Morre, Frederique Berbille, Marcel Van Den Brink, Richard Hotchkiss

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Lymphopenia and failure of lymphocytes to mount an early IFN-γ response correlate with increased mortality in COVID-19. Given the essential role of CD4 helper and CD8 cytotoxic cells in eliminating viral pathogens, this profound loss in lymphocytes may impair patients' ability to eliminate the virus. IL-7 is a pleiotropic cytokine that is obligatory for lymphocyte survival and optimal function.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of CYT107, recombinant human IL-7, in 109 critically ill, patients with lymphopenia who have COVID-19. The primary endpoint was to assess CYT107's effect on lymphocyte recovery with secondary clinical endpoints including …

Imaging Lung Tumor Motion Using Integrated-Mode Proton Radiography-A Phantom Study Towards Tumor Tracking In Proton Radiotherapy, Ryan Fullarton, Mikaël Simard, Lennart Volz, Allison Toltz, Savanna Chung, Christoph Schuy, Daniel G Robertson, Gary Royle, Sam Beddar, Colin Baker, Christian Graeff, Charles-Antoine Collins-Fekete

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Motion of lung tumors during radiotherapy leads to decreased accuracy of the delivered dose distribution. This is especially true for proton radiotherapy due to the finite range of the proton beam. Methods for mitigating motion rely on knowing the position of the tumor during treatment.

PURPOSE: Proton radiography uses the treatment beam, at an energy high enough to traverse the patient, to produce a radiograph. This work shows the first results of using an integrated-mode proton radiography system to track the position of moving objects in an experimental phantom study; demonstrating the potential of using this method for measuring …

Rapidbrachyivbt: A Dosimetry Software For Patient-Specific Intravascular Brachytherapy Dose Calculations On Optical Coherence Tomography Images, Maryam Rahbaran, Jonathan Kalinowski, Joseph M Decunha, Kevin J Croce, Brian A Bergmark, James M G Tsui, Phillip M Devlin, Shirin A Enger

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Coronary artery disease is the most common form of cardiovascular disease. It is caused by excess plaque along the arterial wall, blocking blood flow to the heart (stenosis). A percutaneous coronary intervention widens the arterial wall with the inflation of a balloon inside the lesion area and leaves behind a metal stent to prevent re-narrowing of the artery (restenosis). However, in-stent restenosis may occur due to damage to the arterial wall tissue, triggering neointimal hyperplasia, producing fibrotic and calcified plaques and narrowing the artery again. Drug-eluting stents, which slowly release medication to inhibit neointimal hyperplasia, are used to prevent …

Open-Chest Cardiac Ultrasound-Mediated Imaging With A Vacuum Coupler, Nilesh Mathuria, Krithik Vishwanath, Giorgio Brero, Blake C Fallon, Antonio Martino, Richard C Willson, Carly S Filgueira, Richard R Bouchard

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: A fundamental obstacle for the preclinical development of ultrasound-(US) mediated cardiac imaging remains cardiac motion, which limits interframe correlation during extended acquisition periods.

PURPOSE: To address this need, we present the design and implementation of a 3D-printed vacuum coupler that stabilizes a US transducer on the epicardial surface of the heart for feasibility assessment and development of advanced, cardiac, US-mediated imaging approaches.

METHODS: The vacuum coupler was 3D printed with biocompatible resins and secured with a standard intraoperative suction aspirator. US-mediated imaging (i.e., B-mode and photoacoustic [PA] imaging) was performed in an open-chest porcine model with and without the …

On The Acceptance, Commissioning, And Quality Assurance Of Electron Flash Units, Allison Palmiero, Kevin Liu, Julie Colnot, Nitish Chopra, Denae Neill, Luke Connell, Brett Velasquez, Albert C Koong, Steven H Lin, Peter Balter, Ramesh Tailor, Charlotte Robert, Jean-François Germond, Patrik Gonçalves Jorge, Reiner Geyer, Sam Beddar, Raphael Moeckli, Emil Schüler

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background and purpose: FLASH or ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) radiation therapy (RT) has gained attention in recent years for its ability to spare normal tissues relative to conventional dose rate (CDR) RT in various preclinical trials. However, clinical implementation of this promising treatment option has been limited because of the lack of availability of accelerators capable of delivering UHDR RT. Commercial options are finally reaching the market that produce electron beams with average dose rates of up to 1000 Gy/s. We established a framework for the acceptance, commissioning, and periodic quality assurance (QA) of electron FLASH units and present an …

Development Of The Navigation Guide Evidence-To-Decision Framework For Environmental Health: Version 1.0, Nicholas Chartres, Max T. Aung, Sustan L. Norris, Courtney Cooper, Lia A. Bero, Roger Chou, Devon C. Payne-Sturges, Wendy E. Wagner, Jessica W. Reyes, Lisa M. Askie, Daniel A. Axelrad, Deysi Flores Vigo, Jill E. Johnston, Juleen Lam, Keeve E. Nachman, Eva Rehfuess, Rachel Rothschild, Patrice Sutton, Lauren Zeise, Tracey J. Woodruff

Articles

Environmental exposures, including widespread industrial pollution, impact human health and are amplified in more highly exposed communities. Policy and regulatory frameworks for making decisions and recommendations on interventions to mitigate or prevent exposures tend to narrowly focus on exposure and some health-related data related to risks. Typically, such frameworks do not consider other factors, including essentiality, health equity, and distribution of benefits and costs. Further, decisions and recommendations lack transparency regarding how they were developed. We developed the Navigation Guide Evidence-to-Decision Framework for Environmental Health (E2DFEH) to provide a structured and transparent framework incorporating a range of scientific information and …

Cardiac Surgical Bleeding, Transfusion, And Quality Metrics: Joint Consensus Statement By The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Cardiac Society And Society For The Advancement Of Patient Blood Management, Rawn Salenger, Rakesh C Arora, Arthur Bracey, Mario D'Oria, Daniel T Engelman, Caroline Evans, Michael C Grant, Serdar Gunaydin, Vicki Morton, Sherri Ozawa, Prakash A Patel, Jacob Raphael, Todd K Rosengart, Linda Shore-Lesserson, Pierre Tibi, Aryeh Shander

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Excessive perioperative bleeding is associated with major complications in cardiac surgery, resulting in increased morbidity, mortality, and cost.

Methods: An international expert panel was convened to develop consensus statements on the control of bleeding and management of transfusion and to suggest key quality metrics for cardiac surgical bleeding. The panel reviewed relevant literature from the previous 10 years and used a modified RAND Delphi methodology to achieve consensus.

Results: The panel developed 30 consensus statements in 8 categories, including prioritizing control of bleeding, prechest closure checklists, and the need for additional quality indicators beyond reexploration rate, such as time …

Virus-Specific T-Cell Therapy For The Management Of Viral Infections In The Immunocompromised, Kiriakos Koukoulias, Penelope Georgia Papayanni, Ann Marie Leen, Spyridoula Vasileiou

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Immunocompromised individuals are at major risk for severe infectious complications. This is particularly relevant in the context of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCT) - a treatment modality that has proven curative for a range of malignant and nonmalignant hematological diseases. However, transplant-associated immune suppression leaves patients susceptible to infectious complications from viruses such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), adenovirus (AdV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and BK virus (BKV). While pharmacological agents are available to prevent and/or treat some of these viruses, they can be associated with significant toxicities and are often ineffective. To circumvent these issues, several groups have explored the …

Molecular Modification Of Queen Bee Acid And 10-Hydroxydecanoic Acid With Specific Tripeptides: Rational Design, Organic Synthesis, And Assessment For Prohealing And Antimicrobial Hydrogel Properties, Song Hong, Sachin B. Baravkar, Yan Lu, Abdul Razak Masoud, Qi Zhao, Weilie Zhou

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Royal jelly and medical grade honey are traditionally used in treating wounds and infections, although their effectiveness is often variable and insufficient. To overcome their limitations, we created novel amphiphiles by modifying the main reparative and antimicrobial components, queen bee acid (hda) and 10-hydroxyl-decanoic acid (hdaa), through peptide bonding with specific tripeptides. Our molecular design incorporated amphiphile targets as being biocompatible in wound healing, biodegradable, non-toxic, hydrogelable, prohealing, and antimicrobial. The amphiphilic molecules were designed in a hda(hdaa)-aa1-aa2-aa3 structural model with rational selection criteria for each moiety, prepared via Rink/Fmoc-tBu-based solid-phase peptide synthesis, and structurally verified by NMR and LC–MS/MS. …

Sex-Specific Astrocyte Regulation Of Spinal Motor Circuits By Nkx61, Navish A Bosquez Huerta, Zhung-Fu Lee, Eun-Ah Christine Song, Junsung Woo, Yi-Ting Cheng, Debosmita Sardar, Ozlem Sert, Ehson Maleki, Kwanha Yu, Ekin Su Akdemir, Kaitlyn Sanchez, Juyeon Jo, Matthew N Rasband, Hyun Kyoung Lee, Akdes Serin Harmanci, Benjamin Deneen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Astrocytes exhibit diverse cellular and molecular properties across the central nervous system (CNS). Recent studies identified region-specific transcription factors (TF) that oversee these diverse properties; how sex differences intersect with region-specific transcriptional programs to regulate astrocyte function is unknown. Here, we show that the TF Nkx6.1 is specifically expressed in ventral astrocytes of the spinal cord and that its deletion results in sex-specific effects on astrocyte morphology. Astrocytes from males exhibit enhanced morphological complexity, accompanied by increased motor function and cholinergic synapses. In contrast, female astrocytes exhibit reduced complexity and no changes in motor function. Mechanistically, we found that Nkx6.1 …

The Adiponectin-Pparγ Axis In Hepatic Stellate Cells Regulates Liver Fibrosis, Shangang Zhao, Qingzhang Zhu, Wang-Hsin Lee, Jan-Bernd Funcke, Zhuzhen Zhang, May-Yun Wang, Qian Lin, Bianca Field, Xue-Nan Sun, Guannan Li, Mbolle Ekane, Toshiharu Onodera, Na Li, Yi Zhu, Christine M Kusminski, Terry D Hinds, Philipp E Scherer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are key drivers of local fibrosis. Adiponectin, conventionally thought of as an adipokine, is also expressed in quiescent HSCs. However, the impact of its local expression on the progression of liver fibrosis remains unclear. We recently generated a transgenic mouse line (Lrat-rtTA) that expresses the doxycycline-responsive transcriptional activator rtTA under the control of the HSC-specific lecithin retinol acyltransferase (Lrat) promoter, which enables us to specifically and inducibly overexpress or eliminate genes in these cells. The inducible elimination of HSCs protects mice from methionine/choline-deficient (MCD) diet-induced liver fibrosis, confirming their causal involvement in fibrosis development. We generated …

What Women Intercollegiate Coaches Say: Decision-Making Factors When Navigating Career Choices, Courtney Boucher, Nicole M. Lavoi

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

To address misconceptions about the lack of women in sport coaching, factors influencing intercollegiate women coaches' career decisions, including their choices to leave positions, apply for new ones, and accept or deny job offers were explored. Utilizing a multi-level analysis underpinned by critical feminist theory, a comprehensive understanding of the systemic and structural barriers women coaches faced, as well as the strategies they employed to navigate their careers were illuminated. Key findings revealed that unequal pay, lack of administrative support, insufficient resources, and pervasive gender biases significantly impacted women's career choices. The importance of supportive workplace environments, flexible working conditions, …

The Caitlin Clark Effect: Illuminating Women’S Sport History, Shelley Lucas

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

The Caitlin Clark Effect is a term that describes the impact of the University of Iowa basketball player on the popularity of women’s basketball, which occurred in conjunction with Clark’s record-breaking performances in 2023 and 2024, as well as the Iowa team’s successes in the NCAA championship tournament. While the Caitlin Clark Effect is associated with intense media attention, ticket sales, and viewership, it also illuminates significant and lesser-known aspects of women’s sport history, specifically media coverage, the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), and the state of Iowa’s unique basketball heritage and ‘6-on-6’ basketball rules. The purpose of …

Benefits, Challenges, And Strategies For Increasing Women Coaches In Elite Sport: The Trail To Gold (T2g) Initiative In U.S. Cross-Country Skiing, Anika Anna Angriman, Lynda B. Ransdell, Shelley Lucas, Nicole Lavoi

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Despite tremendous growth in sport participation of girls and women following Title IX in 1972, women’s participation as sport coaches did not follow the same trajectory. In fact, women remain significantly underrepresented in sport coaching. Research highlights ongoing barriers within the sport industry's patriarchal structure, and although strategies have been proposed to improve women’s representation, the lack of progress over the past two decades indicates limited effectiveness. A better approach is essential to address this issue across individual, interpersonal, organizational, and societal levels. The purpose of this study is to interview participants within the U.S. cross-country skiing program, Trail to …

Improper Fitting Personal Protective Clothing And Subsequent Countermeasures For Physical Conditioning In Female Firefighters: A Narrative Review, Katie Sell, Mark Abel, J. Jay Dawes, Megan Thompson, Annette Zapp, Ofra Pottorf, Lilly Bernardi, James Prendergast

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

The purpose of this paper was to 1) use an explorative literature overview to identify issues related to ill-fitting clothing and occupational gear for female firefighters, and 2) use an inductive approach to develop generalizable recommendations for exercise professionals to utilize by identifying significant themes in published peer reviewed articles related to movement and injury risk. Research, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches, has shown that the majority of current personal protective clothing (PPC) and operational gear was developed to fit a limited array of male physiques. Consequently, the improper fit of PPC and gear has presented numerous concerns that, …

Impact Of A Light Volleyball Intervention Among Older Chinese Adult Women, Ka-Man Carman Leung, Paul Lee, Wing Sze Alice Lai, Yanan Zhao, Lynda Ransdell

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Modified sports offer a strategic approach to promoting health in older adults. Light volleyball, which uses a larger, lighter ball than traditional volleyball, is more accessible for this population. This study investigated the effects of a 16-week light volleyball program on the functional fitness of older adults in Hong Kong. A total of 275 participants aged 60 years or older were recruited and randomly assigned to three groups: a light volleyball intervention group, a Tai Chi group, and a control group. Functional fitness was assessed at the pretest, posttest, and 6-month follow-up. Results revealed that the light volleyball group exhibited …

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Real World Data Infrastructure: A Big-Data Resource For Study Of The Impact Of Covid-19 In Patient Populations With Immunocompromising Conditions, James M. Crawford, Lynne Penberthy, Ligia A. Pinto, Keri N. Althoff, Magdalene M. Assimon, Oren Cohen, Laura Gillim, Tracy L. Hammonds, Shilpa Kapur, Harvey W. Kaufman, David Kwasny, Jean W. Liew, William A. Meyer 3rd, Shannon L. Reynolds, Cheryl B. Schleicher, Suki Subbiah, Catherine Theruviparampil, Zachary S. Wallace, Jeremy L. Warner, Suhyeon Yoon, Yonah C. Ziemba

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Background. We developed a United States–based real-world data resource to better understand the continued impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on immunocompromised patients, who are typically underrepresented in prospective studies and clinical trials. Methods. The COVID-19 Real World Data infrastructure (CRWDi) was created by linking and harmonizing de-identified HealthVerity medical and pharmacy claims data from 1 December 2018 to 31 December 2023, with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virologic and serologic laboratory data from major commercial laboratories and Northwell Health; COVID-19 vaccination data; and, for patients with cancer, 2010 to 2021 National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and …

Geographic Disparities Impacting Oral Vaccine Performance: Observations And Future Directions, Rachel M Burke, Sasirekha Ramani, Julia Lynch, Laura V Cooper, Haeun Cho, Ananda S Bandyopadhyay, Carl D Kirkwood, A Duncan Steele, Gagandeep Kang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Oral vaccines have several advantages compared with parenteral administration: they can be relatively cheap to produce in high quantities, easier to administer, and induce intestinal mucosal immunity that can protect against infection. These characteristics have led to successful use of oral vaccines against rotavirus, polio, and cholera. Unfortunately, oral vaccines for all three diseases have demonstrated lower performance in the highest-burden settings where they are most needed. Rotavirus vaccines are estimated to have >85% effectiveness against hospitalization in children < 12 months in countries with low child mortality, but only ~65% effectiveness in countries with high child mortality. Similarly, oral polio vaccines have lower immunogenicity in developing country settings compared with high-resource settings. Data are more limited for oral cholera vaccines, but suggest lower titers among children compared with adults, and, for some vaccines, lower efficacy in endemic settings compared with non-endemic settings. These disparities are likely multifactorial, and available evidence suggests a role for maternal factors (e.g. transplacental antibodies, breastmilk), host factors (e.g. genetic polymorphisms-with the best evidence for rotavirus-or previous infection), and environmental factors (e.g. gut microbiome, co-infections). Overall, these data highlight the rather ambiguous and often contradictory nature of evidence on factors affecting oral vaccine response, cautioning against broad extrapolation of outcomes based on one population or one vaccine type. Meaningful impact on performance of oral vaccines will likely only be possible with a suite of interventions, given the complex and multifactorial nature of the problem, and the degree to which contributing factors are intertwined.

Congenital Rickets, Melissa Intriago

Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal

No abstract provided.

How Did Covid-19 Impact Physiology Research Globally? – Lessons Learned And Future Recommendations, Jeet Patel, Santanu De

Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal

The Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused massive changes in the medical field across the globe. As the whole world moved from in-person to remote activities, students found themselves in a predicament where they were compelled towards schooling and work online from home. This would mean that all projects, research, tests, and meetings were conducted over Zoom or other online meeting platforms. Laboratories were shut down or only a limited number of people were allowed to enter to conduct the necessary research. This paper discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic affected research process and experiments within various aspects of the …

Viroporin Activity Is Necessary For Intercellular Calcium Signals That Contribute To Viral Pathogenesis, J Thomas Gebert, Francesca J Scribano, Kristen A Engevik, Ethan M Huleatt, Michael R Eledge, Lauren E Dorn, Asha A Philip, Takahiro Kawagishi, Harry B Greenberg, John T Patton, Joseph M Hyser

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Viruses engage in a variety of processes to subvert host defenses and create an environment amenable to replication. Here, using rotavirus as a prototype, we show that calcium conductance out of the endoplasmic reticulum by the virus encoded ion channel, NSP4, induces intercellular calcium waves that extend beyond the infected cell and contribute to pathogenesis. Viruses that lack the ability to induce this signaling show diminished viral shedding and attenuated disease in a mouse model of rotavirus diarrhea. This implicates nonstructural protein 4 (NSP4) as a virulence factor and provides mechanistic insight into its mode of action. Critically, this …

Exploring The Pathogen Profiles Of Ancient Feces, Drew Capone, David Holcomb, Amanda Lai, Karl Reinhard, Joe Brown

Karl Reinhard Publications

Analysis of ancient desiccated feces – termed paleofeces or coprolites – can unlock insights into the lives of ancient people. We collected desiccated feces from caves in the Rio Zape Valley in Mexico (725-920 CE). First, we extracted DNA with methods previously optimized for paleofeces. Then, we applied highly sensitive modern molecular tools (i.e., PCR pre-amplification followed by multi-parallel qPCR) to assess the presence of 30 enteric pathogens. We detected ≥1 pathogen associated gene in each of the ten samples and a mean of 3.9 pathogens per sample. The targets detected included Blastocystis spp. (n=7), atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (n=7), …

Sex Differences In Response To Diet Enriched With Glutathione Precursors In The Aging Heart, Aude Angelini, Grecia Garcia Marquez, Anna Malovannaya, Marta L Fiorotto, Alexander Saltzman, Antrix Jain, Joann Trial, George E Taffet, Katarzyna A Cieslik

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Common features of the aging heart are dysregulated metabolism, inflammation, and fibrosis. Elevated oxidative stress is another hallmark of cardiac aging that can exacerbate each of these conditions. We hypothesize that by increasing natural antioxidant levels (glutathione), we will improve cardiac function. Twenty-one-month-old mice were fed glycine and N-acetyl cysteine (GlyNAC; glutathione precursors)-supplemented or control diets for 12 weeks. Heart function was monitored longitudinally, and the exercise performance was determined at the end of the study. We found that the GlyNAC diet was beneficial for old male but not old female mice, leading to an increase of Ndufb8 expression (a …