Biochemistry Commons^™

Understanding The Rage Signaling Pathway And Its Contribution To Diabetic Complications, Leon Vegas Ho

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The binding of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) to the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is an important feature of the RAGE signaling pathway that plays a role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Under high glucose concentration, RAGE expression increases immensely from the formation of a Schiff base by glucose bounded to lysine. This triggers an inflammatory and immune response and upregulates the expression of RAGE and causes an accumulation of AGEs in the body. As a result, this leads to the development of diabetes and other complications such as, atherosclerosis, nephrothapy, and retinopathy. To remedy AGE accumulation, …

Novel Substrate-Free Cholinesterase Based Sensing Of Organophosphorus Compounds, Hailey J. Marini

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The increasing concerns of chemical weapons used by terrorists is growing, creating a need for infield detection methods that can rapidly detect these compounds that are a major health concern for civilians and military personnel. Displacement is a novel concept for the detection of cholinesterase inhibitors, including organophosphorus compounds, that could replace the classical instrumentation methods currently being used for diagnostics.

Targeting The Rage Signaling Pathway To Ameliorate The Complications Of Diabetes, Stephen James Dansereau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Diabetes is a global health epidemic that can be devastating to those afflicted,

Biochemical And Chemical Methods Of Key Derivation For Cryptographic Ciphers, Leif K. Mcgoldrick

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Cryptography is a vital component of digital communication and digital data in general. The use of cryptography is necessary to support the veracity of data and to protect it from outside parties with malicious intent. Cryptography focuses on two main facets that are vital for this goal: data encryption and user authentication. Encryption protects the data by transforming it into an encrypted text that would not allow someone access without having or breaking the encryption method that was used to make it. User authentication is a multiple part process that allows for one to be able to identify oneself to …

Development Of Small Molecule Antibiotics Against A Conserved Rna Gene Regulatory Element In Gram-Positive Bacteria, Ville Yrjö Petteri Väre

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Bacterial infections and the rise of antibiotic resistance, especially multidrug resistant strains, have generated a clear need for discovery of novel therapeutics. Most antibiotics in use today are derivatives of previous antibiotics to which resistance mechanisms already exist, and traditionally they have a single target: either a protein or rRNA. Gram-positive bacteria regulate the expression of several essential genes or operons using a mechanism called the T-box. The T-box is a structurally conserved riboswitch-like gene regulator in the 5’-untranslated region (UTR) of numerous essential genes of Gram-positive bacteria. T-boxes are stabilized by cognate, unacylated tRNA ligands, allowing the formation of …

Development Of Dual Functional Dna/Rna Nanostructures For Drug Delivery, Vibhav Amit Valsangkar

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In addition to the traditional biochemical functions, DNA and RNA have been increasingly studied as building blocks for the formation of various 2D and 3D nanostructures. DNA has emerged as a versatile building block for programmable self-assembly. DNA-based nanostructures have been widely applied in biosensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, molecular computation and macromolecular scaffolding. A variety of strategies have been developed to functionalize these nanostructures. The major advantage is that DNA is a very stable molecule and its base-pairing properties can be easily utilized to control and program the formation of desired nanostructures. In addition, some of these DNA/RNA nanostructures have …

Role Of Microrna-483 In Pancreatic Β-Cells, Jackson Waugh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Insulin is an essential hormone produced by β-cells in the pancreas. The release of insulin is tightly regulated in healthy people in order to control blood sugar level in our body. However, people with Type 2 Diabetes have insufficient insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells, leaving to high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) and β-cell failure. microRNAs (miRNAs or miR) are newly discovered small regulatory molecules and have emerged as important regulator of cell growth, differentiation, and organ function. Altered miRNA function has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of human disease, including diabetes. In this report, we focus on dissecting …

Antifungal Defense Molecules From Bacterial Symbionts Of North American Trachymyrmex Ants, Georgia Scherer

CMC Senior Theses

Defensive symbioses, in which microbes provide molecular defenses for an animal host, hold great potential as untapped sources of therapeutically useful antibiotics. Fungus-growing ants use antifungal defenses from bacterial symbionts to suppress pathogenic fungi in their nests. Preliminary chemical investigations of symbiotic bacteria from this large family of ants have uncovered novel antifungal molecules with therapeutic potential, such as dentigerumycin and selvamicin.

In this study, the bacterial symbionts of North American Trachymyrmex fungus-growing ants are investigated for antifungal molecules. Plate-based bioassays using ecologically-relevant fungal pathogens confirmed that these bacteria have antifungal activity. In order to purify and identify the antifungal …

Investigating The Role Of Centromeric Repeats In Female Meiotic Drive, Jocelyn Crawford

CMC Senior Theses

Female meiotic drive is an unequal transmission of alleles that arises through the competition of paired chromosomes for inclusion in the egg, resulting in an increase in frequency of the driven alleles regardless of their effect on fitness of the individual. In Mimulus guttatus (monkeyflower) second filial generations, driven alleles display transmission advantages resulting in the virtual elimination of recessive homozygotes, while the equivalent lines lacking drive elements conform to traditional Mendelian segregation population ratios. Centromeres have been identified as mechanistic drive elements due to their role in chromosomal segregation during female meiosis, with Mimulus providing the best documented case …

Life In A Rural Emergency Department: Patients Speak To Underlying, Fundamental Disparities In Physician And Resource Allocation, Jessica Gustad

Honors Projects

In the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, access to health care was defined as, “The availability of an adequate supply of health care services and the individual’s opportunity to obtain health care when it is wanted or needed” (MacKinney, 2014). Current trends in rural emergency departments are trying to communicate a critical message about the fundamental problems with the distribution of health care services in America today and the inability to properly meet the definition above. In rural communities, patient complaints and behaviors demonstrate the pressing concerns of inadequate access to primary care, limited specialty care, insufficient mental …

Structural Dynamics Of Inosine Triphosphate Pyrophosphatase (Itpa) Protein And Two Clinically Relevant Mutants: Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Yao Houndonougbo, Bethany Pugh, Kandise Vanwormer, Caitlin April, Nicholas Burgis

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase (ITPA) protein is responsible for removing noncanonical purine nucleoside triphosphates from intracellular nucleotide pools. Absence of ITPA results in genomic instability and increased levels of inosine in DNA and RNA. The proline to threonine substitution at position 32 (P32T) affects roughly 15% of the global population and can modulate treatment outcomes for cancer, lupus, and hepatitis C patients. The substitution of arginine with cysteine at position 178 (R178C) is extremely uncommon and has only been reported in a small cohort of early infantile encephalopathy patients suggesting that a functional ITPA protein is required for life in …

Serotonin 5-Ht2a And 5-Ht2c Receptors Regulate Rat Maternal Behavior Through Distinct Behavioral And Neural Mechanisms, Jun Gao, Lina Nie, Yu Li, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Serotonin 5-HT_2A and 5-HT_2C receptors play important yet distinctive roles in the regulation of rat maternal behavior. The present study investigated their neural substrates and explored the possible behavioral mechanisms (i.e., behavioral organization or maternal motivation). Sprague-Dawley postpartum females were microinjected with either a selective 5-HT_2A agonist (TCB-2, 0.4 or 4.0 μg/side) or a 5-HT_2C agonist (MK212, 2.5 or 5.0 μg/side) into the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or ventral tegmental area (VTA). Ten and 60 min later, their maternal activities were observed in the home cage; and their motivational responses towards pups were examined in a …

Therapeutic Dna: Delivery And As A Delivery Vehicle, Natalie J. Holl

Masters Theses

"A review of gene delivery methods and gene editing methods, as well as original research utilizing DNA as a delivery vehicle is presented in the following thesis. Thousands of diseases have been linked to genes. Gene therapy, either delivering therapeutic genes or editing DNA bases, has arisen as a treatment option with the potential to cure diseases, rather than just ease symptoms. Genes and editing tools need to be delivered to cells for these therapies to be effective and many techniques have been developed to address the issue of delivery. Nonviral and viral methods have been used to deliver nucleic …

Functional Characterization Of Proteins From A Putative Chondroitin Sulfate A Degrading Operon And The Crystal Structure Of An Exo-N-Acetylgalactosamine-4-Sulfatase From Tannerella Forsythia, Peter Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Advanced periodontitis has been shown to have strong associations with the residence of a bacterial triad of Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola also known as the red complex. These bacteria were previously thought to be asaccharolytic, making them better suited to survive in deep in periodontal pockets where access to carbohydrates from food is limited. Information gathered from genomic analysis suggested that upregulation of an operon (BFO2285-BFO2295, BFO3043) could confer the capacity for T. forsythia to degrade chondroitin-4-sulfate, the principle glycosaminoglycan of alveolar bone tissue. Bioinformatics analysis suggested the operon was similar to an operon found in Bacteroidetes …

Optimization Of Dapoxyl Aptamer For Label-Free Bioanalysis, Jack E. Mordeson, Ryan P. Connelly, Pedro F. Madalozzo, Yulia Gerasimova

Digital Repository: Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence

No abstract provided.

Antibiotic Drug Nanocarriers For Probing Of Multidrug Abc Membrane Transporter Of Bacillus Subtilis, Pavan Kumar Cherukuri, Preeyaporn Songkiatisak, Feng Ding, Jeam-Michel Jault, Xiao-Hong Nancy Xu

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Multidrug membrane transporters can extrude a wide range of substrates, which cause multidrug resistance and ineffective treatment of diseases. In this study, we used three different sized antibiotic drug nanocarriers to study their size-dependent inhibitory effects against Bacillus subtilis. We functionalized 2.4 ± 0.7, 13.0 ± 3.1, and 92.6 ± 4.4 nm silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) with a monolayer of 11-amino-1-undecanethiol and covalently linked them with antibiotics (ofloxacin, Oflx). The labeling ratios of antibiotics with NPs are 8.6 × 10², 9.4 × 10³, and 6.5 × 10⁵ Oflx molecules per NP, respectively. We designed …

Fluvial Sediment Organic Matter Degradation Identified With Elemental And Isotopic Fate During Laboratory Incubation, Brenden Riddle

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Fluvial sediment is well recognized as a critical factor in both carbon and nutrient budgets within stream systems. However, we find very few studies of reactivity and isotope enrichment for stream water from agricultural and urban streams and the class of substrate known as fluvial sediment organic matter. This study investigated the hypothesis that fluvial sediment is subject to degradation even though many previous studies have considered this class of substrate generally inert. Therefore we qualify that elemental and isotopic signatures of fluvial sediment organic matter should be considered potentially non-conservative when used in tracer studies. Methods applied to this …

Physicochemical Characterization, Structural Determination, And Molecular Dynamic Modeling Of Proso Millet Proteins For Enhanced Food Functionality, Felix Akharume

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

More than one-third of Americans today incorporate plant-based protein into their diet and about 40% believed that plant-based protein is healthier than animal protein, especially Millennials. The increasing global demand for plant-based proteins driven by the high cost of animal proteins, consumers’ desire for lean protein, vegetarianism, and the need for more sustainable green protein products have necessitated research into alternate emerging and underutilized sources of protein to complement or supplement the major plant protein in the market- soy, pea, and gluten. Therefore, this dissertation is focused on the valorization of the proteins in proso millet. Specifically, this work focused …

Plant-Soil Interactions Dominate Soil Microbial Respiration And Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration In A Subtropical Moist Evergreen Broadleaved Forest In China, Zhijie Yang

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Tropical forest soils contain one-third of global soil carbon (C). The warm and moist climate in tropical forests leads to rapid soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition, with the highest soil microbial respiration rates in the world, so even a slight change in soil C and microbial respiration could affect atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. However, there remains a lack of understanding of the mechanisms driving microbial respiration in tropical forests, due to different climate and biophysical drivers compared to temperate or boreal forests. Furthermore, forest conversions (from natural forests to plantations) are most widespread in tropical regions, leading to a loss …

Gravity-Drawing Flexible Silicone Filaments As Fiber Optics And Model Foldamers, Katherine Snell

CMC Senior Theses

Here, we present a method of gravity-drawing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) silicone fibers with application as fiber optics and as model foldamers. Beginning as a viscous liquid, PDMS is cured using heat until its measured viscosity reaches 4000 mPa•s. The semi-cured elastomer is then extruded through a tube furnace to produce thin (diameters on the order of hundred micrometers) filaments with scalable lengths. PDMS is biocompatible, gas-permeable, flexible, and hydrophobic. Additionally, the PDMS surface hydrophobicity can be modified via UV exposure, O2 plasma, and corona discharge. We demonstrate the patternibility (i.e patterns of hydrophobicity) of PDMS fibers, adding complexity to potential foldamer …