Cell and Developmental Biology Commons^™

Parabens Promote Protumorigenic Effects In Luminal Breast Cancer Cell Lines With Diverse Genetic Ancestry, Jazma L. Tapia, Jillian C. Mcdonough, Emily L. Cauble, Cesar G. Gonzalez, Dede K. Teteh, Lindsey S. Treviño

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Context

One in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Yet, the burden of disease is greater in Black women. Black women have a 40% higher mortality rate than White women, and a higher incidence of breast cancer at age 40 and younger. While the underlying cause of this disparity is multifactorial, exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in hair and other personal care products has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Parabens are known EDCs that are commonly used as preservatives in hair and other personal care products, and Black women are disproportionately exposed …

A Novel Role For Enos In Regulating Lymphatic Valve Development During Embryogenesis, Drishya Iyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lymphedema is a disease that occurs when lymph flow is impaired, resulting in tissue swelling, fibrosis, chronic inflammation and recurrent secondary infections. Lymphatic valves play a critical role in maintaining unidirectional lymph flow and evidence for valve defects have been reported in lymphedema patients. The lack of drugs that can correct lymphatic valve defects warrants a better understanding of the molecular regulators of lymphatic valve development and maintenance. Lymphatic valves first develop during embryogenesis in response to mechanotransduction signaling pathways triggered by oscillatory lymph flow. Since eNOS (gene name: Nos3) is a well characterized mechanotransduction signaling molecule in blood vessels, …

Determining The Existence And Regulation Of Microlipophagy In Primary Brown And White Adipocytes, Sara C. Arenas De Leon

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Lipids are one of life’s four main macromolecules and provide essential functions to cells, as they serve as building blocks of cellular membranes, mediate cell signaling, and are a critical energy source. Within cells, esterified fatty acids aggregate into lipid droplets in the form of triglycerides, consisting of a neutral lipid core surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer decorated with various proteins.

The degradation of lipid droplets and mobilization of lipids occurs through lipolysis, a process that hydrolyzes a molecule of triglyceride into a glycerol and three fatty acids. Emerging evidence demonstrates the involvement of a selective form of autophagy in …

Role Of Chronic Stress-Induced Neuroinflammation In Rodent Locus Coeruleus Physiology And Anxiety-Like Behaviors, Arthur Anthony Alfonso Reyes

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The locus coeruleus (LC), the primary site of brain norepinephrine (NE), is a key anatomical brain region implicated in the stress response. Stress is a neuroendocrine physiologic response to a stressor that promotes organism survival through adaptive change and restoration of homeostasis. The central stress response, which drives behavioral and physiological change, is primarily mediated by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. While advantageous in the short term, chronic stress exposure can lead to HPA axis and LC dysregulation, which are thought to contribute to the etiology of anxiety disorders. Previous studies demonstrate the effects of acute stress in increasing LC …

Development Of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Knock Out Protocol For Drug Substance Assay Development, Julia C. Hanna

Master's Theses

Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) is a rare X-linked primary immunodeficiency affecting approximately 1 in 100,000 live XY births in North America and is caused by a mutation to the WAS gene which is expressed across hematopoietic lineages. The WAS protein (WASp) plays a role in regulating actin polymerization. On a cellular level, there are a variety of effects of a lack of WASp or expression of a dysfunctional WASp protein for patients including issues with migration, adhesion, chemotactic response, phagocytosis, activation, and proliferation across different cell types in addition to reduced platelet size and output. This can lead to several systematic …

The Protective Effects Of Anthocyanins On Neurons, Abigail Lynn

Pence-Boyce STEM Student Scholarship

Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are debilitating neurodegenerative diseases that are largely thought to be exacerbated, and perhaps even caused, by oxidative stress in and around neurons. At the same time, there has been increased research in the field of nutrition and how the foods we eat impact our short- and long-term health. These combined interests have resulted in fascinating studies that have found certain foods, namely plants, can have a variety of medicinal benefits.....The purpose of this study is to determine if plant extracts that have high levels of certain phytonutrients can increase the activity of cellular enzymes that reduce oxidative …

Migratory Material: Epigenetics & Weaving At The Us-Mexico Border, Valerie Navarrete

Masters Theses

Discourse often sutures the body shut, disallowing representations of identity to outgrow sociopolitical interests. This issue may originate from borders, but also from the unnamable pathology that generational colonial trauma transmits to the mind, body, and environment. Without a direct form of translatability, this thesis proposes a new materialism that deviates from any object-oriented ontology. Untethered and intra-active, epigenetics and weaving represent objects that transform typical ways of knowing and seeing. Their sensitivity to the environment, in addition to their mobility across generations of time, broaden the spatiotemporal loci of the body and its embodiment. Proposing new materials that expand …

Ethical Issues And Standards Of Responsible Research Conduct And Monitoring In An Adventist Institution Of Higher Learning - The Babcock Experience, Kayode O. Ogunwenmo, Godswill N. Anyasor, Grace O. Tayo

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Ethical issues and standards of responsible research conduct involving human participants are important considerations in any institution of higher learning and in particular Adventist institutions. Research conduct and ethics are reviewed and approved before they begin by the Babcock University Health Research Ethics Committee (BUHREC)

Serological Prevalence Of Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Infection In Small Ruminants And Cattle In The Gambia, Jerusha Matthews, Arss Secka, David Scott Mcvey, Kimberly A. Dodd, Bonto Faburay

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is a widely distributed tickborne zoonotic agent that infects a variety of host species. There is a lack of information on the true geographic distribution of the prevalence and risk of CCHFV in West Africa. A countrywide cross-sectional study involving 1413 extensively managed indigenous small ruminants and cattle at livestock sales markets and in village herds, respectively, was carried out in The Gambia. In sheep, an overall anti-CCHFV antibody prevalence of 18.9% (95% CI: 15.5–22.8%), goats 9.0% (95% CI: 6.7–11.7%), and cattle 59.9% (95% CI: 54.9–64.7%) was detected. Significant variation (p < 0.05) in the prevalence of anti-CCHFV antibodies at sites in the five administrative regions (sheep: 4.8–25.9%; goats: 1.8–17.1%) and three agroecological zones (sheep: 8.9–32.9%; goats: 4.1–18.0%) was also observed. Comparatively, higher anti-CCHFV antibody prevalence was detected in cattle (33.3–84.0%) compared to small ruminants (1.8–8.1%). This study represents the first countrywide investigation of the seroprevalence of CCHFV in The Gambia, and the results suggest potential circulation and endemicity of the virus in the country. These data provide critical information vital to the development of informed policies for the surveillance, diagnosis, and control of CCFHV infection in The Gambia and the region.

Design, Synthesis, And Antiproliferative Activity Of Benzopyran-4-One-Isoxazole Hybrid Compounds, Shilpi Gupta, Shang Eun Park, Saghar Mozaffari, Bishoy El-Aarag, Keykavous Parang, Rakesh Kumar Tiwari

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The biological significance of benzopyran-4-ones as cytotoxic agents against multi-drug resistant cancer cell lines and isoxazoles as anti-inflammatory agents in cellular assays prompted us to design and synthesize their hybrid compounds and explore their antiproliferative activity against a panel of six cancer cell lines and two normal cell lines. Compounds 5a–d displayed significant antiproliferative activities against all the cancer cell lines tested, and IC₅₀ values were in the range of 5.2–22.2 μM against MDA-MB-231 cancer cells, while they were minimally cytotoxic to the HEK-293 and LLC-PK1 normal cell lines. The IC₅₀ values of 5a–d …

Synthesis, Characterization And Biological Evaluation Of Polyarginine Derived Bone-Targeting Peptides, Gina L. Antuono

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Osteoblast-targeting peptides in the treatment of bone disease is a new and novel approach to offering effective treatment of various cancers and can be used in bio-medical, medicinal chemistry and biotechnology applications. By targeting adhesion proteins produced by osteoblast cells, certain cancers which migrate and metastasize to the bone may be more effectively treated. An osteoblast-targeting peptide composed of Ser-Asp-Ser-Ser-Asp (SDSSD) which selectively binds to osteoblast cells via periostin has recently been identified. This peptide was functionalized with polyurethane, generating nanomicelles which encapsulated RNA for the therapeutic treatment of osteoporosis. This study has served as the basis for the research …

Identifying The Temporal N-Linked Glycosylation Changes During Liver Disease Progression: From Liver Injury To End-Stage Liver Disease, Shaaron Ochoa-Rios

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

The high mortality rates of liver diseases and primary liver cancers can be attributed to the lack of screening and diagnostic strategies currently available for early detection. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an early stage of liver disease known to progress to a variety of pre-malignant and malignant conditions, like advanced fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Based on the wide variety of diseases that NAFLD can progress to, strategies to understand and detect the progression of NAFLD are of great value. Core fucosylation of N-linked glycans has been demonstrated to be useful for the clinical diagnosis …

Novel Allosteric Effectors Targeting Human Transcription Factor Tead, Mayar Terek Ibrahim, Gennady M. Verkhivker, Jyoti Misra, Peng Tao

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionary conserved signaling network involved in several cellular regulatory processes. Dephosphorylation and overexpression of Yes-associated proteins (YAPs) in the Hippo-off state are common in several types of solid tumors. YAP overexpression results in its nuclear translocation and interaction with transcriptional enhanced associate domain 1-4 (TEAD1-4) transcription factors. Covalent and non-covalent inhibitors have been developed to target several interaction sites between TEAD and YAP. The most targeted and effective site for these developed inhibitors is the palmitate-binding pocket in the TEAD1-4 proteins. Screening of a DNA-encoded library against the TEAD central pocket was performed experimentally to …

Influenza C And D Viruses Demonstrated A Differential Respiratory Tissue Tropism In A Comparative Pathogenesis Study In Guinea Pigs, Chithra C. Sreenivasan, Runxia Liu, Rongyuan Gao, Yicheng Guo, Ben M. Hause, Milton Thomas, Ahsan Naveed, Travis Clement, Dana Rausch, Jane Christopher-Hennings, Eric Nelson, Julian Druce, Miaoyun Zhao, Radhey S. Kaushik, Qingsheng Li, Zizhang Sheng, Dan Dan, Feng Li

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Influenza C virus (ICV) is increasingly associated with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children and its disease severity is worse than the influenza B virus, but similar to influenza A virus associated CAP. Despite the ubiquitous infection landscape of ICV in humans, little is known about its replication and pathobiology in animals. The goal of this study was to understand the replication kinetics, tissue tropism, and pathogenesis of human ICV (huICV) in comparison to the swine influenza D virus (swIDV) in guinea pigs. Intranasal inoculation of both viruses did not cause clinical signs, however, the infected animals shed virus in nasal …

Chemoattractant Distribution In Complex Geometry Impacts The Trajectory Of Clustered Cell Migration, Naghmeh Akhavan

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Zinc Treatment Reverses And Anti-Zn-Regulated Mirs Suppress Esophageal Carcinomas In Vivo, Louise Fong, Kay Huebner, Ruiyan Jing, Karl Smalley, Christopher R Brydges, Oliver Fiehn, John Farber, Carlo M Croce

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a deadly disease with few prevention or treatment options. ESCC development in humans and rodents is associated with Zn deficiency (ZD), inflammation, and overexpression of oncogenic microRNAs: miR-31 and miR-21. In a ZD-promoted ESCC rat model with upregulation of these miRs, systemic antimiR-31 suppresses the miR-31-EGLN3/STK40-NF-κB-controlled inflammatory pathway and ESCC. In this model, systemic delivery of Zn-regulated antimiR-31, followed by antimiR-21, restored expression of tumor-suppressor proteins targeted by these specific miRs: STK40/EGLN3 (miR-31), PDCD4 (miR-21), suppressing inflammation, promoting apoptosis, and inhibiting ESCC development. Moreover, ESCC-bearing Zn-deficient (ZD) rats receiving Zn medication showed a 47% …

Adenoviral-Vectored Epigraph Vaccine Elicits Robust, Durable, And Protective Immunity Against H3 Influenza A Virus In Swine, Erika M. Petro-Turnquist, Matthew J. Pekarek, Nicholas Jeanjaquet, Cedric Wooledge, David J. Steffen, Hiep Vu, Eric A. Weaver

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Current methods of vaccination against swine Influenza A Virus (IAV-S) in pigs are infrequently updated, induce strain-specific responses, and have a limited duration of protection. Here, we characterize the onset and duration of adaptive immune responses after vaccination with an adenoviral-vectored Epigraph vaccine. In this longitudinal study we observed robust and durable antibody responses that remained above protective titers six months after vaccination. We further identified stable levels of antigen-specific T cell responses that remained detectable in the absence of antigen stimulation. Antibody isotyping revealed robust class switching from IgM to IgG induced by Epigraph vaccination, while the commercial comparator …

Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis Of Mutation In Pam-1 Of Model Organism Caenorhabditis Elegans., Jessica Stein, Jessica Stein

Honors College Theses

The pam-1 gene in the model roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans governs meiotic exit and establishment of cellular polarity in the single-celled C. elegans embryo. Mutation of the pam-1 gene results in reduced fertility and fecundity in adult C. elegans and disrupts the anatomy of the germinal gonad. The aim of this study is to qualitatively and quantitatively define the changes in the germline cells associated with mutations to the pam-1 gene. Specifically, we examined the stages of germ cell development within the gonads of adult worms, both wild-type and pam-1 compromised, and identified the changes in the length of the mitotic, …

Evaluation Of Nutrient Digestibility Of Weaned Calves From Early And Late Shedding Dams, Jennifer Keele

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have investigated several factors that could alter fetal growth, including nutrient restriction (Valiente et al., 2021), hair shedding (Gray et al., 2011), and extreme hot and cold temperatures (Davidson et al., 2022). Hot temperatures and increased humidity percentages in the southeast United States caused researchers to investigate the hair coats of Angus cattle in the commercial production setting. An improvement in fiber digestibility and calf birth and weaning weights has been observed in Angus dams that shed 50% of the winter hair coat by May (Gray et al., 2011; Burnett et al., 2021). Our objective of this experiment was …

A Review Of The Causes Of Optic Nerve Atrophy And Potential Ways Of Axon Regeneration In The Optic Nerve, Cole Wyatt

Honors College Theses

The optic nerve connects the eye to the lateral geniculate nucleus in the brain and is a key component in the human visual pathway. The optic nerve is made up of the axons of approximately 770,000 to 1.2 million specialized neurons called retinal ganglion cells. Like any other organ and tissue in the body, the optic nerve is susceptible to damage or injury. However, unlike some other organs and tissues, once damaged, the optic nerve cannot regenerate. Individuals with damaged optic nerves are said to have Optic Nerve Atrophy and, as of now, there are no cures or treatment options …