Resolving The Repression Pathway Of Virulence Gene Hila In Salmonella,
2022
University of Missouri-St. Louis
Resolving The Repression Pathway Of Virulence Gene Hila In Salmonella, Alexandra King, Lon Chubiz Phd, Brenda Pratte, Lauren Daugherty
Undergraduate Research Symposium
Salmonella is a relatively abundant, virulent species of bacteria that is most known for spreading gastrointestinal diseases through food. These illnesses result in approximately 1.35 million infections, including over 25,000 hospitalizations each year, in the U.S. alone (CDC.gov). As antibiotic resistance becomes an increasingly urgent public health problem, the importance of developing alternative treatment methods is only becoming more crucial. One of the genes responsible for this virulence is known as hilA. HilA is the main transcriptional regulator of Salmonella Pathogenicity Island-1 gene (UniProt). SPI-1 plays an important role in the invasion of Salmonella into epithelial ...
Macrophage Rac2 Promotes Suppression Of Germination During Aspergillus Fumigatus Infection,
2022
Clemson University
Macrophage Rac2 Promotes Suppression Of Germination During Aspergillus Fumigatus Infection, Chris D. Tanner
All Theses
Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus found ubiquitously in the environment including in the air we breathe. Though not a threat to most people, immunodeficient or immunosuppressed individuals are at risk for developing severe infection, including the life-threatening condition of invasive aspergillosis. The hematopoietic cell specific GTPase protein Rac2 is associated with major roles in innate immune defense. Currently Rac2 has been demonstrated to be crucial for survival against a variety of infections. Here, we use a rac2 null mutant zebrafish line and morpholino approaches to elucidate roles of Rac2 in mounting the macrophage host defense response against A. fumigatus infection ...
Cat Covid, Cmv And Chemokines, Oh My!,
2022
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Cat Covid, Cmv And Chemokines, Oh My!, Trevor Hancock
Doctoral Dissertations
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an important pathogen infecting most humans worldwide. CMV infection within immunocompromised individuals can cause severe morbidity and potential mortality. Disease during CMV infection is due to virus dissemination and subsequent inflammation. Host immune cells lie at the intersection potentially mediating both. The CMV-encoded viral chemokine vCXCL-1 is a proposed virulence factor in mouse models increasing immune cell recruitment and disease. However, the primary immune cell mediator is undetermined. To identify targets, Chapter 2 examines CXCR2 expression (receptor for vCXCL-1) among various mouse tissues and human peripheral blood under steady-state conditions. In vitro, isoforms of HCMV’s vCXCL-1 ...
The Scaffold-Dependent Function Of Ripk1 In Dendritic Cells Promotes Injury-Induced Colitis,
2022
Toho University
The Scaffold-Dependent Function Of Ripk1 In Dendritic Cells Promotes Injury-Induced Colitis, Kenta Moriwaki, Christa Park, Kazuha Koyama, Sakthi Balaji, Kohei Kita, Ryoko Yagi, Sachiko Komazawa-Sakon, Manami Semba, Tatsuya Asuka, Hiroyasu Nakano, Yoshihiro Kamada, Eiji Miyoshi, Francis K. M. Chan
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
Receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) is a cytosolic multidomain protein that controls cell life and death. While RIPK1 promotes cell death through its kinase activity, it also functions as a scaffold protein to promote cell survival by inhibiting FADD-caspase 8-dependent apoptosis and RIPK3-MLKL-dependent necroptosis. This pro-survival function is highlighted by excess cell death and perinatal lethality in Ripk1(-/-) mice. Recently, loss of function mutation of RIPK1 was found in patients with immunodeficiency and inflammatory bowel diseases. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation restored not only immunodeficiency but also intestinal inflammatory pathology, indicating that RIPK1 in hematopoietic cells is critical to maintain ...
Impact Of Probiotics On Black Soldier Fly Larvae Transmission Of Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia,
2021
University of Maine - Main
Impact Of Probiotics On Black Soldier Fly Larvae Transmission Of Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, Emily Marie Mclaughlin
Honors College
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an opportunistic pathogen which can cause a variety of infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. It has recently been found that black soldier flies can act as carriers for S. maltophilia (Callegari et al., 2020). I have investigated how probiotics impact their vector capabilities. Black soldier fly larvae have been fed substrate spiked with S. maltophilia. After several days of feeding, the larvae were investigated by PCR and plating (Sveensson-Stadler et al., 2011). Two groups of larvae were fed with potatoes infected with S. maltophilia. Persistence of S. maltophilia was determined using PCR by taking samples from days ...
Determinants Of Precocious B-Cell Aging In European Adolescents Living With Perinatally Acquired Hiv-1 After Over 10 Years Of Suppressive Therapy [Preprint],
2021
University of Verona
Determinants Of Precocious B-Cell Aging In European Adolescents Living With Perinatally Acquired Hiv-1 After Over 10 Years Of Suppressive Therapy [Preprint], Alessandra Ruggiero, Katherine Luzuriaga, Paolo Palma
UMass Chan Medical School Faculty Publications
HIV infection results in a state of chronic immune activation leading to premature immune aging, B-cells dysfunction, that persists despite prolonged virological suppression. In this scenario, adolescence living with perinatally acquired HIV (PHIV), deserve a peculiar attention since potentially exposed for their entire life to chronic immune activation. Here we identified determinants of precocious aging B cells in 40 PHIV undergoing suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) for median 13.5 years. All individuals started ART by 2nd year of life and achieved virus suppression within the 1st year of ART, with majority of patient maintaining suppression until analysis and 5/40 ...
Role Of Gut Microbiome In Covid-19: An Insight Into Pathogenesis And Therapeutic Potential,
2021
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
Role Of Gut Microbiome In Covid-19: An Insight Into Pathogenesis And Therapeutic Potential, Ikram Hussain, Gabriel Liu Yuan Cher, Muhammad Abbas Abid, Muhammad Bilal Abid
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulted in an unprecedented global crisis. Although primarily a respiratory illness, dysregulated immune responses may lead to multi-organ dysfunction. Prior data showed that the resident microbial communities of gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts act as modulators of local and systemic inflammatory activity (the gut-lung axis). Evolving evidence now signals an alteration in the gut microbiome, brought upon either by cytokines from the infected respiratory tract or from direct infection of the gut, or both. Dysbiosis leads to a "leaky gut". The intestinal permeability then allows access to ...
Understanding The Effect Of Dietary Palmitic Acid On Glycolysis During Innate Immune Memory In Macrophages,
2021
Portland State University
Understanding The Effect Of Dietary Palmitic Acid On Glycolysis During Innate Immune Memory In Macrophages, Khaleda A. Aqaei
University Honors Theses
Trained immunity is long-term innate immune memory induced by a primary stimulus, which leads to hyper-inflammation upon secondary stimulation with a homologous or heterologous ligand. Trained immunity is mediated by epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming of the target cell and leads to modification of gene expression and cellular function. Classically, trained immunity is initiated by β-glucans, an inflammatory molecule found on the exterior of fungal species. Interestingly, our lab has recently described that dietary fatty acids can initiate trained immunity, working through similar pathways as β-glucans. Specifically, our data show that a pre-treatment with a specific dietary saturated fatty acid (SFA ...
Roles Of A Bradykinin Storm And A Cytokine Storm In Covid-19 Cases,
2021
Wayne State University
Roles Of A Bradykinin Storm And A Cytokine Storm In Covid-19 Cases, Nouha H. Odeh
Honors College Theses
In the light of recent events, it is imperative to understand the key inflammatory response elements that appear to be the source of more severe ailments resulting from a SARS-CoV-2 viral infection known as Covid-19 The more severe cases of Covid-19 are characterized by a severe inflammatory response resulting in tissue damage. My research proposal aims to investigate the two possible culprits of this response: a bradykinin (BK) storm and an interleukin-6 (IL-6) mediated cytokine storm. In both systems respectively, the excess release of these signals subsequently signals the production of even more of the same response element, resulting in ...
Androgen Activity Is Associated With Pd-L1 Downregulation In Thyroid Cancer,
2021
New York Medical College
Androgen Activity Is Associated With Pd-L1 Downregulation In Thyroid Cancer, Timmy J. O'Connell, Sina Dadafarin, Melanie Jones, Tomás Rodríguez, Anvita Gupta, Edward Shin, Augustine Moscatello, Codrin Iacob, Humayun Islam, Raj K. Tiwari, Jan Geliebter
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
Thyroid cancer is the most prevalent endocrine malignancy in the United States with greater than 53,000 new cases in 2020. There is a significant gender disparity in disease incidence as well, with women developing thyroid cancer three times more often than men; however, the underlying cause of this disparity is poorly understood. Using RNA-sequencing, we profiled the immune landscape of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) and identified a significant inverse correlation between androgen receptor (AR) levels and the immune checkpoint molecule PD-L1. The expression of PD-L1 was then measured in an androgen responsive-thyroid cancer cell line. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) treatment resulted ...
Host Tropism Determination By Convergent Evolution Of Immunological Evasion In The Lyme Disease System,
2021
State University of New York at Albany
Host Tropism Determination By Convergent Evolution Of Immunological Evasion In The Lyme Disease System, Thomas M. Hart, Alan P. Dupuis 2nd, Danielle M. Tufts, Anna M. Blom, Simon R. Starkey, Ryan O.M. Rego, Sanjay Ram, Peter Kraiczy, Laura D. Kramer, Maria A. Diuk-Wasser, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Yi-Pin Lin
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
Pathogens possess the ability to adapt and survive in some host species but not in others-an ecological trait known as host tropism. Transmitted through ticks and carried mainly by mammals and birds, the Lyme disease (LD) bacterium is a well-suited model to study such tropism. Three main causative agents of LD, Borrelia burgdorferi, B. afzelii, and B. garinii, vary in host ranges through mechanisms eluding characterization. By feeding ticks infected with different Borrelia species, utilizing feeding chambers and live mice and quail, we found species-level differences in bacterial transmission. These differences localize on the tick blood meal, and specifically complement ...
21°C Is The Emerging Ideal Temperature For Kidney Preservation In The Presence Of Hydrogen Sulfide,
2021
The University of Western Ontario
21°C Is The Emerging Ideal Temperature For Kidney Preservation In The Presence Of Hydrogen Sulfide, Smriti Juriasingani
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage kidney disease. However, the shortage of transplantable kidneys has led to ever-increasing waiting lists. As a result, kidneys obtained via donation after cardiac death (DCD) are being used more frequently for transplantation. However, they exhibit poorer outcomes due to ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) and cold preservation methods, such as static cold storage (SCS). Supplementing cold preservation solutions with hydrogen sulfide donors, such as AP39, has been shown to improve renal IRI and graft outcomes, but the injury associated with cold preservation remains. This thesis evaluates the effect of subnormothermic kidney ...
High Seroprevalence Of Anti-Sars-Cov-2 Antibodies Among Ethiopian Healthcare Workers [Preprint],
2021
Armauer Hansen Research Institute
High Seroprevalence Of Anti-Sars-Cov-2 Antibodies Among Ethiopian Healthcare Workers [Preprint], Tesfaye Gelanew, Jote T. Bulcha, Fikadu G. Tafesse, Alemseged Abdissa
UMass Chan Medical School Faculty Publications
Background COVID-19 pandemic has a devastating impact on the economies and health care system of sub-Saharan Africa. Healthcare workers (HWs), the main actors of the health system, are at higher-risk because of their occupation. Serology-based estimates of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HWs represent a measure of HWs’ exposure to the virus and a guide to the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the community. This information is currently lacking in Ethiopia and other African countries. This study aimed to develop an in-house antibody testing assay, assess the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among Ethiopian high-risk frontline HWs.
Methods and findings A cross-sectional seroprevalence study ...
Monoallelic Irf5 Deficiency In B Cells Prevents Murine Lupus,
2021
Boston University
Monoallelic Irf5 Deficiency In B Cells Prevents Murine Lupus, Alex Pellerin, Kei Yasuda, Abraham Cohen-Bucay, Vanessa Sandra, Prachi Shukla, Barry K. Horne Jr., Kerstin Nundel, Gregory A. Viglianti, Yao Xie, Ulf Klein, Ying Tan, Ramon G. Bonegio, Ian R. Rifkin
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
Gain-of-function polymorphisms in the transcription factor IFN regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) are associated with an increased risk of developing systemic lupus erythematosus. However, the IRF5-expressing cell type(s) responsible for lupus pathogenesis in vivo is not known. We now show that monoallelic IRF5 deficiency in B cells markedly reduced disease in a murine lupus model. In contrast, similar reduction of IRF5 expression in macrophages, monocytes, and neutrophils did not reduce disease severity. B cell receptor and TLR7 signaling synergized to promote IRF5 phosphorylation and increase IRF5 protein expression, with these processes being independently regulated. This synergy increased B cell-intrinsic IL-6 ...
Lessons From A Local Effort To Screen For Sars-Cov-2,
2021
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Lessons From A Local Effort To Screen For Sars-Cov-2, Noah J. Silverstein, Jeremy Luban
COVID-19 Publications by UMass Chan Authors
It is breathtaking to consider how the response to pandemic viral pathogens has been transformed over the past century by greater knowledge of fundamental biology and technological innovations including PCR and next-generation sequencing. In striking contrast to the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the pathogen responsible for the 1918 influenza pandemic was not identified until years after the outbreak. The definitive text in 1927 described influenza as “an epidemiologic conception” likely caused by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. Six decades later, HIV-1 was discovered within a few years of the first report of AIDS, although it took ...
Editorial: Immunology Of Vitiligo,
2021
University of Bordeaux
Editorial: Immunology Of Vitiligo, Julien Seneschal, John E. Harris, I. Caroline Le Poole, Thierry Passeron, Reinhart Speeckaert, Katia Boniface
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
Disappearance of melanocytes is the pathogenic hallmark of vitiligo. Progressive depigmentation of the skin has a high negative impact on patients’ quality of life. To date, vitiligo remains a therapeutic challenge.
Several theories have been proposed to explain disease pathogenesis, considering the roles of increased inflammatory and cytotoxic immune responses, neuropeptides, microvascular anomalies, intrinsic abnormalities in melanocyte and keratinocyte adhesion, as well as oxidative stress. Over the past decades, clinical, basic, and translational research on patient samples as well as in vitro and in vivo models have tremendously improved our understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and highlighted its ...
Means, Motive, And Opportunity: Do Non-Islet-Reactive Infiltrating T Cells Contribute To Autoimmunity In Type 1 Diabetes,
2021
German Research Center for Environmental Health
Means, Motive, And Opportunity: Do Non-Islet-Reactive Infiltrating T Cells Contribute To Autoimmunity In Type 1 Diabetes, Teresa Rodriguez-Calvo, Gustaf Christoffersson, Christine Bender, Matthias G. Von Herrath, Roberto Mallone, Sally C. Kent, Eddie A. James
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
In human type 1 diabetes and animal models of the disease, a diverse assortment of immune cells infiltrates the pancreatic islets. CD8(+) T cells are well represented within infiltrates and HLA multimer staining of pancreas sections provides clear evidence that islet epitope reactive T cells are present within autoimmune lesions. These bona fide effectors have been a key research focus because these cells represent an intellectually attractive culprit for beta cell destruction. However, T cell receptors are highly diverse in human insulitis. This suggests correspondingly broad antigen specificity, which includes a majority of T cells for which there is no ...
An Investigation Of Healthcare Supports For Those With Food Allergy In Ireland,
2021
Munster Technological University
An Investigation Of Healthcare Supports For Those With Food Allergy In Ireland, Joseph Bolger, Nicola Blake, Sneha Vinod
International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences
Introduction: In Ireland, around 5% of children and 3% adults have food allergy (134,000 people). This current paper describes a survey that was carried out on a subset of service-users with the aim of identifying whether there is a need for increased specialist medical services and/or for a funded charity such as Anaphylaxis Ireland, defunct since 2015.
Materials & Methods: These needs were assessed via an online survey using Google Forms. The survey was conducted from 17-27th February 2020. There were 31 questions in total, relating to topics such as symptoms, clinical wait times, satisfaction with care provided and ...
Full Issue: The International Undergraduate Journal Of Health Sciences, Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2021,
2021
Munster Technological University
Full Issue: The International Undergraduate Journal Of Health Sciences, Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2021
International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences
The full June 2021 issue (Volume 1, Issue 1) of the International Undergraduate Journal of Health Sciences
Measuring The Impact Of Targeting Fcrn-Mediated Igg Recycling On Donor-Specific Alloantibodies In A Sensitized Nhp Model,
2021
Duke University Medical Center
Measuring The Impact Of Targeting Fcrn-Mediated Igg Recycling On Donor-Specific Alloantibodies In A Sensitized Nhp Model, Miriam Manook, Walter J. Flores, Robin Schmitz, Zachary Fitch, Janghoon Yoon, Yeeun Bae, Brian Shaw, Allan Kirk, Melissa Harnois, Sallie Permar, Alton B. Farris, Diogo M. Magnani, Jean Kwun, Stuart Knechtle
Open Access Publications by UMass Chan Authors
Background: In transplantation, plasmapheresis and IVIg provide the mainstay of treatment directed at reducing or removing circulating donor-specific antibody (DSA), yet both have limitations. We sought to test the efficacy of targeting the IgG recycling mechanism of the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) using anti-FcRn mAb therapy in a sensitized non-human primate (NHP) model, as a pharmacological means of lowering DSA. Methods: Six (6) rhesus macaque monkeys, previously sensitized by skin transplantation, received a single dose of 30mg/kg anti-RhFcRn IV, and effects on total IgG, as well as DSA IgG, were measured, in addition to IgM and protective immunity. Subsequently ...