Microbiology Commons^™

Tetr Family Regulator, Farr, Influences Rot-Mediated Control Of Virulence Factor Expression In Staphylococcus Aureus, Julia C. Schumacher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Point-mutation variants of the TetR family regulator, FarR, have emerged across Staphylococcus aureus sequence types as conferring antibiotic and fatty acid resistance, particularly in Hospital-Associated Methicillin Resistant S. aureus (HA-MRSA) strains. FarR also exhibits an additional largely uncharacterized relationship to virulence factor production, seemingly through the global repressor of toxins—Rot, which functions to regulate S. aureus’ ability to colonize and persist in the host via a complex cascade of signaling. While Rot protein is post-transcriptionally regulated by the highly characterized Agr system, there is little known about its transcriptional regulation. Herein, we explored these dynamics by initially characterizing virulence phenotypes …

Editorial: The Gut-Skin Axis: Interaction Of Gut Microbiome And Skin Diseases, Jianmin Chai, Feilong Deng, Ying Li, Xiaoyuan Wei, Jiangchao Zhao

Animal Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Editorial on the Research Topic: The gut-skin axis: interaction of gut microbiome and skin diseases

Hydroponic Nutrient Solution Temperature Impacts Tulane Virus Persistence Over Time, Gayatri R. Dhulappanavar, Kristen E. Gibson

Food Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA), or indoor agriculture, encompasses non-traditional farming methods that occur inside climate-controlled structures (e.g., greenhouses, warehouses, high tunnels) allowing for year-round production of fresh produce such as leaf lettuce. However, recent outbreaks and recalls associated with hydroponically grown lettuce contaminated with human pathogens have raised concerns. Few studies exist on the food safety risks during hydroponic cultivation of leaf lettuce; thus, it is important to identify contributing risk factors and potential mitigation strategies to prevent foodborne transmission via hydroponically grown produce. In this study, the concentration of infectious Tulane virus (TV), a human norovirus surrogate, in hydroponic …

Dietary Probiotic Supplement Attenuates Methamphetamine-Induced Conditioned Place Preference In Female Sprague-Dawley Rats, Kristen Powell

Masters Theses

Substance use disorders (SUD) represent a global public health crisis with limited effective treatment options. Recent findings implicate the gut microbiome and gut/brain axis in the pathophysiology of SUDs. Several preclinical studies have established that psychostimulants alter gut microbiome composition, but no published studies have assessed behavioral effects of dietary probiotic supplements on drug-induced behavioral changes. This study utilized rodent conditioned place preference (CPP) as a behavioral index of conditioned drug reward to determine if a dietary probiotic supplement alters the behavioral effects of (+)-methamphetamine (METH). Fifty-four adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to receive either a standard rodent …

Recombinant Bile Salt Hydrolase Enhances The Inhibition Efficiency Of Taurodeoxycholic Acid Against Clostridium Perfringens Virulence, Tahrir Alenezi, Bilal Alrubaye, Ying Fu, Janashrit Shrestha, Samar Algehani, Hong Wang, Rohana Liyanage, Xiaolun Sun

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Clostridium perfringens is the main pathogen of chicken necrotic enteritis (NE) causing huge economic losses in the poultry industry. Although dietary secondary bile acid deoxycholic acid (DCA) reduced chicken NE, the accumulation of conjugated tauro-DCA (TDCA) raised concerns regarding DCA efficacy. In this study, we aimed to deconjugate TDCA by bile salt hydrolase (BSH) to increase DCA efficacy against the NE pathogen C. perfringens. Assays were conducted to evaluate the inhibition of C. perfringens growth, hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) production, and virulence gene expression by TDCA and DCA. BSH activity and sequence alignment were conducted to select the …

Anoctamin 4 Defines Glucose-Inhibited Neurons In The Ventromedial Hypothalamus, Longlong Tu, Yanlin He, Yong Xu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Neighborhood-Level Disadvantage And Delayed Adjuvant Therapy In Head And Neck Cancer, Evan M Graboyes, Joshua Lee Cagle, Salma Ramadan, Kavita Prasad, Flora Yan, John Pearce, Angela L Mazul, Jean-Sebastien Anoma, Elizabeth G Hill, Bhisham S Chera, Sidharth V Puram, Ryan Jackson, Vlad C Sandulache, Samantha Tam, Michael C Topf, Russel Kahmke, Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, Brian Nussenbaum, Anthony J Alberg, Katherine R Sterba, Chanita Hughes Halbert

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Importance: For patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), initiation of postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) within 6 weeks of surgery is recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines and the Commission on Cancer. Although individual-level measures of socioeconomic status are associated with receipt of timely, guideline-adherent PORT, the role of neighborhood-level disadvantage has not been examined.

Objective: To characterize the association of neighborhood-level disadvantage with delays in receiving PORT.

Design, setting, and participants: This retrospective cohort study included 681 adult patients with HNSCC undergoing curative-intent surgery and PORT from 2018 to 2020 at 4 US academic medical …

Serum Extracellular Vesicle Protein Profiling For Prediction Of Corneal Transplant Rejection, Hyun Ju Lee, Eun-Hye Bae, Jong Min Choi, Hyemee Kim, Hyeon Ji Kim, Heather Barreda, Sung Yun Jung, Joo Youn Oh, Ryang Hwa Lee

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Corneal transplantation is the most common transplant procedure worldwide. Despite immune and angiogenic privilege of the cornea, 50% to 70% of corneal transplants fail in high-risk recipients, primarily because of immune rejection. Therefore, it is crucial to identify predictive biomarkers of rejection to improve transplant survival.

Methods: In search for predictive biomarkers, we performed proteomics analysis of serum extracellular vesicles (EVs) in a fully major histocompatibility complex-mismatched (C57BL/6-to-BALB/c) murine corneal transplantation model, wherein 50% of transplants undergo rejection by day 28 following transplantation.

Results: Our time course study revealed a decrease in the number of serum EVs on day …

The Anticancer Activity Of A Novel 8-Hydroxyquinoline Derivatives Against 5-Fluorouracil Resistant Colorectal Cancer Cells, Mazoun Talal Al Azzani

Theses

Cancer is a global health crisis for which 20 million new cases were diagnosed in 2022 alone, with 9.3 million cancer-related deaths. Nearly 900,000 deaths were due to colorectal cancer (CRC), which is the third leading cause of cancer related mortality. In the United Arab Emirates, 550 new cases of CRC were reported in 2022. A major clinical challenge with CRC treatment is the development of resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5FU)-based chemotherapy regimens, which are the standard treatment for CRC. In the present study, the anticancer activity of two novel 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) derivatives AS45 and AS47 was examined against 5FU-sensitive (HCT116) …

Multifactoral Immune Modulation Potentiates Durable Remission In Multiple Models Of Aggressive Malignancy, Matthew M Halpert, Briana A Burns, Spencer R Rosario, Henry G Withers, Akshar J Trivedi, Colby J Hofferek, Benjamin D Gephart, Haotong Wang, Jonathan Vazquez-Perez, Sharon B Amanya, Sean T Hyslop, Jianhua Yang, Jan O Kemnade, Vlad C Sandulache, Vanaja Konduri, William K Decker

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Tumors typically lack canonical danger signals required to activate adaptive immunity and also frequently employ substantial immunomodulatory mechanisms that downregulate adaptive responses and contribute to escape from immune surveillance. Given the variety of mechanisms involved in shielding tumors from immune recognition, it is not surprising that single-agent immunomodulatory approaches have been largely unsuccessful in generating durable antitumor responses. Here we report a unique combination of immunomodulatory and cytostatic agents that recondition the tumor microenvironment and eliminate complex and/or poor-prognosis tumor types including the non-immunogenic 4T-1 model of TNBC, the aggressive MOC-2 model of HNSCC, and the high-risk MYCN-amplified model of …

Generation Of Oviductal Glycoprotein 1 Cre Mouse Model For The Study Of Secretory Epithelial Cells Of The Oviduct, Emily A Mcglade, Jiude Mao, Kalli K Stephens, Andrew M Kelleher, Lisette A Maddison, Miranda L Bernhardt, Francesco J Demayo, John P Lydon, Wipawee Winuthayanon

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The epithelial cell lining of the oviduct plays an important role in oocyte pickup, sperm migration, preimplantation embryo development, and embryo transport. The oviduct epithelial cell layer comprises ciliated and nonciliated secretory cells. The ciliary function has been shown to support gamete and embryo movement in the oviduct, yet secretory cell function has not been well characterized. Therefore, our goal was to generate a secretory cell-specific Cre recombinase mouse model to study the role of the oviductal secretory cells. A knock-in mouse model, Ovgp1Cre:eGFP, was created by expressing Cre from the endogenous Ovgp1 (oviductal glycoprotein 1) locus, with enhanced green …

The Interplay Of Gut Microbiota And Their Metabolites As Potential Regulators Of Resilience Or Susceptibility To Traumatic Stress In Male And Female Rats, Arax Tanelian

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

Exposure to traumatic stress is a major risk factor for the development of mood disorders in a subpopulation of individuals, while others remain resilient. Notably, women are twice as likely as men to develop affective disorders in the aftermath of trauma. The mechanisms and contributing factors that influence sex-related disparities in mood disorders and variations in resilience remain unclear. We hypothesized that sex-specific inter-individual differences in microbial composition, functionality, and metabolites would contribute to host resilience or susceptibility to stress-induced psychopathologies. In this study, we used single prolonged stress (SPS), an animal model of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), to …

A Potential Of Watercress Nasturtium Officinale Bioactive Compounds In Inhibiting Infectious Myonecrosis Virus (Imnv) By Targeting Rna-Dependent Rna Polymerase (Rdrp) Virus From Several Countries: In Silico Approach, Qurrota A’Yunin, Fatchiyah Fatchiyah, Maftuch Maftuch, Feri Eko Hermanto, Muhammad Hermawan Widyananda, Narendra Santika Hartana, Muhaimin Rifa’I, Yoga Dwi Jatmiko

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) disease causes mass mortality and decreased shrimp production. The RdRp region projects to the interior, where it may function in transcription. The focus of this study was to determine the effect of amino acid polymorphisms from several countries on the structure of RdRp and identify the potential of watercress in inhibiting IMNV by targeting the RdRp protein of IMNV through an in silico approach. The results showed that the structure of the IMNV RdRp protein from Indonesia was similar to Mexico, and the protein structure from India_QDN was identical to India_QIL. Ligand binding affinity values showed …

Impact Of Toll-Like Receptor 10 Mutations On Tuberculosis Infections, Adriana Nicole Rafael, Sangman Kim

Master's Theses

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by the intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), is a leading global health crisis causing millions of cases and deaths each year. Though it affects individuals of any race, ethnicity, or cultural group, research shows the disease disproportionately affects individuals with Asian ancestry. Immunity to M. tb starts with its recognition by pattern recognition receptors such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are key players in immune responses. TLR-10, an understudied toll-like receptor due to its inability to be studied through mouse models, is thought to play a key role in the clearance of inflammatory diseases. SNP I775V, …

Antibiotic-Induced Changes In Efflux Transporter Expression: A Key Factor In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Biofilm Resistance, Zara Imtiaz, Avinash Chatoo, Will Wang, Weiqi Li, Paramita Basu

Touro College of Pharmacy (New York) Publications and Research

Listed by WHO as an antibiotic-resistant priority pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa(P.A.) is a serious threat in nosocomial infections. Its high antibiotic resistance is attributed to major mechanisms that can be categorized into intrinsic, acquired, and adaptive resistance. This study tests the ability of three commonly used antibiotics to inhibit new biofilm formation and eradicate mature biofilm growth, as well as investigate changes in the expression levels of selected genes coding for multidrug efflux pumps in P.A. planktonic cells and biofilms before and after treatment with antibiotics to provide a conceptual estimate of the activity of the efflux transporters that work to …

Delivering Crispr To The Hiv-1 Reservoirs, Theodore Gurrola, Samuel Effah, Ilker Sariyer, Will Dampier, Michael Nonnemacher, Brian Wigdahl

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection is well known as one of the most complex and difficult viral infections to cure. The difficulty in developing curative strategies arises in large part from the development of latent viral reservoirs (LVRs) within anatomical and cellular compartments of a host. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/ CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system shows remarkable potential for the inactivation and/or elimination of integrated proviral DNA within host cells, however, delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to infected cells is still a challenge. In this review, the main factors impacting delivery, the challenges for delivery …

Optical Coherence Tomography-Guided Brillouin Microscopy Highlights Regional Tissue Stiffness Differences During Anterior Neural Tube Closure In The Mthfd1l Murine Mutant, Yogeshwari S Ambekar, Carlo Donato Caiaffa, Bogdan J Wlodarczyk, Manmohan Singh, Alexander W Schill, John W Steele, Jitao Zhang, Salavat R Aglyamov, Giuliano Scarcelli, Richard H Finnell, Kirill V Larin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Neurulation is a highly synchronized biomechanical process leading to the formation of the brain and spinal cord, and its failure leads to neural tube defects (NTDs). Although we are rapidly learning the genetic mechanisms underlying NTDs, the biomechanical aspects are largely unknown. To understand the correlation between NTDs and tissue stiffness during neural tube closure (NTC), we imaged an NTD murine model using optical coherence tomography (OCT), Brillouin microscopy and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Here, we associate structural information from OCT with local stiffness from the Brillouin signal of embryos undergoing neurulation. The stiffness of neuroepithelial tissues in Mthfd1l null embryos …

Seasonality, Clinical Characteristics, And Outcomes Of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease By Subtype Among Children Aged <5 Years: New Vaccine Surveillance Network, United States, 2016-2020, Ariana P Toepfer, Justin Z Amarin, Andrew J Spieker, Laura S Stewart, Mary Allen Staat, Elizabeth P Schlaudecker, Geoffrey A Weinberg, Peter G Szilagyi, Janet A Englund, Eileen J Klein, Marian G Michaels, John V Williams, Rangaraj Selvarangan, Christopher J Harrison, Joana Y Lively, Pedro A Piedra, Vasanthi Avadhanula, Brian Rha, James Chappell, Meredith Mcmorrow, Heidi Moline, Natasha B Halasa

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute respiratory illnesses in children. RSV can be broadly categorized into 2 major subtypes: A and B. RSV subtypes have been known to cocirculate with variability in different regions of the world. Clinical associations with viral subtype have been studied among children with conflicting findings such that no conclusive relationships between RSV subtype and severity have been established.

METHODS: During 2016-2020, children aged/guardian interviews, chart reviews, and collection of midturbinate nasal plus/minus throat swabs for RSV (RSV-A, RSV-B, and untyped) using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS: Among 6398 RSV-positive …

Biogeographic Patterns In Phyllosphere Bacterial Communities On Southern Magnolia Trees In A Small Town, Elizabeth M. Eckard, Venkat K. Kota, Kurre T. Luber

Honors Theses

The phyllosphere, consisting of aerial plant surfaces colonized by microorganisms, remains a relatively understudied ecosystem in terms of bacterial biogeography, particularly at intermediate spatial scales. This study characterized the bacterial community on the leaves of 89 Magnolia grandiflora trees throughout a small town, encompassing an area of approximately 60 km². Sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene revealed the dominant bacterial phyla to be Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Acidobacteria, consistent with other studies of the phyllosphere. Unlike other studies over smaller spatial scales, there was no significant relationship between phyllosphere community similarity and distance between trees (i.e., trees further …

Characterization Of A Novel Metalloid Reductase Outer Membrane Porin Rara From Sulfurospirillum Barnesii Ses-3, Narthana Jeganathar Kanmanii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sulfurospirillum barnesii SES-3 is a gram-negative epsilon proteobacterium that grows anaerobically by coupling the oxidation of lactate to the reduction of arsenate. Previous work on metal and metalloid metabolism in S. barnesii had identified a redox active protein, designated RarA that when provided an artificial electron donor (i.e., reduced methyl viologen, FMN, or NADH), could reduce a variety of substrates, including arsenate, selenate, selenite, nitrite, and even phosphate. The enzyme’s inferred amino acid sequence showed weak similarity (30%) to outer membrane porins with homologs found in only certain species of Sulfurospirillum. Further, the enzyme did not contain cysteine residues …