Organisms Commons^™

Characterization Of The Gonococcal Calprotectin Zn-Acquisition System, Tdfh, And The Efficacy Of Metal Starvation For Treating Gonococcal Disease, Michael T. Kammerman

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Characterization of the Gonococcal Calprotectin Zn-Acquisition System, TdfH, and the Efficacy of Metal Starvation for Treating Gonococcal Disease.

By Michael T. Kammerman, B.S.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2020

Major Director: Cynthia Nau Cornelissen, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterial agent that is responsible for the human disease gonorrhea, has had a steady increase in the number of infections per year. In 2018 the WHO estimated over 87 million infections occurred world-wide, and the CDC …

The Use Of Probiotics To Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia In Adults, Michael Roper, Paige Douthett

Physician Assistant Capstones, 2016 to 2019

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of preventing the acquisition of ventilator- associated pneumonia with the use of probiotic supplementation, as compared to a placebo, among hospitalized adult men and women receiving more than 24 hours of mechanical ventilation. Design: Systematic Literature Review. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted through PubMed and Scopus using the search terms “ventilator”, “probiotics”, and “prevention”. Records were excluded from the analysis if they were published before 2015, full text was not available, studies other than randomized control trial or cohort studies, and if the study population was less than 18 years old. Results: Of …

The Biosorption Of Lead From Aqueous Solutions By A Wood-Immobilized Fungal Biosorbent, Zomesh A N Maini, Niña Therese B. Flores, Enrico P. Muñoz

Biology Faculty Publications

Lead [Pb(II)] biosorption capacities of immobilized Talaromyces macrosporus on Moringa oleifera L. wood were compared against pure fungal and pure M. oleifera biomass. A Pb(II) contact test of 1000 ug/mL show similar Pb(II) removal of non-immobilized fungal biomass (F) and powdered wood colonized with fungi (WP+F), with WP+F producing more biomass. Powdered sorbents had higher Pb(II) uptake compared to whole sorbents analyzed through ICP-AES, possibly due to increased surface area for Pb(II) binding. FTIR analysis of the F, WP, and WP+F identified hydroxyl, amino, carbonyl, and sulfhydryl functional groups which constitute probable Pb(II)-affinitive binding sites. The biosorbents tested in a …

Evaluation Of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha In Sleep-Deprived Menopausal- Induced Rats And The Impact On Bone Health, Nicole Ellsworth, Dwight Curry Iii, Cj Deleon, Frank Frisch

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Post-menopausal osteoporosis as a consequence of estrogen depletion is a growing concern for women in the United States. As more women take on executive positions and experience sleep deprivation, there is the potential for up regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha. It follows that the homeostatic imbalance of osteoclastic and osteoblastic activity leads to a greater risk of disease. Bisphosphonates generally, and Zolendronate specifically works by decreasing the number of osteoclasts. This current study investigated the impact of Zolendronate on the concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha-type (TNFɑ) in 32 ovariectomized Wistar rats. Throughout a five …

Bone Strength And Distal Femur Trabecular Thickness In Sleep Deprived Ovariectomized Rats Treated With Zoledronate, Erin Nolte, Frank Frisch

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Osteoporosis is a disease that causes the density and quality of bone to be decreased, which can increase the risk of fracture by 40%. 1 in 3 women over the age of 50 will be affected by osteoporosis. This study aimed to show how bone strength and distal femur trabecular thickness might be affected by Zoledronate and sleep-deprivation in estrogen-deficient rats. Wistar female rats were ovariectomized to contrive postmenopausal estrogen-deficiency. The rats were separated into 4 groups. The control group (C, n=4) was given an intraperitoneal (IP) injection of 0.45 mL of 0.9% saline, were housed in standard conditions permitting …

The Relationship Between Biofilm Production And Human Respiratory Cell Attachment And Invasion By Acinetobacter Baumannii, Rachel A. Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic gram-negative bacterial pathogen that causes many nosocomial infections in immunocompromised individuals. Common infections include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, and bloodstream infections that often lead to septicemia. Increasing multidrug resistance (MDR) in A. baumannii warrants new approaches to understanding its virulence mechanisms and pathogenicity. As a first step in infection, A. baumannii can attach to host cells, providing a surface for the bacteria to grow and perhaps facilitating biofilm formation and subsequent tissue invasion. In this study, we evaluated antibiotic resistance and characterized biofilm formation, attachment, invasion, and surface …

Evaluating Volatile Organic Compounds For Contact-Independent Antagonism Of Pseudogymnoascus Destructans

Symposium of Student Scholars

White-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, is responsible for the extensive mortality of bats in the United States. In an effort to develop tools to reduce bat mortality attributed to WNS, an in vitro experiment was conducted to quantify the inhibitory effects of select volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as well as explore potential synergistic activities. The experiment involved exposing mycelial plugs of P. destructans to various concentrations of B23 as well as B23 and decanal together at equimolar ratios. Measurements of the plugs were taken over the course of the 13 day experiment allowing …

Graft Versus Host Disease-Associated Dry Eye: Role Of Ocular Surface Mucins And The Effect Of Rebamipide, A Mucin Secretagogue, Kiumars Shamloo, Ashley Barbarino, Saleh Alfuraih, Ajay Sharma

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

PURPOSE. The present study was designed to investigate the role of ocular surface glycocalyx and mucins in graft versus host disease (GVHD)-associated dry eye. The ameliorative effect of topical rebamipide, a mucin secretagogue, on GVHD-associated dry eye was also tested.

METHODS. A mouse model of allogeneic transplantation was used to induce ocular GVHD with C57BL/6 as donors and B6D2F1 as recipient mice. Phenol red thread method and fluorescein staining was used to quantify tear secretion and corneal keratopathy. At 8 weeks after the allogeneic transplantation, corneas were harvested to perform glycocalyx staining and confocal microscopy. Goblet cell staining was performed …

Oral Fungal Microbiota: To Thrush And Beyond, Dennis J. Baumgardner

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

The oral microbiota is complex, multikingdom, interactive, and involves extensive biofilm formation. While dominated by bacteria, Candida is a frequent member of this microbiota; however, several other potentially pathogenic fungi (among around 100 identified species) appear to reside in some individuals, including Cryptococcus, Aspergillus, and Fusarium. Oral candidiasis may manifest as a variety of disease entities in normal hosts and in the immunocompromised. These include pseudomembranous candidiasis (thrush), hyperplastic or atrophic (denture) candidiasis, linear gingival erythema, median rhomboid glossitis, and angular cheilitis. The purpose of this review is to describe the oral fungal microbiota (ie, oral mycobiota), …

Using Empirical And Theoretical Approaches To Control Outbreaks Of An Emerging Disease (Swimmer’S Itch) In The Midwest Of The U.S.A., Gregory J. Sandland, James Peirce

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

The Essential Role Of Carbon Metabolism In The Virulence Of Cryptococcus Neoformans, Mara Weigner

Senior Honors Theses

Cryptococcus neoformans infections are a major cause of meningoencephalitis in immunosuppressed patients worldwide. Inhaled as spores or desiccated yeast cells, C. neoformans can undergo metabolic changes in response to the new host environment that allow it to cross the blood brain barrier and cause deadly central nervous system (CNS) infections. Nutrient acquisition, and specifically carbon metabolism, is critical for survival and proliferation within the host. Notably, efficient carbon metabolism is necessary to produce the polysaccharide capsule, which is arguably C. neoformans’ most important and well-studied virulence factor. As such, a better understanding of carbon acquisition and regulation is essential for …

Coccidioidomycosis: Medical And Spatio-Temporal Perspectives, Nikias Sarafoglou, Rafael Laniado-Laborin, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Coccidioidomycosis (CM) is a disease of major public health importance due to the challenges in its diagnosis and treatment. To understand CM requires the attributes of a multidisciplinary network analysis to appreciate the complexity of the medical, the environmental and the social issues involved: public health, public policy, geology, atmospheric science, agronomy, social sciences and finally humanities, all which provide insight into this population transformation.

In section 1 of this paper, we describe the CM-epidemiology, the clinical features, the diagnosis and finally the treatment.

In section 2, we highlight the most important contributions and controversies in the history of the …

Generation Of An Oncolytic Adenovirus Targeting The Cxcr4 And Cxcr7 Chemokine Receptors In Breast Cancer, Samia Melissa O'Bryan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women under 60 and the second most diagnosed cancer in women over 60. While treatments for localized breast cancer are quite successful with high survival rates at 99%, advanced breast cancer remains hard to treat with a nearly 75% decrease in survival. Current treatments are inefficient at treating advanced stages of breast cancer, and thus, new therapies are sorely needed to address the complexity of advanced stage breast cancer. The ideal therapy would be capable of systemic administration, targets cancer cells and spares normal tissue. Oncolytic adenovirus is an ideal therapeutic vector …

Selectivity Of Infrared Heat Treatment On Inactivation Of Mycotoxigenic Fungi On Stored Grain, Shantae A. Wilson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Selective Infrared (IR) heating holds great potential to decontaminate spores of unsafe fungi in corn. The objectives for this study were to investigate the impact of exposing corn to infrared energy at selected peak wavelengths (λ), infrared intensities and treatment durations, followed by tempering for further inactivation of microbes on the grain and explore a method for decontaminating Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) spores on corn. Freshly harvested corn with initial moisture contents (IMCs) of 16%, 20%, and 24% wet basis (w.b.) were used. The corn samples were treated at different infrared wavelengths (3.2, 4.5, and 5.8 μm) for 20, 40 …

The Effect Of Prescribed Burning On Wood-Decay Fungi In The Forests Of Northwest Arkansas, Nawaf Ibrahim Alshammari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prescribed burning is defined as the process of the planned application of fire to a predetermined area under specific environmental conditions in order to achieve a desired outcome such as land management. This project used both morphological and molecular methods to identify and characterize the wood-decay fungi associated with the forests of northwest Arkansas—Pea Ridge National Military Park, Devil’s Den State Park, and the Buffalo National River—through frequent visits made between February 2018 and February 2019. In addition, in order to assess the effects of prescribed burning, incubation chambers were used to compare the growth of fungi from both unburned …

Environmental Sampling Techniques For Herd-Level Surveillance Of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus, Jaden Carlson

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Control of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) relies on resource-intensive individual animal sampling to detect and remove persistently infected (PI) cattle. Herd-level surveillance tools would be useful for herds with unknown BVDV status and for monitoring herds with BVDV-free status. The overall objective of this thesis is to explore the viability of BVDV surveillance at a herd-level using samples collected without handling individual animals. The first objective was to determine the feasibility of using stable flies as a sampling tool to detect BVDV. The second objective was to determine the feasibility of using drinking water to detect BVDV. To accomplish …

Elucidating Immune Signaling Of Influenza A Virus And Aspergillus Fumigatus Co-Infections Through Pioneered Model Development, Meagan Danyelle Rippee-Brooks

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Bacterial co-infections with influenza A virus (IAV) are extremely serious and life-threatening. However, there exists limited understanding about the importance of fungal infections with IAV. Clinical case reports indicate that fungal co-infections do occur and suggest the IAV pandemic of 2009 had a propensity to predispose patients to secondary fungal infections more than previous IAV strains. IAV-fungal co-infections are marked by high mortality rates of 47 to 61% in previously healthy individuals between the ages of 20 and 60. Yet, the variables involved in this co-infection remain undetermined. I achieved effective recapitulation of this co-infection using a C57Bl/6 murine (mouse) …

Plasticity In The Human Gut Microbiome Defies Evolutionary Constraints, Andres Gomez, Ashok Kumar Sharma, Elizabeth K. Mallott, Klara J. Petrzelkova, Carolyn A. Jost Robinson, Carl J. Yeoman, Franck Carbonero, Barbora Pafco, Jessica M. Rothman, Alexander Ulanov, Klara Vickova, Katherine R. Amato, Stephanie L. Schnorr, Nathaniel J. Dominy, David Modry, Angelique Todd, Manolito Torralba, Karen E. Nelson, Michael B. Burns, Ran Blekhman, Melissa Remis, Rebecca M. Stumpf, Brenda A. Wilson, H. Rex Gaskins, Paul A. Garber, Bryan A. White, Steven R. Leigh

Anthropology Faculty Research

The gut microbiome of primates, including humans, is reported to closely follow host evolutionary history, with gut microbiome composition being specific to the genetic background of its primate host. However, the comparative models used to date have mainly included a limited set of closely related primates. To further understand the forces that shape the primate gut microbiome, with reference to human populations, we expanded the comparative analysis of variation among gut microbiome compositions and their primate hosts, including 9 different primate species and 4 human groups characterized by a diverse set of subsistence patterns (n = 448 samples). The results …

Short Amylin Receptor Antagonist Peptides Improve Memory Deficits In Alzheimer’S Disease Mouse Model, Rania Soudy, Ryoichi Kimura, Aarti Patel, Wen Fu, Kamaljit Kaur, David Westaway, Jing Yang, Jack Jhamandas

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Recent evidence supports involvement of amylin and the amylin receptor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We have previously shown that amylin receptor antagonist, AC253, improves spatial memory in AD mouse models. Herein, we generated and screened a peptide library and identified two short sequence amylin peptides (12–14 aa) that are proteolytically stable, brain penetrant when administered intraperitoneally, neuroprotective against Aβ toxicity and restore diminished levels of hippocampal long term potentiation in AD mice. Systemic administration of the peptides for five weeks in aged 5XFAD mice improved spatial memory, reduced amyloid plaque burden, and neuroinflammation. The common residue SQELHRLQTY …

Infection Potential Of Rickettsia Felis Via Ingestion, Matthew M. Schexnayder

LSU Master's Theses

Rickettsia felis is the etiologic agent of flea-borne spotted fever (FBSF) in humans and a poorly described cause of fever in animals. It is transmitted by its primary arthropod vector and reservoir host, the cat flea Ctenocephalides felis. Known routes of Rickettsia felis transmission between Rickettsia felis-infected cat fleas and vertebrate hosts include cutaneous bites and contamination of cutaneous wounds with infective flea feces. The bulk of FBSF infections occur in young children in Africa, though infections of people at all ages all over the world have been confirmed. As mammals and young children frequently come into contact …