Effect of Energy Metabolism on NF-kB activity in Ovarian Cancer

NF-kB is a transcription factor involved in cancer cell growth and survival. The activation of NF-kB can be assessed by monitoring phosphorylation of RelA p65 at Ser-536, which is a surrogate of the NF-kB transcription factor activation. The objective of this study was to determine if the loss of ATP leads to NF-kB deficiency and thus, apoptotic cell death of “bad” cells in ovarian cancer cells. The independent variables were metformin (Met), an anti-diabetic medicine, another compound MinB functionally similar to Met and a glucose transporter inhibitor BAY-876. The dependent variables were the resulting effect of Met and MinB on phosphorylated AMPK at Thr-172 (marker of ATP loss) and RelA p65 at Ser-536 (marker of NF-kB activation). In each experiment, AMPK and RelA phosphorylation were tested by treatment of ovarian cancer cell lines with Met, MinB, BAY-876, Met+BAY-876, MinB+BAY-876. Western blotting was performed to determine the phosphorylation levels of AMPK and RelA p65. For two gels, the process was repeated. In each gel, Met or MinB treatment leads to thicker bands of AMPK-p, indicating decrease in cellular ATP levels following treatments. The effect of Met, MinB, or BAY-876 on RelA p65 was limited. However, co-treatment of Met or MinB with BAY-876 caused strong inhibition of NF-kB, as reflected by reduction in RelA p65-p. These results suggested that ATP deficiency together with inhibition of glucose transport cause inactivation of NK-kB. Future research will be conducted to study the effects of these compounds or their combinations on ovarian cancer cell growth and survival against from apoptosis.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1267/thumbnail.jp

The Evaluation of Mefloquine Drug Repurposing on Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The aim of this study is to observe cell proliferation, cell viability, apoptosis, and autophagy on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines, NB4 and U937, with the drug repurposing of mefloquine (MQ). Methods such as the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay and trypan blue staining have shown a decrease in live cells with high concentrations of mefloquine. Using their average perspective IC50 values of MQ concentration, Western blotting was applied by means of apoptosis and autophagy markers to determine if the induction of apoptosis and inhibition of autophagy was present in MQ-treated AML cells. The experiment will be continued with more cell lines, drugs, and other means of protocol in order to contribute to cancer therapy.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1285/thumbnail.jp

Characterizing the Information Needs of Rural Healthcare Practitioners with Language Agnostic Automated Text Analysis

Objectives – Previous research has characterized urban healthcare providers\u27 information needs, using various qualitative methods. However, little is known about the needs of rural primary care practitioners in Brazil. Communication exchanged during tele-consultations presents a unique data source for the study of these information needs. In this study, I characterize rural healthcare providers\u27 information needs expressed electronically, using automated methods. Methods – I applied automated methods to categorize messages obtained from the telehealth system from two regions in Brazil. A subset of these messages, annotated with top-level categories in the DeCS terminology (the regional equivalent of MeSH), was used to train text categorization models, which were then applied to a larger, unannotated data set. On account of their more granular nature, I focused on answers provided to the queries sent by rural healthcare providers. I studied these answers, as surrogates for the information needs they met. Message representations were generated using methods of distributional semantics, permitting the application of k-Nearest Neighbor classification for category assignment. The resulting category assignments were analyzed to determine differences across regions, and healthcare providers. Results – Analysis of the assigned categories revealed differences in information needs across regions, corresponding to known differences in the distributions of diseases and tele-consultant expertise across these regions. Furthermore, information needs of rural nurses were observed to be different from those documented in qualitative studies of their urban counterparts, and the distribution of expressed information needs categories differed across types of providers (e.g. nurses vs. physicians). Discussion – The automated analysis of large amounts of digitally-captured tele-consultation data suggests that rural healthcare providers\u27 information needs in Brazil are different than those of their urban counterparts in developed countries. The observed disparities in information needs correspond to known differences in the distribution of illness and expertise in these regions, supporting the applicability of my methods in this context. In addition, these methods have the potential to mediate near real-time monitoring of information needs, without imposing a direct burden upon healthcare providers. Potential applications include automated delivery of needed information at the point of care, needs-based deployment of tele-consultation resources and syndromic surveillance. Conclusion – I used automated text categorization methods to assess the information needs expressed at the point of care in rural Brazil. My findings reveal differences in information needs across regions, and across practitioner types, demonstrating the utility of these methods and data as a means to characterize information needs

Preface of Environmental Fate and Effects of Pesticides

The primary purpose of this book is to provide an update on research in the field of environmental impact of agricultural chemicals. As society becomes more concerned with non-target effects of pesticides and their residues in the environment, it is imperative that researchers develop a deeper and broader understanding of the types of effects, the quantities of the compounds that are biologically available, and the probability of serious impacts. Risk assessment can utilize information about the effects and the quantities to develop assessments of the likelihood for a given chemical, used in a specific place and time, to have deleterious effects on various species or ecological associations in the ecosystem

Automatic inference of indexing rules for MEDLINE

This paper describes the use and customization of Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) to infer indexing rules from MEDLINE citations. Preliminary results suggest this method may enhance the subheading attachment module of the Medical Text Indexer, a system for assisting MEDLINE indexers.

Preliminary Assessment of the Financial Impact of Chemical Mixing and Washing Site Remediation in Iowa

In the 1960\u27s, farmers began to rely on chemical pesticides to control insects, weeds, and grasses. During the 1970\u27s, ag chemical usage increased at an exceptionally rapid rate as more and more producers incorporated chemicals into their agronomic production practices. With this increase in demand, numerous local input and supply firms added ag chemicals and chemical application services to their product lines. Washing and mixing sites sprang up to service the growing demand for ag chemical application services. Little thought was given to the effects (either short term or long term) that accumulating concentrations of chemicals at these sites might have on ground water supplies

Ten Weeks with Green Beans...And Then Some: Determination of Bisphenol-A (BPA) in Canned Goods from Arkansas Markets Using Fluorescence Spectrophotometry

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical widely used in production of consumer goods. It has come under scrutiny recently after being labeled as an endocrine disruptor (ED), mostly causing adverse effects in infants and young children. It has been associated with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and abnormal maturation. Because it is so commonly used in product development, humans are exposed to BPA through various means, such as ingestion or dermal absorption. It is a concern that the combined exposure could cause serious effects even in small doses. In canned foods, the chemical is made into an epoxy resin to provide a protective lining along the inside of the can. BPA migration occurs when the free BPA moves from the lining into the contents of the can. This study used the standard addition method in order to determine the concentration of BPA in canned goods, as well as the effect of heat on the migration of the chemical from the can\u27s epoxy lining to its liquid contents. Fluorescence spectrophotometry was also used to quantify BPA concentrations, as BPA is a fluorescing molecule. The limit of detection (LOD) for the instrument was 0.3844 µg/ml. After removing the can\u27s original contents and replacing it with HPLC-grade H2O, BPA levels ranged from 0.7 0.7 ± 0.5 to 1.2 ± 0.5 µg/ml. In the original liquid though, concentrations vacillated between 43.5 ± 0.7 and 95 ± 4 µg/ml. After the application of heat, values stretched from 39 ± 2 to 94 ± 12 µg/ml. The results confirmed the presence of BPA in all of the cans, and indicated that there was no effect on migration of BPA after heating samples

9-Aminoacridine Inhibits Ribosome Biogenesis and Synergizes with Cytotoxic Drugs to Induce Selective Killing of p53-Deficient Cells

Common cancer treatments target rapidly dividing cells and do not discriminate between cancer and normal host cells. One approach to mitigating negative side‐effects of cancer treatment is to temporarily arrest cell cycle progression and thus protect normal cells during cytotoxic treatments, a concept called cyclotherapy. We recently proposed that transient inhibition of post‐transcriptional steps of ribosome biogenesis (RBG) can be used to selectively arrest p53‐positive host cells and not p53‐null cancer cells. In this study, we investigated whether cytoprotective RBG inhibition can be achieved through small molecule treatment

Biological Evaluation of Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitor Nimesulide Derivatives as Anti-agents

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor nimesulide inhibits the proliferation of various types of cancer cells mainly via COX-2 independent mechanisms, which makes it a good lead compound for anti-cancer drug development. A series of new nimesulide analogs were evaluated with cell proliferation assay based on a non-small lung cancer cell line H292. The results showed that several derivatives were very active to against H292 cell growth with IC50s of sub nano mole. These results suggest the possibility of using these nimesulide derivatives as chemo preventive agents.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/u_poster_2012/1036/thumbnail.jp