Addressing Food Insecurity During COVID-19: A Role for Rural Federally Qualified Health Centers

In rural communities, existing food insecurity, chronic diseases, and an aging population create a complex environment that has the potential to strain health systems despite lower overall COVID-19 case counts. Past pandemics have revealed that populations served by the primary care safety net require resources beyond federal and state aid programs. At our federally qualified health center (FQHC), we have adapted our food prescription program for patients with chronic diseases to a home delivery service, which leverages existing relationships between care coordinators and patients. Such efforts may fill underlying gaps in food supply and distribution through cross-sector collaboration with farms and non-governmental agencies. The current pandemic highlights an opportunity for FQHCs to proactively engage with communities and build upon existing outreach efforts to address issues of nutrition and food access. Prompt and targeted interventions can establish partnerships within community food systems and advance long-term program implementation.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155450/1/Suresh_Barkatullah_Boardman_PrePrint_Final.pd

Identification of activity-induced Egr3-dependent genes reveals genes associated with DNA damage response and schizophrenia

Bioinformatics and network studies have identified the immediate early gene transcription factor early growth response 3 (EGR3) as a master regulator of genes differentially expressed in the brains of patients with neuropsychiatric illnesses ranging from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to Alzheimer\u27s disease. However, few studies have identified and validated Egr3-dependent genes in the mammalian brain. We have previously shown that Egr3 is required for stress-responsive behavior, memory, and hippocampal long-term depression in mice. To identify Egr3-dependent genes that may regulate these processes, we conducted an expression microarray on hippocampi from wildtype (WT) and Egr3-/- mice following electroconvulsive seizure (ECS), a stimulus that induces maximal expression of immediate early genes including Egr3. We identified 69 genes that were differentially expressed between WT and Egr3-/- mice one hour following ECS. Bioinformatic analyses showed that many of these are altered in, or associated with, schizophrenia, including Mef2c and Calb2. Enrichr pathway analysis revealed the GADD45 (growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible) family (Gadd45b, Gadd45g) as a leading group of differentially expressed genes. Together with differentially expressed genes in the AP-1 transcription factor family genes (Fos, Fosb), and the centromere organization protein Cenpa, these results revealed that Egr3 is required for activity-dependent expression of genes involved in the DNA damage response. Our findings show that EGR3 is critical for the expression of genes that are mis-expressed in schizophrenia and reveal a novel requirement for EGR3 in the expression of genes involved in activity-induced DNA damage response