Publications by authors named "Comerford S"

Article Synopsis
  • Wastewater can help scientists understand public health by showing how germs and viruses are present in communities over time and space.
  • Researchers studied wastewater in Miami Dade County from 2020 to 2022 to track different viruses and bacteria, linking them to COVID-19 cases in hospitals and universities.
  • They found harmful germs and bacteria in the water, showing connections between wastewater, human health, and the use of antibiotics, which can help improve public health decisions in the future.
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Purpose: Ageism encapsulates stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination towards others or oneself based on age. While identified as the most frequent form of discrimination, relatively little work has captured the problem of day-to-day ageism faced by older people with frailty in community settings. The aim of this study therefore was to examine the prevalence of everyday ageism experienced by older people attending hospital-based ambulatory care services, and to clarify its association with measures of quality of life (QOL) and frailty.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is used to monitor COVID-19 infections by detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater, with the effectiveness possibly changing due to virus mutations over time.
  • - This study examined wastewater samples from the University of Miami and Miami-Dade County across different COVID-19 variant periods, comparing RNA levels to clinical COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
  • - While correlations were generally strong, they varied by variant; the Omicron period showed a steeper relationship between wastewater RNA levels and case numbers, while the Initial wave had the strongest correlation for hospitalizations.
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Clinical testing has been a vital part of the response to and suppression of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, testing imposes significant burdens on a population. College students had to contend with clinical testing while simultaneously dealing with health risks and the academic pressures brought on by quarantines, changes to virtual platforms, and other disruptions to daily life. The objective of this study was to analyze whether wastewater surveillance can be used to decrease the intensity of clinical testing while maintaining reliable measurements of diseases incidence on campus.

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Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is a noninvasive, epidemiological strategy for assessing the spread of COVID-19 in communities. This strategy was based upon wastewater RNA measurements of the viral target, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The utility of WBS for assessing the spread of COVID-19 has motivated research to measure targets beyond SARS-CoV-2, including pathogens containing DNA.

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The use of wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) for detecting pathogens within communities has been growing since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with early efforts investigating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in wastewater. Recent efforts have shed light on the utilization of WBS for alternative targets, such as fungal pathogens, like Candida auris, in efforts to expand the technology to assess non-viral targets. The objective of this study was to extend workflows developed for SARS-CoV-2 quantification to evaluate whether C.

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Wastewater, which contains everything from pathogens to pollutants, is a geospatially-and temporally-linked microbial fingerprint of a given population. As a result, it can be leveraged for monitoring multiple dimensions of public health across locales and time. Here, we integrate targeted and bulk RNA sequencing (n=1,419 samples) to track the viral, bacterial, and functional content over geospatially distinct areas within Miami Dade County from 2020-2022.

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Molecular methods have been used to detect human pathogens in wastewater with sampling typically performed at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and upstream locations within the sewer system. A wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) program was established at the University of Miami (UM) in 2020, which included measurements of SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater from its hospital and within the regional WWTP. In addition to the development of a SARS-CoV-2 quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay, qPCR assays to detect other human pathogens of interest were also developed at UM.

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The microenvironment of solid tumors is characterized by oxygen and glucose deprivation. Acss2/HIF-2 signaling coordinates essential genetic regulators including acetate-dependent acetyl CoA synthetase 2 (Acss2), Creb binding protein (Cbp), Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1), and Hypoxia Inducible Factor 2α (HIF-2α). We previously shown in mice that exogenous acetate augments growth and metastasis of flank tumors derived from fibrosarcoma-derived HT1080 cells in an Acss2/HIF-2 dependent manner.

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Defective ribosome biogenesis (RiBi) underlies a group of clinically diverse human diseases collectively known as the ribosomopathies, core manifestations of which include cytopenias and developmental abnormalities that are believed to stem primarily from an inability to synthesize adequate numbers of ribosomes and concomitant activation of p53. The importance of a correctly functioning RiBi machinery for maintaining tissue homeostasis is illustrated by the observation that, despite having a paucity of certain cell types in early life, ribosomopathy patients have an increased risk for developing cancer later in life. This suggests that hypoproliferative states trigger adaptive responses that can, over time, become maladaptive and inadvertently drive unchecked hyperproliferation and predispose to cancer.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater has been used to track community infections of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), providing critical information for public health interventions. Since levels in wastewater are dependent upon human inputs, we hypothesize that tracking infections can be improved by normalizing wastewater concentrations against indicators of human waste [Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (PMMoV), β-2 Microglobulin (B2M), and fecal coliform]. In this study, we analyzed SARS-CoV-2 and indicators of human waste in wastewater from two sewersheds of different scales: a University campus and a wastewater treatment plant.

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Besides contributing to anabolism, cellular metabolites serve as substrates or cofactors for enzymes and may also have signaling functions. Given these roles, multiple control mechanisms likely ensure fidelity of metabolite-generating enzymes. Acetate-dependent acetyl CoA synthetases (ACS) are de novo sources of acetyl CoA, a building block for fatty acids and a substrate for acetyltransferases.

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This case study outlines the journey of a home-care organization to support practice change during the COVID-19 crisis. The leadership attributes and organizational structures and processes required for a nimble knowledge-to-action response are explored in relation to client screening, personal protective equipment and development of virtual care. A home and community practice lens was often not evident in the literature or guidance documents.

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The response to environmental stresses by eukaryotic organisms includes activation of protective biological mechanisms, orchestrated in part by transcriptional regulators. The tri-member Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) family of DNA-binding transcription factors include HIF-2, which is activated under conditions of oxygen or glucose deprivation. Although oxygen-dependent protein degradation is a key mechanism by which HIF-1 and HIF-2 activity is regulated, HIF-2 is also influenced substantially by the coupled action of acetylation and deacetylation.

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common solid tumor in the world and the third leading cause of cancer-associated deaths. A Sleeping Beauty-mediated transposon mutagenesis screen previously identified mutations that cooperate with MYC to accelerate liver tumorigenesis. This revealed a tumor suppressor role for Steroid Receptor Coactivator 2/Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 2 (Src-2/Ncoa2) in liver cancer.

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Unlabelled: Despite being the most common liver cancer in children, hepatoblastoma (HB) is a rare neoplasm. Consequently, few pretreatment tumors have been molecularly profiled, and there are no validated prognostic or therapeutic biomarkers for HB patients. We report on the first large-scale effort to profile pretreatment HBs at diagnosis.

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Aberrant wnt/β-catenin signaling and amplification/overexpression of Myc are associated with hepatoblastoma (HB), the most prevalent type of childhood liver cancer. To address their roles in the pathogenesis of HB, we generated mice in which Myc and mutant β-catenin were targeted to immature cells of the developing mouse liver. Perinatal coexpression of both genes promoted the preferential development of HBs over other tumor types in neonatal mice, all of which bore striking resemblance to their human counterparts.

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Throughout the animal kingdom, p53 genes govern stress response networks by specifying adaptive transcriptional responses. The human member of this gene family is mutated in most cancers, but precisely how p53 functions to mediate tumor suppression is not well understood. Using Drosophila and zebrafish models, we show that p53 restricts retrotransposon activity and genetically interacts with components of the piRNA (piwi-interacting RNA) pathway.

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Acetyl-CoA represents a central node of carbon metabolism that plays a key role in bioenergetics, cell proliferation, and the regulation of gene expression. Highly glycolytic or hypoxic tumors must produce sufficient quantities of this metabolite to support cell growth and survival under nutrient-limiting conditions. Here, we show that the nucleocytosolic acetyl-CoA synthetase enzyme, ACSS2, supplies a key source of acetyl-CoA for tumors by capturing acetate as a carbon source.

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Lin28a/b are RNA-binding proteins that influence stem cell maintenance, metabolism, and oncogenesis. Poorly differentiated, aggressive cancers often overexpress Lin28, but its role in tumor initiation or maintenance has not been definitively addressed. We report that LIN28B overexpression is sufficient to initiate hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma in murine models.

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The hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which is synthesized in the kidney or liver of adult mammals, controls erythrocyte production and is regulated by the stress-responsive transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-2 (HIF-2). We previously reported that the lysine acetyltransferase CREB-binding protein (CBP) is required for HIF-2α acetylation and efficient HIF-2-dependent EPO induction during hypoxia. We now show that these processes require acetate-dependent acetyl CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2).

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Extracting maximal information from gene signature sets (GSSs) via microarray-based transcriptional profiling involves assigning function to up and down regulated genes. Here we present a novel sample scoring method called Signature-score (S-score) which can be used to quantify the expression pattern of tumor samples from previously identified gene signature sets. A simulation result demonstrated an improved accuracy and robustness by S-score method comparing with other scoring methods.

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Transformation by Simian Virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen (LT) is mediated in large part by its interaction with a variety of cellular proteins at distinct binding domains within LT. While the interaction of LT's N-terminus with the tumor suppressor Rb is absolutely required for LT-dependent transformation, the requirement for the interaction of LT's C-terminus with p53 is less clear and cell- and context-dependent. Here, we report a line of transgenic mice expressing a doxycycline-inducible liver-specific viral transcript that produces abundant 17kT, a naturally occurring SV40 early product that is co-linear with LT for the first 131 amino acids and that binds to Rb, but not p53.

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Viruses of the DNA tumor virus family share the ability to transform vertebrate cells through the action of virus-encoded tumor antigens that interfere with normal cell physiology. They accomplish this very efficiently by inhibiting endogenous tumor suppressor proteins that control cell proliferation and apoptosis. Simian virus 40 (SV40) encodes two oncoproteins, large tumor antigen, which directly inhibits the tumor suppressors p53 and Rb, and small tumor antigen (ST), which interferes with serine/threonine protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A).

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