Publications by authors named "Gewirtz A"

Background: Non-absorbed dietary emulsifiers, including carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), directly disturb intestinal microbiota, thereby promoting chronic intestinal inflammation in mice. A randomised controlled-feeding study (Functional Research on Emulsifiers in Humans, FRESH) found that CMC also detrimentally impacts intestinal microbiota in some, but not all, healthy individuals.

Objectives: This study aimed to establish an approach for predicting an individual's sensitivity to dietary emulsifiers via their baseline microbiota.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metabolic syndrome is, in humans, associated with alterations in the composition and localization of the intestinal microbiota, including encroachment of bacteria within the colon's inner mucus layer. Possible promoters of these events include dietary emulsifiers, such as carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polysorbate-80 (P80), which, in mice, result in altered microbiota composition, encroachment, low-grade inflammation and metabolic syndrome. While assessments of gut microbiota composition have largely focused on fecal/luminal samples, we hypothesize an outsized role for changes in mucus microbiota in driving low-grade inflammation and its consequences.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Parenting programs are widely used to prevent and ameliorate children's emotional and behavioral problems but low levels of engagement undermine intervention effectiveness and reach within and beyond research settings. Technology can provide flexible and cost-effective alternate service-delivery formats for parenting programs, and studies are needed to assess the extent to which parents are willing to engage with digitally assisted formats.

Methods: After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT) is an evidence-based parenting program for military families.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Microbiota-induced production of IL-22 by type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) plays an important role in maintaining intestinal health. Such IL-22 production is driven, in part, by IL-23 produced by gut myeloid cells that have sensed select microbial-derived mediators. The extent to which ILC3 can directly respond to microbial metabolites via IL-22 production is less clear, in part due to the difficulty of isolating and maintaining sufficient numbers of viable ILC3 ex vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Previously deployed mothers report higher levels of posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms than non-deployed mothers. However, the specific stressors encountered during deployment that account for elevated clinical symptoms are not well understood including the impact of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) in the context of other deployment-related stressors. This study examined whether MST during deployment, degree of combat exposure, and length of deployment will each be associated with posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms among previously deployed mothers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As developers and practitioners translate parenting interventions from research to practice, significant heterogeneity in provider fidelity and parent engagement with the program has contributed to observed declines in intervention effectiveness. Despite this, empirical investigations of the relationship between provider fidelity, parent engagement, and intervention outcomes are scarce and those that exist show discrepant outcomes. This is, in part, due to the variability in the way fidelity is defined, operationalized, and measured.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed genetic alterations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 711 patients to help classify CNS cancers and guide targeted therapies.
  • They found detectable circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in over half of CSF samples from patients with CNS tumors, while none was found in samples from patients without CNS tumors.
  • The research also revealed clonal evolution and resistance mechanisms over time, with ctDNA presence linked to poorer overall survival rates for these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parenting programs aim to improve parenting quality, which may, in turn, support various aspects of child development, including behavior and mental health. However, parenting interventions show considerable heterogeneity in response patterns across different families, demonstrating that they are not one-size-fits-all programs. This variability points to a need for greater understanding of which families benefit most from these interventions and how to improve response among those who do not.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is an acquired, subclinical state of intestinal inflammation common in children and adults in low-income and middle-income countries. Although vitamin D-3 supplementation has purported anti-inflammatory properties, its ability to ameliorate biomarkers of EED remains unclear.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effects of maternal vitamin D-3 supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on biomarkers of EED, systemic inflammation, and growth in women living with HIV and their infants in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Immunocompromised individuals face a higher risk of prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infections and severe COVID-19, raising concerns about the effectiveness of late-onset antiviral treatments.
  • In a study using an immunocompromised mouse model, it was found that early treatments like nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (paxlovid) or molnupiravir were only moderately effective, while the experimental drug 4'-fluorouridine (4'-FlU) showed significant benefits in reducing viral load.
  • Late-onset direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapies were shown to effectively shorten the duration of viral replication in immunocompromised hosts, suggesting potential clinical applications to reduce severe disease risks in vulnerable
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We sought to better understand how intestinal microbiota confer protection against () infection (CDI). We utilized gnotobiotic altered Schaedler flora (ASF) mice, which lack the abnormalities of germfree (GF) mice as well as the complexity and heterogeneity of antibiotic-treated mice. Like GF mice, ASF mice were highly prone to rapid lethal CDI, without antibiotics, while very low infectious doses resulted in chronic CDI.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multi-organ disease caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Individuals with CF often have gastrointestinal (GI) dysbiosis due to chronic inflammation and antibiotic use. Previous studies suggested a role for vitamin D in reversing the GI dysbiosis found in CF.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & Aims: The protection provided by rotavirus (RV) vaccines is highly heterogeneous among individuals. We hypothesized that microbiota composition might influence RV vaccine efficacy.

Methods: First, we examined the potential of segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) colonization to influence RV vaccine efficacy in mice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Adolescent youth occupy a critical and complex position in refugee families who resettle in a third country.

Objectives: We examined the potential impact of health- and family-related factors on the social and behavioral adjustment outcomes of refugee adolescent youth.

Methods: Situated within an explanatory sequential mixed methods study, we used unadjusted and adjusted multinomial logistic regression to identify trauma, health, and socioecological characteristics of war-affected families associated with social and behavioral adjustment in 72 Karen adolescent youth resettled in the United States.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Studies in rodents suggest that inulin supplements may be carcinogenic. We present a case implicating that this risk extends to humans. A healthy male from a family lacking history of cancer had his first cancer-screening colonoscopy at age 56.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Many conventional research methods employed in randomized controlled trials were not possible during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, behavioral observations are nearly universally gathered in-person. Observational methods are valued for the rich, informative data they produce in comparison to non-observational methods and are a cornerstone of parenting and family research.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: The immunocompromised are at high risk of prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection and progression to severe COVID-19. However, efficacy of late-onset direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy with therapeutics in clinical use and experimental drugs to mitigate persistent viral replication is unclear. In this study, we employed an immunocompromised mouse model, which supports prolonged replication of SARS-CoV-2 to explore late-onset treatment options.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Interleukin (IL)-22 promotes host-microbiota homeostasis. We sought to identify microbiota metabolite(s) that drive intestinal IL-22 production. We observed that exposing Peyer's patch cells (PPCs), ex vivo, to fecal supernatants (FSs) recapitulates fermentable fiber- and microbiota-dependent IL-22 production, and cellular sources thereof, thus supporting the use of this model.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The present study, conducted with a population of military families, examined the comparative effectiveness of three program formats of Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT), a parenting program for families of school-aged children in which a National Guard or Reserve (NG/R) parent had returned from deployment to the post-9/11 conflicts. Despite well-documented need, parenting programs for NG/R families are scarce and often inaccessible. We predicted that both facilitator-delivered conditions (i.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) have dysfunctional intestinal microbiota and increased gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation also known as GI dysbiosis. It is hypothesized that administration of high-dose cholecalciferol (vitamin D) together with a prebiotic (inulin) will be effective, and possibly additive or synergistic, in reducing CF-related GI and airway dysbiosis. Thus, a 2 x 2 factorial design, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, pilot and feasibility, clinical trial was proposed to test this hypothesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) have dysfunctional intestinal microbiota and increased gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation also known as GI dysbiosis. It is hypothesized that administration of high-dose cholecalciferol (vitamin D) together with a prebiotic (inulin) will be effective, and possibly additive or synergistic, in reducing CF-related GI dysbiosis and improving intestinal functions. Thus, a 2 × 2 factorial design, placebo-controlled, double-blind, clinical trial was proposed to test this hypothesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Measles cases have surged pre-COVID-19 and the pandemic has aggravated the problem. Most measles-associated morbidity and mortality arises from destruction of pre-existing immune memory by measles virus (MeV), a paramyxovirus of the morbillivirus genus. Therapeutic measles vaccination lacks efficacy, but little is known about preserving immune memory through antivirals and the effect of respiratory disease history on measles severity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Susceptibility to respiratory virus infections (RVIs) varies widely across individuals. Because the gut microbiome impacts immune function, we investigated the influence of intestinal microbiota composition on RVI and determined that segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB), naturally acquired or exogenously administered, protected mice against influenza virus (IAV) infection. Such protection, which also applied to respiratory syncytial virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was independent of interferon and adaptive immunity but required basally resident alveolar macrophages (AMs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a male-dominant disease, but targeted sex hormone therapies have not been successful. Bile acids are a potential liver carcinogen and are biomolecules with hormone-like effects. A few studies highlight their potential sex dimorphism in physiology and disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF