Publications by authors named "Heather Meyers"

Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the environmental impact of increased virtual medicine usage during the COVID-19 pandemic at a children's hospital in Massachusetts, focusing on fossil fuel consumption and air pollutants.
  • Researchers analyzed data from virtual visits before and during the pandemic, finding a significant drop in travel distance, gasoline use, and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • The results highlighted that virtual medicine contributed to substantial environmental benefits, including over 620,000 gallons of fossil fuel saved and reduced electricity use equivalent to powering over 1,200 homes for a year, suggesting potential for broader application in healthcare.
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Virtual visits (VVs) are necessitated due to the public health crisis and social distancing mandates due to COVID-19. However, these have been rare in ophthalmology. Over 3.

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Purpose: For postoperative visits, which are often brief interactions between family and clinician, patients may prefer the convenience of receiving postoperative care from home. We evaluated the feasibility of telemedicine for postoperative encounters in pediatric urology.

Materials And Methods: We performed a prospective telemedicine pilot study during an implementation period from November 10, 2017 to March 22, 2018.

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Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encodes at least 14 microRNAs (miRNAs) that act posttranscriptionally to repress gene expression. Although several HCMV miRNA targets of both cellular and viral origin have been identified, our knowledge of their function remains limited. HCMV miRNA targets, as well as phenotypes associated with HCMV miRNA mutants, have been difficult to identify since the downregulation of targets by a single miRNA is often less than 2-fold.

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Global gene expression data combined with bioinformatic analysis provides strong evidence that mammalian miRNAs mediate repression of gene expression primarily through binding sites within the 3' untranslated region (UTR). Using RNA induced silencing complex immunoprecipitation (RISC-IP) techniques we have identified multiple cellular targets for a human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) miRNA, miR-US25-1. Strikingly, this miRNA binds target sites primarily within 5'UTRs, mediating significant reduction in gene expression.

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Although multiple studies have documented the expression of over 70 novel virus-encoded microRNAs (miRNAs), the targets and functions of most of these regulatory RNA species are unknown. In this study a comparative bioinformatics approach was employed to identify potential human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) mRNA targets of the virus-encoded miRNA miR-UL112-1. Bioinformatics analysis of the known HCMV mRNA 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) revealed 14 potential viral transcripts that were predicted to contain functional target sites for miR-UL112-1.

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The role of cellular genes in West Nile virus (WNV) replication is not well understood. Examination of cellular transcripts upregulated during WNV infection revealed an increase in the expression of the src family kinase (SFK) c-Yes. WNV-infected cell lines treated with the SFK inhibitor PP2 demonstrated a 2- to 4-log decrease in viral titers, suggesting that SFK activity is required for completion of the viral replication cycle.

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Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is a cellular enzyme in the eicosanoid synthetic pathway that mediates the synthesis of prostaglandins from arachidonic acid. The eicosanoids function as critical regulators of a number of cellular processes, including the acute and chronic inflammatory response, hemostasis, and the innate immune response. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), which does not encode a viral COX-2 isoform, has been shown to induce cellular COX-2 expression.

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Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a prototypic member of the betaherpesvirus family. The HCMV virion is composed of a large DNA genome encapsidated within a nucleocapsid, which is wrapped within an inner proteinaceous tegument and an outer lipid envelope containing viral glycoproteins. Although genome encapsidation clearly occurs in the nucleus, the subsequent steps in the virion assembly process are unclear.

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