Publications by authors named "Kelly M Rangel"

Importance: Despite similar histologic appearance among high-grade serous ovarian cancers (HGSOCs), clinical observations suggest vast differences in gross appearance. There is currently no systematic framework by which to classify HGSOCs according to their gross morphologic characteristics.

Objective: To develop and characterize a gross morphologic classification system for HGSOC.

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Background: The incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with ovarian cancer is higher than most solid tumors, ranging between 10-30%, and a diagnosis of VTE in this patient population is associated with worse oncologic outcomes. The tumor-specific molecular factors that may lead to the development of VTE are not well understood.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify molecular features present in ovarian tumors of patients with VTE compared to those without.

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Follicular helper T cells (T) are critical for vaccine and infection elicitation of long-lived humoral immunity, but exaggerated T responses can promote autoimmunity and other pathologies. It is unfortunate that no clinical interventions exist for the selective depletion of follicular T cells to alleviate these diseases. We engineered a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) facilitating the specific targeting of cells with high expression levels of human programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), a cardinal feature of follicular T cells.

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The diversity and heterogeneity within high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC), which is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, is not well understood. Here, we perform comprehensive multi-platform omics analyses, including integrated analysis, and immune monitoring on primary and metastatic sites from highly clinically annotated HGSC samples based on a laparoscopic triage algorithm from patients who underwent complete gross resection (R0) or received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) with excellent or poor response. We identify significant distinct molecular abnormalities and cellular changes and immune cell repertoire alterations between the groups, including a higher rate of NF1 copy number loss, and reduced chromothripsis-like patterns, higher levels of strong-binding neoantigens, and a higher number of infiltrated T cells in the R0 versus the NACT groups.

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This study was designed to conduct systematic reviews of existing evaporative cooling system maintenance guidelines and of published Legionnaires' disease outbreaks to determine what, if any, maintenance practices were in place at the time of the disease outbreaks and then to contrast the reported practices with the published guidelines for evaporative cooling systems. For the first review, similarities in the reported recommendations were assessed; in the second review, any reported information about the state of the evaporative cooling system during the outbreak investigation was summarized. The systematic reviews yielded 38 current guidelines for evaporative cooling systems and 38 published outbreak investigations.

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Exposure of cells to DNA-damaging agents induces hyperphosphorylation of the C-terminal domain (CTD) of mammalian RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) large subunit (LS); the hyperphosphorylated RNAP II is then ubiquitinated. The purpose of this study was to verify that cisplatin-induced RNAP II ubiquitination is transcription dependent in living cells and to determine whether 7-hydroxystaurosporine (UCN-01) inhibits the ubiquitination induced by cisplatin. Cisplatin at clinically achievable concentrations (2.

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When mammalian cells are exposed to cisplatin or ultraviolet irradiation, the RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) large subunit becomes ubiquitinated and is subsequently degraded via the proteasomal pathway. Using a DNA template immobilized on magnetic beads in an in vitro transcription reaction, we showed that a pause of the elongating RNAP II complex caused by nucleotide starvation induced the ubiquitination of the stalled RNAP II. The ubiquitinated RNAP II dissociated from the ternary complex when transcription was allowed to resume.

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