Publications by authors named "Melanie C McKell"

Metabolomics analyses suggest changes in amino acid abundance, particularly l-arginine (L-ARG), occur in patients with tuberculosis. Immune cells require L-ARG to fuel effector functions following infection. We have previously described an L-ARG synthesis pathway in immune cells; however, its role in APCs has yet to be uncovered.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) regulates the immunometabolic phenotype of macrophages, including the orchestration of inflammatory and antimicrobial processes. Macrophages deficient in HIF-1α produce excessive quantities of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 10 (IL-10) during infection with the intracellular fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum (R. A.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Macrophages are indispensable immune cells tasked at eliminating intracellular pathogens. (), one of the most virulent intracellular bacterial pathogens known to man, infects and resides within macrophages. While macrophages can be provoked by extracellular stimuli to inhibit and kill bacilli, these host defense mechanisms can be blocked by limiting nutritional metabolites, such as amino acids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Obesity is a prevalent predisposing factor to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common chronic liver disease in the developed world. NAFLD spectrum of disease involves progression from steatosis (NAFL), to steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Despite clinical and public health significance, current FDA approved therapies for NAFLD are lacking in part due to insufficient understanding of pathogenic mechanisms driving disease progression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) plays a major role in multiple disease processes, including colitis. Understanding the mechanisms coupling PAR-1 to disease pathogenesis is complicated by the fact that PAR-1 is broadly expressed across multiple cell types.

Objective: Determine the specific contributions of PAR-1 expressed by macrophages and colonic enterocytes to infectious colitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Immunonutrition is becoming a popular way to help the body fight infections by using certain nutrients.
  • L-arginine is an important amino acid that helps our immune cells produce substances that kill germs, and blocking its production makes it harder for the body to defend itself.
  • Research shows that after a specific lung infection, there is a big increase in another substance called l-citrulline in the lungs, which is vital for the immune system to work against that infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

High mobility group AT-hook 1 (HMGA1) protein is an oncogenic architectural transcription factor that plays an essential role in early development, but it is also implicated in many human cancers. Elevated levels of HMGA1 in cancer cells cause misregulation of gene expression and are associated with increased cancer cell proliferation and increased chemotherapy resistance. We have devised a strategy of using engineered viruses to deliver decoy hyper binding sites for HMGA1 to the nucleus of cancer cells with the goal of sequestering excess HMGA1 at the decoy hyper binding sites due to binding competition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Activation, recruitment, and effector function of T lymphocytes are essential for control of mycobacterial infection. These processes are tightly regulated in T cells by the availability of l-arginine within the microenvironment. In turn, mycobacterial infection dampens T cell responsiveness through arginase induction in myeloid cells, promoting sequestration of l-arginine within the local milieu.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionpa95nper9a4csrf4vrn6uhd9iapnvb06): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once