The tumor suppressor gene is mutated early in most of the patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The most frequent alterations are missense mutations that contribute to tumor aggressiveness. Here, we used an autochthonous somatic TNBC mouse model, in which mutant p53 can be toggled on and off genetically while leaving the tumor microenvironment intact and wild-type for p53 to identify physiological dependencies on mutant p53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The purpose of this study was to explore the reliability and construct validity of the EPDS-US.
Methods: To enhance the perinatal mental health screen, we adapted the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Screen (EPDS) for application in the United States, and evaluated reliability and construct validity of the EPDS-US in a sample of 100 postpartum individuals. We explored reliability by estimating internal consistency of the scale and evaluating concurrent validity with correlations to the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7); and construct validity using factor analysis and discriminant validity with correlations to the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS).
Cryptococcosis studies often utilize the common C57BL/6J mouse model. Unfortunately, infection in these mice fails to replicate the basic course of human disease, particularly hampering immunological studies. This work demonstrates that SJL/J mice can recapitulate human infection better than other mouse strains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo present the development protocol of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale-United States (EPDS-US), an adapted version of the EPDS, that is inclusive and easy to understand for U.S. populations and incorporates a trauma-informed approach to perinatal mental health (PMH).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
August 2023
The tumor suppressor gene is mutated early in the majority of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The most frequent alterations are missense mutations that contribute to tumor aggressiveness. We developed an autochthonous somatic K14-Cre driven TNBC mouse model with p53R172H and p53R245W mutations in which mutant p53 can be toggled on and off genetically while leaving the tumor microenvironment intact and wild-type for p53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Womens Health (Larchmt)
July 2023
To evaluate the validity of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) for screening during the perinatal period in the United States and concerns regarding its acceptability and performance. We conducted a systematic search in OVID MEDLINE, EMBASE (OVID), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and PsycInfo (EBSCO) for articles published from inception of the database through February 2023. We included primary quantitative and qualitative studies on the validation of the EPDS in the United States and identified 880 articles of which 9 met criteria for inclusion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Reprod Infant Psychol
September 2024
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented levels of stress amongst pregnant women and new mothers. The current qualitative study explored the ways in which perinatal women made meaning of their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Data came from a parent study in which 54 perinatal (pregnant and postpartum) women in the United States completed semi-structured interviews from October 2021 to January 2022 describing their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cell state plasticity is carefully regulated in adult epithelia to prevent cancer. The aberrant expansion of the normally restricted capability for cell state plasticity in neoplasia is poorly defined. Using genetically engineered and carcinogen-induced mouse models of intestinal neoplasia, we observed that impaired differentiation is a conserved event preceding cancer development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInflammation has long been recognized to contribute to cancer development, particularly across the gastrointestinal tract. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease have an increased risk for bowel cancers, and it has been posited that a field of genetic changes may underlie this risk. Here, we define the clinical features, genomic landscape, and germline alterations in 174 patients with colitis-associated cancers and sequenced 29 synchronous or isolated dysplasia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Systematic identification of signaling pathways required for the fitness of cancer cells will facilitate the development of new cancer therapies. We used gene essentiality measurements in 1,086 cancer cell lines to identify selective coessentiality modules and found that a ubiquitin ligase complex composed of UBA6, BIRC6, KCMF1, and UBR4 is required for the survival of a subset of epithelial tumors that exhibit a high degree of aneuploidy. Suppressing BIRC6 in cell lines that are dependent on this complex led to a substantial reduction in cell fitness in vitro and potent tumor regression in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS) is an autoimmune disorder associated with sudden onset of behavior changes. The prevalence of PANDAS is increasing in schools and interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge, and the use of referrals to the school nurse are important for supporting students. This project sought to provide education on PANDAS to the interdisciplinary school team and implement a referral process for students exhibiting behavior changes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Over its almost 50 year history, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has provided about $500M to nursing initiatives focused on education, practice, policy and leadership development. While RWJF was most often the sole funder of many of these initiatives, it has also joined with others to create a larger and more sustained impact on particularly challenging nursing, health, and health care issues.
Purpose: The purpose of this article was to describe the challenges and opportunities of a unique funding collaborative developed to engage new partners, increase the visibility of doctoral nursing education and increase funding of the RWJF Future of Nursing Scholars program to develop more PhD prepared nurses and nurse faculty.
Collateral lethality occurs when loss of a gene/protein renders cancer cells dependent on its remaining paralog. Combining genome-scale CRISPR/Cas9 loss-of-function screens with RNA sequencing in over 900 cancer cell lines, we found that cancers of nervous system lineage, including adult and pediatric gliomas and neuroblastomas, required the nuclear kinase vaccinia-related kinase 1 (VRK1) for their survival in vivo. VRK1 dependency was inversely correlated with expression of its paralog VRK2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to develop a framework for combining community wastewater surveillance with state clinical surveillance for the confirmation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants within the community and to provide recommendations on how to expand on such research and apply the findings in public health responses. Wastewater samples were collected weekly from 17 geographically resolved locations in Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky (USA), from February 10 to December 13, 2021. Genomic surveillance and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) platforms were used to screen for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, and state clinical surveillance was used for confirmation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLungs balance threat from primary viral infection, secondary infection, and inflammatory damage. Severe pulmonary inflammation induces vascular permeability, edema, and organ dysfunction. We previously demonstrated that poly(I:C) (pICLC) induced type 1 interferon (t1IFN) protected mice from (Cg) local iron restriction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOur primary objective was to document COVID-19 induced changes to perinatal care across the USA and examine the implication of these changes for maternal mental health. We performed an observational cross-sectional study with convenience sampling using direct patient reports from 1918 postpartum and 3868 pregnant individuals collected between April 2020 and December 2020 from 10 states across the USA. We leverage a subgroup of these participants who gave birth prior to March 2020 to estimate the pre-pandemic prevalence of specific birthing practices as a comparison.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Pediatr Health
May 2022
Pediatric endoscopic procedures are considered at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission, as it can be aerosolized during the upper and lower endoscopy. The data on the pediatric endoscopy experience during the COVID-19 pandemic is scarce. Our research goal is to explore the influence of the pandemic on our endoscopy practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Understanding the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in vulnerable groups, such as pregnant and parenting women, is a critical research and clinical imperative. Although many survey-based perinatal health studies have contributed important information about mental health, few have given full voice about the experiences of pregnant and postpartum women during the prolonged worldwide pandemic using a qualitative approach.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experience of pregnant and postpartum women in the United States during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Aim: This scoping review examined the work-life balance (WLB) of nursing faculty.
Background: The nursing faculty shortage has resulted in increasing workloads that make it challenging for faculty to achieve WLB. Understanding WLB may be important for strengthening the nursing faculty workforce.
The impact of COVID-19-related stress on perinatal women is of heightened public health concern given the established intergenerational impact of maternal stress-exposure on infants and fetuses. There is urgent need to characterize the coping styles associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes in perinatal women during the COVID-19 pandemic to help mitigate the potential for lasting sequelae on both mothers and infants. This study uses a data-driven approach to identify the patterns of behavioral coping strategies that associate with maternal psychosocial distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large multicenter sample of pregnant women (N = 2876) and postpartum women (N = 1536).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThroughout the course of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic there has been a need for approaches that enable rapid monitoring of public health using an unbiased and minimally invasive means. A major way this has been accomplished is through the regular assessment of wastewater samples by qRT-PCR to detect the prevalence of viral nucleic acid with respect to time and location. Further expansion of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring efforts to include the detection of variants of interest/concern through next-generation sequencing has enhanced the understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Objective tracking of asthma medication use and exposure in real-time and space has not been feasible previously. Exposure assessments have typically been tied to residential locations, which ignore exposure within patterns of daily activities.
Methods: We investigated the associations of exposure to multiple air pollutants, derived from nearest air quality monitors, with space-time asthma rescue inhaler use captured by digital sensors, in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
September 2021
Wearing a facial mask can limit COVID-19 transmission. Measurements of communities' mask use behavior have mostly relied on self-report. This study's objective was to devise a method to measure the prevalence of improper mask use and no mask use in indoor public areas without relying on self-report.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is well-documented that the mental health of pregnant and postpartum women is essential for maternal, child, and family well-being. Of major public health concern is the perinatal mental health impacts that may occur during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is essential to explore the symptom experience and predictors of mental health status, including the relationship between media use and mental health.
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