Publications by authors named "Nina Howard"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how genetics and environment together affect immune responses in mice, focusing on three different inbred strains (C57BL/6, 129S1, PWK/PhJ) in an outdoor setting and infected with a specific parasite.
  • - It finds that while the overall structure of immune cells is influenced by both genetics and the environment, the variation in certain immune responses, like cytokine levels, is mainly determined by genetics, affecting how many parasites the mice carry.
  • - Additionally, the expression of immune markers like CD44 shows different influences: on T cells, it’s mostly genetic, while on B cells, it’s more environmental; and importantly, the impact of genetics appears to lessen when the mice
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Helminth endemic regions report lower COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Here, we show that lung remodeling from a prior infection with a lung-migrating helminth, , enhances viral clearance and survival of human-ACE2 transgenic mice challenged with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). This protection is associated with a lymphocytic infiltrate, including increased accumulation of pulmonary SCV2-specific CD8 T cells, and anti-CD8 antibody depletion abrogated the mediated reduction in viral loads.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Our previous studies identified a population of stem cell-like proliferating myeloid cells within inflamed tissues that could serve as a reservoir for tissue macrophages to adopt different activation states depending on the microenvironment. By lineage-tracing cells derived from CX3CR1+ precursors in mice during infection and profiling by single-cell RNA sequencing, in this study, we identify a cluster of BIRC5+ myeloid cells that expanded in the liver during chronic infection with either the parasite Schistosoma mansoni or the bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. In the absence of tissue-damaging toxins, S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The relative and synergistic contributions of genetics and environment to inter-individual immune response variation remain unclear, despite its implications for understanding both evolutionary biology and medicine. Here, we quantify interactive effects of genotype and environment on immune traits by investigating three inbred mouse strains rewilded in an outdoor enclosure and infected with the parasite, . Whereas cytokine response heterogeneity was primarily driven by genotype, cellular composition heterogeneity was shaped by interactions between genotype and environment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Our previous studies identified a population of stem cell-like proliferating myeloid cells within inflamed tissues that could serve as a reservoir for tissue macrophages to adopt different activation states depending on the microenvironment. By lineage tracing cells derived from CX3CR1 precursors in mice during infection and profiling by scRNA-seq, here we identify a cluster of BIRC5 myeloid cells that expanded in the liver during either chronic infection with the parasite or the bacterial pathogen . In the absence of tissue damaging toxins, infection does not elicit these BIRC5 cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Helminth endemic regions report lower COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Here, we show that lung remodeling from a prior infection with a lung migrating helminth, , enhances viral clearance and survival of human-ACE2 transgenic mice challenged with SARS-CoV-2 (SCV2). This protection is associated with a lymphocytic infiltrate including an increased accumulation of pulmonary SCV2-specific CD8+ T cells and anti-CD8 antibody depletion abrogated the -mediated reduction in viral loads.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the summer of 2020, SARS-CoV-2 infection rates among the U.S. population aged 20-39 years exceeded other age groups, with the largest increases occurring in the southern US.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionjudb26ld4ajohpn3a38ovuimifcprsfi): 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