Faculty Bibliography

In the current study, the partial NMDA receptor agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) rescued memory consolidation following systemic bacterial endotoxin exposure. DCS failed, however, to restore hippocampal BDNF mRNA levels that were diminished following a systemic administration of LPS, and did not alter NR1 or NR2C NMDA receptor subunit expression. These results extend prior research into the role of DCS in neural-immune interactions, and indicate that the detrimental effects of peripheral LPS administration on consolidation of contextual fear memory may be ameliorated with DCS treatment, though the mechanisms underlying these effects are currently unclear.

UNLABELLED:For DNA viruses, genetic recombination, addition, and deletion represent important evolutionary mechanisms. Since these genetic alterations can lead to new, possibly severe pathogens, we applied a systems biology approach to study the pathogenicity of a novel human adenovirus with a naturally occurring deletion of the canonical penton base Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) loop, thought to be critical to cellular entry by adenoviruses. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a new highly recombinant species D human adenovirus (HAdV-D60). A synthesis of in silico and laboratory approaches revealed a potential ocular tropism for the new virus. In vivo, inflammation induced by the virus was dramatically greater than that by adenovirus type 37, a major eye pathogen, possibly due to a novel alternate ligand, Tyr-Gly-Asp (YGD), on the penton base protein. The combination of bioinformatics and laboratory simulation may have important applications in the prediction of tissue tropism for newly discovered and emerging viruses. IMPORTANCE/OBJECTIVE:The ongoing dance between a virus and its host distinctly shapes how the virus evolves. While human adenoviruses typically cause mild infections, recent reports have described newly characterized adenoviruses that cause severe, sometimes fatal human infections. Here, we report a systems biology approach to show how evolution has affected the disease potential of a recently identified novel human adenovirus. A comprehensive understanding of viral evolution and pathogenicity is essential to our capacity to foretell the potential impact on human disease for new and emerging viruses.

"The taboos have worked in my favor," she writes. Body parts from heart to hair to brain to genitals have been written about by others. But chewing? Spit? Fistulas? Flatulence? Excrement? As she puts it, in no-nonsense style: "The pie hole and the feed chute are mine." And to anyone who would say, "Wow, that [Mary Roach] has," to paraphrase, sent her head up her rectum in writing "Gulp," she has a perfect rejoinder: "Only briefly, and with the utmost respect." Never has Ms. Roach's affinity for the comedic and bizarre been put to better use. Among the sources she mentions are the articles "A Lexicon of Pond-Raised Catfish Flavor Descriptors," "Fecal Odor of Sick Hedgehogs Mediates Olfactory Attraction of the Tick" and "The Psychology of Animals Swallowed Alive," and the book "Feeding per Rectum," whose author calls it "more interesting than any romance." Ms. Roach's ear for names leads her to identify this author as Bliss, but she also encounters people named Spitz, Grime, Terdiman, Flushing, Fardy and Crapo. And she collects words that belong in a latter-day version of "Jabberwocky": grumous, glabrous, periblepsis, for starters. "Should circumstance prevent a man from carrying his cigarettes and cellphone in his pants pocket," she writes, "the rectum provides a workable alternative." One inmate earned the nickname "OD," for Office Depot, by transporting "two boxes of staples, a pencil sharpener, sharpener blades and three jumbo binder rings."

The study began in 1932, and it was not halted by the United States Public Health Service until 1972, after a whistle-blower complained that infected patients in the study were not given penicillin, the standard therapy after World War II. Paul A. Lombardo of the Georgia State University College of Law, who advised the presidential commission that studied the Guatemala affair, offers a less drastic measure: rewriting the citation to include "an account of Dr. Parran's involvement in two of the most disgraceful episodes in the annals of research ethics."