Faculty Bibliography

There is extensive evidence that NPY in the brain can modulate the responses to stress and play a critical role in resistance to, or recovery from, harmful effects of stress. Development of PTSD and comorbid depression following exposure to traumatic stress are associated with low NPY. This review discusses putative mechanisms for NPY's anti-stress actions. Recent preclinical data indicating potential for intranasal delivery of NPY to brain as a promising non-invasive strategy to prevent a variety of neuroendocrine, molecular and behavioral impairments in PTSD model are summarized.

Human newborns are exclusively nasal breathers due to an anatomical configuration of the aerodigestive tract, similar to those of non-human primates. Thus, choanal stenosis and other upper airway obstructions may be serious conditions among infants. Morphometric studies lack standardized methods to investigate size, proportion and position of the internal nares in relation to the skull. This study tests the hypothesis that 3D coordinates for landmarks and craniometric points taken on axial CT scans can be reliably used to assess choanal aperture and craniofacial anatomy via 3D geometric morphometrics. We used the computer program Osirix to identify 16 landmarks on 23 axial scans of monkey skulls (Macaca mulatta) as a model to test accuracy. Two observers underwent four training sessions to plot the landmarks on specimens apart from the study sample. Each observer performed three assessments per specimen and no specimen was evaluated twice in the same day. We assessed landmark accuracy using Generalized Procrustes Analysis by optimal superimposition, scaling by Centroid Size and measured the procrustes distances to interpret data. The obtained interobserver errors were higher than 5%, which indicates that 3D landmark coordinates obtained from axial slices generate considerable interobserver variation and low reproducibility of measurements between structures or bone regions situated in different planes. There was no significant difference in interobserver accuracy in identifying standard craniometric points or regional landmarks assessed by ANOVA. This study indicates that collection of 3D coordinates from axial slices to assess the complex morphology of the choanae and how it changes with growth and development involves intrinsic errors of measurement that must be addressed and controlled when performing geometric morphometric analysis. Next step of this project is using volume rendered 3D CT scans and obtain coordinates for the same landmarks to determine interobserver variability, assess accuracy, and validate reproducibility

How metastases develop is not well understood and no genetic mutations have been reported as specific metastatic drivers. Here we have addressed the idea that epigenetic reprogramming by GLI-regulated pluripotent stemness factors promotes metastases. Using primary human colon cancer cells engrafted in mice, we find that transient expression of OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 +/- cMYC establishes an enhanced, pro-metastatic state in the primary tumor that is stable through sequential engraftments and is transmitted through clonogenic cancer stem cells. Metastatic reprogramming alters NANOG methylation and stably boosts NANOG and NANOGP8 expression. Metastases and reprogrammed EMT-like phenotypes require endogenous NANOG, but enhanced NANOG is not sufficient to induce these phenotypes. Finally, reprogrammed tumors enhance GLI2, and we show that GLI2high and AXIN2low, which are markers of the metastatic transition of colon cancers, are prognostic of poor disease outcome in patients. We propose that metastases arise through epigenetic reprogramming of cancer cells within primary tumors.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive motor neuron disease with a poorly understood cause and no effective treatment. Given that calpains mediate neurodegeneration in other pathological states and are abnormally activated in ALS, we investigated the possible ameliorative effects of inhibiting calpain overactivation in hSOD1G93A transgenic (Tg) mice in vivo by neuron specific overexpression of calpastatin (CAST), the highly selective endogenous inhibitor of calpains. Our data indicate that overexpression of CAST in hSOD1G93A mice, which lowered calpain activation to levels comparable to WT mice, inhibited the abnormal breakdown of cytoskeletal proteins (spectrin, MAP2 and neurofilaments), and ameliorated motor axon loss. Disease onset in hSOD1G93A /CAST mice compared to littermate hSOD1G93A mice is delayed, which accounts for their longer time of survival. We also find that neuronal overexpression of CAST in hSOD1G93A transgenic mice inhibited production of putative neurotoxic caspase-cleaved tau and activation of Cdk5, which have been implicated in neurodegeneration in ALS models, and also reduced the formation of SOD1 oligomers. Our data indicate that inhibition of calpain with CAST is neuroprotective in an ALS mouse model

OBJECTIVE: Understanding the mechanisms regulating normal and pathological angiogenesis is of great scientific and clinical interest. In this report, we show that mutations in 2 different aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases, threonyl tRNA synthetase (tarsy58) or isoleucyl tRNA synthetase (iarsy68), lead to similar increased branching angiogenesis in developing zebrafish. APPROACH AND RESULTS: The unfolded protein response pathway is activated by aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetase deficiencies, and we show that unfolded protein response genes atf4, atf6, and xbp1, as well as the key proangiogenic ligand vascular endothelial growth factor (vegfaa), are all upregulated in tarsy58 and iarsy68 mutants. Finally, we show that the protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase-activating transcription factor 4 arm of the unfolded protein response pathway is necessary for both the elevated vegfaa levels and increased angiogenesis observed in tarsy58 mutants. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that endoplasmic reticulum stress acts as a proangiogenic signal via unfolded protein response pathway-dependent upregulation of vegfaa.

Hair cortisol analysis is a potentially powerful tool for evaluating adrenal function and chronic stress. However, the technique has only recently been applied widely to studies of wildlife, including primates, and there are numerous practical and technical factors that should be considered to ensure good quality data and the validity of results and conclusions. Here we report on various intrinsic and extrinsic sources of variation in hair cortisol measurements in wild and captive primates. Hair samples from both wild and captive primates revealed that age and sex can affect hair cortisol concentrations; these effects need to be controlled for when making comparisons between individual animals or populations. Hair growth rates also showed considerable inter-specific variation among a number of primate species. We describe technical limitations of hair analyses and variation in cortisol concentrations as a function of asynchronous hair growth, anatomical site of collection, and the amount and numbers of hair/s used for cortisol extraction. We discuss these sources of variation and their implications for proper study design and interpretation of results.