March 2021 Member Publications

    1. Oshunbade AA, Kassahun-Yimer W, Valle KA, Hamid A, Kipchumba RK, Kamimura D, Clark D 3rd, White WB, DeFilippis AP, Blaha MJ, Benjamin EJ, O'Brien EC, Mentz RJ, Rodriguez CJ, Fox ER, Butler J, Keith RJ, Bhatnagar A, Marie Robertson R, Correa A, Hall ME. Cigarette Smoking, Incident Coronary Heart Disease, and Coronary Artery Calcification in Black Adults: The Jackson Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021 Apr 6;10(7):e017320. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.120.017320. Epub 2021 Mar 23. PMID: 33754833.
      Impact Statement: In Black individuals cigarette smoking can exacerbate heart failure and increase the risk of hospital admissions for heart failure
    2. Keith R, Bhatnagar A. Cardiorespiratory and Immunologic Effects of Electronic Cigarettes. Curr Addict Rep. 2021 Mar 5:1-11. doi: 10.1007/s40429-021-00359-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33717828; PMCID: PMC7935224.
      Impact Statement: This review discusses evidence showing that the use of e-cigarettes is associated with a range of cardiovascular and immunological changes that could be detrimental to health
    3. Ohanyan V, Raph SM, Dwenger MM, Hu X, Pucci T, Mack G, Moore JB 4th, Chilian WM, Bhatnagar A, Nystoriak MA. Myocardial Blood Flow Control by Oxygen Sensing Vascular Kvβ Proteins. Circ Res. 2021 Mar 19;128(6):738-751. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.120.317715. Epub 2021 Jan 27. PMID: 33499656.
      Impact Statement: This study shows that the increase in oxygen demand in the heart, due to exercise or exertion, is met by increase blood flow in the heart, which is regulated by potassium channels and their subunits.
    4. Men H, Cai H, Cheng Q, Zhou W, Wang X, Huang S, Zheng Y, Cai L. The regulatory roles of p53 in cardiovascular health and disease. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2021 Mar;78(5):2001-2018. doi: 10.1007/s00018-020-03694-6. Epub 2020 Nov 11. PMID: 33179140
      Impact Statement: Except for regulating a myriad of genes to maintain normal cell functions, this study found the important roles of p53 in the cardiovascular physiological and pathological conditions as revealed by this review: primarily, p53 determines the fates of cardiomyocytes by regulating metabolism and programmed cell death and also regulates cell cycle arrest and angiogenesis in non-myocytes, thus participating in the regulation of CVDs.
    5. Wahlang B, Alexander NC 2nd, Li X, Rouchka EC, Kirpich IA, Cave MC. Polychlorinated biphenyls altered gut microbiome in CAR and PXR knockout mice exhibiting toxicant-associated steatohepatitis. Toxicol Rep. 2021 Mar 10;8:536-547. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2021.03.010. PMID: 33777700; PMCID: PMC7985695 
      Impact Statement: This publication elucidated mechanism by which polychlorinated biphenyls and their nuclear receptor targets, PXR and CAR, modulate the gut:liver axis thereby impacting susceptibility to obesity-related diseases.
    6. O'Brien SJ, Ellis CT, McDowell J, Galandiuk S, Polk HC Jr. Anal squamous cell carcinoma incidentally found at hemorrhoidectomy. Surgery. 2021 Mar;169(3):610-616. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2020.08.026. Epub 2020 Sep 29. PMID: 33004218.
      Impact Statement: Anal cancer (SSCA) is on the rise and Kentucky now has the second highest incidence rate. Although this cancer is strongly associated with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), it doesn’t completely explain its temporal trend. Three percent of all SCCA cases in KY were found at the time of hemorrhoidectomy.
    7. Hill BG, Rood B, Ribble A, Haberzettl P. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) inhalation-induced alterations in the plasma lipidome as promoters of vascular inflammation and insulin resistance. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2021 Mar 5. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00881.2020. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33666505
      Impact Statement: We found that inhalation of fine particulate matter air pollution induces vascular inflammation and insulin resistance via circulating plasma constituents possibly by promoting a unique form of dyslipidemia that dependents on pulmonary oxidative stress.
    8. Kumar A, Ren Y, Sundaram K, Mu J, Sriwastva MK, Dryden GW, Lei C, Zhang L, Yan J, Zhang X, Park JW, Merchant ML, Teng Y, Zhang HG. miR-375 prevents high-fat diet-induced insulin resistance and obesity by targeting the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and bacterial tryptophanase (tnaA) gene. Theranostics. 2021 Feb 19;11(9):4061-4077. doi: 10.7150/thno.52558. PMID: 33754048; PMCID: PMC7977461.
      Impact Statement: The molecular mechanisms that mediate diet-based prevention of insulin resistance are not well understood. In this proof-of-concept study, ginger-derived nanoparticles (GDNP) were used to examine a role for GDNP-supplemented diet in amelioration of high-fat diet (HFD) induced insulin resistance. Using multiple lines of inquiry, this study revealed that oral administration of GDNP to HFD mice improved host glucose tolerance and insulin response via (1) regulating VAMP7 induction, (2) enhanced the exosomal accumulation of microRNA miR-375 culminating in (3) the inhibition of arylhydrocarbon receptor (AhR) expression and signaling
    9. Hardesty JE, Wahlang B, Prough RA, Head KZ, Wilkey D, Merchant M, Shi H, Jin J, Cave MC. Effect of Epidermal Growth Factor Treatment and Polychlorinated Biphenyl Exposure in a Dietary-Exposure Mouse Model of Steatohepatitis. Environ Health Perspect. 2021 Mar;129(3):37010. doi: 10.1289/EHP8222. Epub 2021 Mar 31. PMID: 33788613; PMCID: PMC8011667
      Impact Statement: Our initial research demonstrated that some PCBs bind to the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and terminate its activation of normal gene expression in liver. We sought to establish whether co-treatment with epidermal growth factor, a ligand activator for EGFR, would reverse this inhibition by PCBs. While EGR did reverse the action of PCBs as proposed, there were other downstream effects caused by EGR suggesting the growth factor probably wouldn't serve as a therapeutic agent to prevent PCB toxicity due to its side effects.
    10. Das S, Rai SN. SwarnSeq: An improved statistical approach for differential expression analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data. Genomics. 2021 Mar 1;113(3):1308-1324. doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2021.02.014. Epub ahead of print. PMID:33662531. 
      Impact Statement: This publication discusses the development of an efficient method for analysis of Single-cell RNA sequencing data. This new method is compared with 11 methods on 10 data sets.
    11. Fuqua JL, Rouchka EC, Waigel S, Sokoloski K, Chung D, Zacharias W, Zhang M, Chariker J, Talley D, Santisteban I, Varsani A, Moyer S, Holm RH, Yeager RA, Smith T, Bhatnagar A. A rapid assessment of wastewater for genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants at sewershed scale in Louisville, KY. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2021 Mar 26:2021.03.18.21253604. doi: 10.1101/2021.03.18.21253604. PMID: 33791725; PMCID: PMC8010757.
      Impact Statement: This paper describes preliminary observations and methodological refinements for wastewater-based surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. This work will inform future wastewater-based COVID-19 surveillance and targeted response to the spread of variants
    12. Yuan J, Zhang Y, Zhang Y, Mo Y, Zhang Q. Effects of metal nanoparticles on tight junction-associated proteins via HIF-1α/miR-29b/MMPs pathway in human epidermal keratinocytes. Part Fibre Toxicol. 2021 Mar 19;18(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s12989-021-00405-2. PMID: 33740985; PMCID: PMC7980342.
      Impact Statement: The results of this study have demonstrated whether and how exposure to metal nanoparticles causes skin diseases such as skin inflammation and allergy, which also provided tools for evaluating the health effects of other metal nanomaterials. This study not only leads to a better understanding of the mechanisms by which metal nanoparticles induce skin inflammation and allergy, but also provide scientific evidence to prevent and control them.