Tougaloo College

Smoked tobacco is a leading risk factor for cardiopulmonary disease. Pipe and cigar use remains common among US adults, yet its risks remain insufficiently understood. We analysed data from five pooled cohorts with adults enrolled from 1971 to 2011 with follow-up through 2018. Pipe/cigar use was defined by baseline self-report. Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/FVC ratio were measured by spirometry. All-cause mortality, coronary heart disease mortality and hospitalisation, respiratory-related mortality, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality and hospitalisation were classified via adjudication or validated algorithms. Associations were estimated with linear mixed models and Fine-Gray subdistribution hazards models adjusted for sociodemographic and clinical factors. Among 22 823 participants (mean (SD) age 48.0 (15.7) years; 44.9% male sex; 70.5% white, 25.4% black, 2.4% Hispanic/Latino), 2621 (11.5%) reported ever pipe/cigar use, including 518 (2.3%) exclusive users without cigarette history. Compared with never tobacco users (n=9931), exclusive pipe/cigar use was associated with faster decline in FEV1 (3.36 mL/year; 95% CI 1.99 to 4.72), FVC (3.73 mL/year; 95% CI 2.05 to 5.42) and FEV1/FVC (0.031 per year; 95% CI 0.008 to 0.054). Exclusive users had higher all-cause mortality (adjusted HR (aHR) 1.24; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.41), COPD hospitalisation/mortality (aHR 2.02; 95% CI 1.41 to 2.90) and preserved ratio impaired spirometry (aHR 1.83; 95% CI 1.24 to 2.71). Pipe and cigar use was associated with accelerated lung function decline and increased mortality and cardiopulmonary events, including among never cigarette users. These findings underscore the need for prevention and cessation efforts targeting non-cigarette tobacco.

The effects of saponin-rich extracts on pancreatic lipase activity were examined. Horse chestnut seed and ginseng root extracts stimulated lipase activity the most, while ivy leaf and fenugreek seed extracts had an inhibitory effect. The strongest antiradical activity (ABTS+•–2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) test) was exhibited by horse chestnut seed extract and the weakest by the soapwort root extract. Antioxidant activity strongly positively correlated with the total amount of phenols. Experimental studies showed that the surface properties of saponins present in extracts influence emulsion stabilization and have a moderate stimulating or inhibitory effect on pancreatic lipase activity. Computational studies demonstrated that lipase activity is stimulated by stabilizing an oil emulsion in the case of all studied saponins. Depending on the type of saponin, activation or inhibition of lipase was observed due to the immediate ligand–enzyme interactions.

Abstract Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in men in the United States, aside from non-melanoma skin cancer. The roles of estrogen receptor α (ERα) and estrogen Receptor β (ERβ) in PCa have not been fully elucidated yet. This study aims to evaluate the expression levels and localizations of ERα and ERβ in benign prostatic tissue (BPT) and PCa across different racial and age groups. Methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for ERα and ERβ was performed on tissue microarrays (TMA) containing 240 samples of BPT and PCa from Black and White individuals and age groups ≤60 and >60 years. The localization of the IHC signal for ERα and ERβ was determined in glandular and stromal regions. Expression levels of ERα and ERβ were quantified using an IHC score, calculated by multiplying the area score (percentage of stained cells: 0 for no staining, 1 for <10% staining, 2 for 10-50% staining, and 3 for >50% staining) by the intensity score (0 for no signal, 1 for weak, 2 for moderate, and 3 for strong staining). Statistical analysis was performed using Student's t-test; a p-value ≤0.05 was considered significant. Results: In the entire population, the IHC scores for glandular ERα, stromal ERα, and glandular ERβ were lower in all PCa cases than in BPT, but a significant difference was only seen in glandular ERβ between PCa and BPT (3.43±2.3 vs. 4.86±2.8; p=0.0021). Interestingly, the IHC scores for all glandular ERα, stromal ERα, and glandular ERβ were significantly lower in metastatic PCa than in BPT (p=0.014, p=0.0001, and p=0.0035, respectively). While the entire population was stratified by race, there was no significant difference in IHC score for glandular ERα, stromal ERα, or glandular ERβ in both BPT and PCa between Black and white populations. While entire population was stratified by age, individuals with age >60 years had significantly lower IHC scores for glandular ERα (p=0.0023) and stromal ERα (p=0.03), but not for and glandular ERβ (p=0.1) in BPT; and significantly lower IHC score for stromal ERα (p=0.0036). Conclusions: These findings suggest that ERα and ERβ could be potentially diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for PCa. Declined expression levels of glandular ERα, stromal ERα, and glandular ERβ may correlate to the oncogenesis, progression and disparities in race and age PCa. Citation Format: Laura B. Pagan, Tingting Yang, Jinghe Mao, Xinchun Zhou. Retrospective analysis of estrogen receptor expression in prostatic neoplasms: Implications across age and racial groups [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 686.

Immunotherapy, particularly targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, holds promise in cancer treatment by regulating the immune response and preventing cancer cells from evading immune destruction. Nonetheless, this approach poses a risk of unwanted immune system activation against healthy cells. To minimize this risk, our study proposes a strategy based on selective targeting of the PD-L1 pathway within the acidic microenvironment of tumors. We employed in silico methods, such as virtual screening, molecular mechanics, and molecular dynamics simulations, analyzing approximately 10,000 natural compounds from the MolPort database to find potential hits with the desired properties. The simulations were conducted under two pH conditions (pH = 7.4 and 5.5) to mimic the environments of healthy and cancerous cells. The compound MolPort-001-742-690 emerged as a promising pH-selective inhibitor, showing a significant affinity for PD-L1 in acidic conditions and lower toxicity compared to known inhibitors like BMS-202 and LP23. A detailed 1000 ns molecular dynamics simulation confirmed the stability of the inhibitor-PD-L1 complex under acidic conditions. This research highlights the potential of using in silico techniques to discover novel pH-selective inhibitors, which, after experimental validation, may enhance the precision and reduce the toxicity of immunotherapies, offering a transformative approach to cancer treatment.

Background: The Appalachia and Mississippi Delta regions have the lowest life expectancy in the United States. In response, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Louisiana were selected for The Risks Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Study. The RURAL study is an observational population-based study focused on these at-risk communities in the rural south. During the planning phase, investigators identified the need to incorporate insights from the community in the proposal. Therefore, they initiated the “Rural Community Listening Project” in the four states to seek community members’ points of view on outreach research in their communities. The objectives of this research were to hear from members of the communities their concerns and ideas about health research, approaches that would promote their willingness to participate, and their willingness to have blood drawn and x-rays taken as a part of the research process. Method: Mississippi investigators conducted four focus group interviews with 10-12 participants in each focus group. They interviewed a total of 45 men and women between the ages of 35 to 65 in county-specific focus groups. The groups represented four rural Mississippi Counties: LeFlore, Oktibbeha, Panola, and Tishomingo. The investigators digitally recorded the interviews and had them transcribed, then analyzed the transcripts using thematic analysis. Results: Two themes arose: (1) Encouragement to Participate and (2) Barriers to Participation. Encouragement to Participate included (1) having trusted community stakeholders involved, (2) helping the community, (3) promoting one’s health, and (4) receiving feedback on one’s health. Barriers included lack of trust, time, location, and transportation. Overall, the focus group interviewees had not participated in health research but would be willing to do so. Participants had little to no experience in doing health surveys or tracking their health information using mobile or electronic devices but did not raise objections to doing so. Word-of-mouth, social media, newspaper, telephone, cell phone, and mail were recommended as modes of communicating with their communities. “Relevance to the individual” arose as a more prominent encourager than monetary incentives. Focus group interviewees reported trusting doctors, nurses, and health care providers in their respective communities to collect health information. Conclusion: The in-common barriers to participation in research were time, transportation, and location. Across all focus groups, trust emerged as a requisite for research participation. The model of listening to the community’s experiences, concerns, and recommendations can potentially inform future research practices in rural communities and changes to related state and/or local policies.

Solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatographic (LC) separation of nucleobases and nucleosides are challenging due to the high hydrophilicity of these compounds. Herein we report a novel on-line SPE-LC-MS/MS method for their quantification after pre-column derivatization with chloroacetaldehyde (CAA). The method proposed is selective and sensitive with limits of detection at the nano-molar level. Analysis of urine and saliva samples by using this method is demonstrated. Adenine, guanine, cytosine, adenosine, guanosine, and cytidine were found in the range from 0.19 (guanosine) to 1.83 μM (cytidine) in urine and from 0.015 (guanosine) to 0.79 μM (adenine) in saliva. Interestingly, methylation of cytidine was found to be significantly different in urine from that in saliva. While 5-hydroxymethylcytidine was detected at a very low level (<0.05 μM) in saliva, it was found to be the most prominent methylated cytidine in urine at a high level of 3.33 μM. Since on-line SPE is deployed, the proposed LC-MS/MS quantitative assay is convenient to carry out and offers good assay accuracy and repeatability.

&lt;div&gt;Abstract&lt;p&gt;To date, most genetic association analyses of smoking behaviors have been conducted in populations of European ancestry and many of these studies focused on the phenotype that measures smoking quantity, that is, cigarettes per day. Additional association studies in diverse populations with different linkage disequilibrium patterns and an alternate phenotype, such as total tobacco exposure which accounts for intermittent periods of smoking cessation within a larger smoking period as measured in large cardiovascular risk studies, can aid the search for variants relevant to smoking behavior. For these reasons, we undertook an association analysis by using a genotyping array that includes 2,100 genes to analyze smoking persistence in unrelated African American participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. A locus located approximately 4 kb downstream from the 3′-UTR of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (&lt;i&gt;BDNF&lt;/i&gt;) significantly influenced smoking persistence. In addition, independent variants rs12915366 and rs12914385 in the cluster of genes encoding nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits (&lt;i&gt;CHRNA5–CHRNA3–CHRNB4&lt;/i&gt;) on 15q25.1 were also associated with the phenotype in this sample of African American subjects. To our knowledge, this is the first study to more extensively evaluate the genome in the African American population, as a limited number of previous studies of smoking behavior in this population included evaluations of only single genomic regions. &lt;i&gt;Cancer Prev Res; 4(5); 729–34. ©2011 AACR&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

The rapid proliferation of COVID-19 has left governments scrambling, and several data aggregators are now assisting in the reporting of county cases and deaths. The different variables affecting reporting (e.g., time delays in reporting) necessitates a well-documented reliability study examining the data methods and discussion of possible causes of differences between aggregators. To statistically evaluate the reliability of COVID-19 data across aggregators using case fatality rate (CFR) estimates and reliability statistics. Cases and deaths were collected daily by volunteers via state and local health departments, as primary sources and newspaper reports, as secondary sources. In an effort to begin comparison for reliability statistical analysis, BroadStreet collected data from other COVID-19 aggregator sources, including USAFacts, Johns Hopkins University, New York Times, The COVID Tracking Project. COVID-19 cases and death counts at the county and state levels. Lower levels of inter-rater agreement were observed across aggregators associated with the number of deaths, which manifested itself in state level Bayesian estimates of COVID-19 fatality rates. A national, publicly available data set is needed for current and future disease outbreaks and improved reliability in reporting.

Background: Rural communities have historically been difficult to study compared to their urban counterparts and are underrepresented in research. There are several potential barriers to reaching rural populations; however, there remains a knowledge gap regarding participation in health research by rural people. To drive meaningful, lasting change in rural communities through research, investigators sought to understand the facilitators and barriers to conducting research among rural populations. We conducted focus group interviews to elucidate the viewpoints of the Community Advisory Board (CAB) members in Oktibbeha and Panola Counties. Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators to participation in research in Oktibbeha and Panola Counties in the Risk Underlying Rural Area Longitudinal (RURAL) Study. Method: Data were collected via focus group interviews of eight men and women with diverse economic and educational backgrounds to represent the demographics of each county best. Each interview was recorded using digital recorders and then transcribed . A thematic analysis of the data was developed from each of the transcripts, then analyzed and interpreted by three qualitative researchers. Results: Focus Group Participants (FGPs) identified the strengths of their counties that make it easy to participate in research as; progressive thinking and diversity, close-knit communities where people know each other so that the word gets out, and “where trust is key.” Barriers to participation in research were identified as limited prior exposure to research, distrust of the process, fear that data may paint their community in a negative light, and fear that the government will take something away from them as a consequence of participation in research. Reaching the target number of participants for each county is achievable according to FGPs and would mean the groundwork they have laid has been effective. Approaches for getting the word out to people in Panola and Oktibbeha Counties about the RURAL Study included use of radio and TV, social media, word-of-mouth, door-to-door, community events, churches, paper media, going into the community, community outreach, and communicating the benefits of the research. Conclusion: Investigators concluded that reaching the target number of participants for each county is meaningful to the CABs, and it is highly likely that the recruitment target will be achieved.