Health Sciences – Page 28 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Health Sciences

Testing requirements for cannabis products vary by US state

As an increasing number of states in the USA legalize medical and recreational cannabis (i.e., marijuana) use, testing of cannabis products (for potency, contaminants, etc.) should be a priority to ensure safe cannabis use by consumers. The present study compiled the testing requirements for cannabis products from the 29 states that currently have legalized medical or recreational cannabis. Results found that the testing requirements for cannabis products varied considerably by state. In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of retail cannabis, policy makers should develop a universal and comprehensive framework for testing requirements. The standardization of cannabis testing requirements would promote safer use for medical and recreational cannabis consumers.

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The DISH Survey

The original purpose of this research project was to perform a full literature review on the articles published by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities (CSHD). This would have produced the annual Community Report, which was created in order to keep the general public up to date on research findings that pertain to the sexual reproductive health of marginalized communities with a special focus on sexual and gender minorities and/or people of color. However, while beginning the process of creating the Community Report, the research project shifted towards wanting to discover how and where the general American public receives their sexual health information. The Dissemination of Information on Sexual Health (DISH) Survey was created with the intent of better understanding the relationship between demographics, health information-seeking behavior, and perceptions of sexual health issues. This 70+ question survey will recruit individuals using Facebook advertisement for approximately two weeks, with 300-600 responses expected to be collected. Participants will be asked to answer questions concerning their gender, sexuality, and state of health. The CSHD will utilize the data collected to better develop methods to inform the public about their research findings, which would create a more health-informed community.

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Sexual Education for Children With Spina Bifida

Sexual education in America has many gaps, but one of the most glaring is the lack of sexual education for adolescents with physical disabilities. Children with Spina Bifida often enter puberty earlier than their peers. Therefore, it is crucial for them to learn about and prepare for their adult bodies at a young age. A comprehensive sexual education program was developed for each stage of a child’s physical and mental development by, first, creating a preliminary curriculum based on an analysis of existing sexual education programs for able-bodied and physically-disabled children. Qualitative interviews with physicians of varying specialties and with adults living with Spina Bifida were then performed in order to adapt the program to the specific needs of children with Spina Bifida. The program is designed specifically for children, adolescents, and teenagers with Spina Bifida and incorporates information that is appropriate for each successive life stage: childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The curriculum is separated into these three stages, and each stage includes videos and discussion topics about changing bodies, navigating adulthood, and handling sexuality. Those who opt to engage with the program are encouraged to discuss these sensitive topics with their parents and doctors and find their agency regarding their sexuality and their independence. The program will be beta tested with a cohort of children ages 10-19 with Spina Bifida, who will be asked to complete surveys and knowledge tests, in order to determine the efficacy of the curriculum. This program is one of few that specifically address sexual education for children with disabilities. While students are left out of their sexual education programs due to their conditions, this campaign aims to normalize sexuality and aid young kids with Spina Bifida in preparing for adulthood.

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Risky On-the-road Driving in Night Shift Workers

This study investigates whether there is a relationship between risky driving behaviors in night shift workers and circadian rhythms, an internal biological clock in humans. The participants chosen for this study are night shift workers, meaning they work predominantly during the night hours. Data was collected through sleep diaries filled out by night shift workers for every time they went to sleep or took naps and actigraphs were worn to document rest and activity cycles as well as light exposure. Saliva samples were also collected and assayed for melatonin, a hormone important for elucidating circadian timing of sleep by determining the time of dim light melatonin onset and offset. As the data has not yet been analyzed, results have not yet been produced. However, the expected results for this study are that there will be a higher likelihood of risky driving behaviors shown through hard braking, aggressive acceleration, phone usage while driving, and speeding when driving during the time interval of dim light melatonin onset and offset compared to driving outside of this time interval. The main conclusion from the expected results would be that circadian misalignment independently from sleep affects driving behavior.

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Effects of Rapamycin on Age-Associated Vasculature Transcription Profiles

Rapamycin (Rapa), an mTOR1 inhibitor, is one of the few therapies shown to prolong lifespan. It also may mitigate the adverse effects of age on the vasculature. To explore the vascular transcription profiles of age-associated pathways in mice treated with Rapa, mice were 1? treated with varying dosing regimens of Rapa beginning at 20 months of age?. The mice were checked twice daily for health status and were euthanized at 22 months of age. The aortas of mice were collected, and RNA was extracted from the aortas. RNA was then tested to ensure the collected samples were of adequate quality for RNA-sequencing analysis. We expect that the mice experiencing prolonged lifespan in response to Rapa treatment will have differences in their transcription profiles compared to young and old mice which had not been treated with Rapa. This information may provide insight related to the effects of Rapa towards prolongation of lifespan and may direct future studies in humans.

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FADD amplification in lung cancer promotes G1 to S cell cycle transition

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most malignant primary central nervous system tumor and once diagnosed, the patient outcome does not look good. Currently, there are no curative treatment options for GBM, and the survival rate of patients diagnosed with the disease remains low. RAD51 is highly expressed in response to radiation and chemotherapy which is required for DNA repair from after these genotoxic therapies. Using small molecule drugs that modulate the RAD51 function, we have shown that they enhance chemo- and radio-sensitization in GBM due to inhibition of DNA repair. My UROP project will involve the purification of RAD51 protein so that the binding site and mechanism by which the RAD51 targeted drugs function can be delineated using X-ray crystallography. We hypothesize that the inhibition of RAD51 will sensitize GSCs to radio and chemotherapy which will further improve the survival of GBM patients. Although there are currently no results, this research and experiment is valuable because there are no effective therapies for GBM.

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Short-term Self-regulation of COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease creates long-term obstacles for patients, which can result in exacerbations and mortality. Previous clinical trials focus on a patient’s physical well-being, utilizing bronchodilators or inhaled therapy as an attempt to alleviate symptoms and prevent future exacerbations. Short-term Self-regulation of COPD is focused on a patient’s self-regulation and provides an alternative hypothesis that a more active lifestyle will result in improved diligence of self-regulation as a short-term outcome. Participants were recruited from the Ann Arbor and Flint area and severity of their disease was measured prior to randomization. As intense physical activity is not practical for these subjects, this study utilizes chair yoga and imagery in the control group and squats, leg lifts, arm curls, oblique twists, and similar activities led by a kinesiology specialist as part of the experimental group; while group placement is randomly generated, both groups participate in activities that have the potential to improve outcomes. Our analysis involves evaluations taken at baseline and an assessment taken approximately 3 months after completion of the 10-week training classes. This data is taken from the Active for Life with COPD data set that includes testing visits, seven-day activity monitoring, the Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire Self-Administered Standardized (CRQ-SAS), Multidimensional Outcome Expectations for Exercise Scale, and the Self-Regulation for Physical Activity Scale responses. Intervention elements during weeks 1-10 consist of lab-based exercises and an educational program with further intervention elements measured at approximately six months into the study; coaching phone calls and a booster session also occur. Data collection is done with blind testing, surveys, and numerous physical measurements for fatigue and mastery of activities like the six-minute walk. This research aims to support the hypothesis that a less-sedentary lifestyle leads to improved self-regulation in COPD patients.

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Neural Mechanisms Involved in Contextual Processing in PTSD and Fibromyalgia

Fear modulation, the ability to contextualize fear learning in different settings, is a vital mechanism related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals with PTSD have impairments in extinction recall and fear renewal, for they continuously overreact or fail to recognize dangerous circumstances. There is strong evidence that people with fibromyalgia (FM) also struggle with fear modulation. One of the main goals of this research project is to use skin conductance response (SCR) to examine group differences in extinction recall and fear renewal in PTSD, FM, and control subjects. The subjects recruited are right-handed adults between ages 18 and 45. On Day 1, participants completed tasks related to fear learning. They were fear conditioned to learn that blue light in the office setting induces an electrical current, whereas blue light on the bookshelf does not, which is called extinction learning. On Day 2, they completed extinction recall and fear renewal for the fear learning task (acquisition and extinction of what they learned on Day 1). During these tasks, participants’ event-related skin conductance responses (ER-SCR) have been recorded, for SCR is a reliable indicator of one’s fear response. We anticipate that PTSD and FM groups will demonstrate significantly greater SCR during extinction recall and fear renewal. ANOVA will be used to compare data in the areas of interest between subject groups. We hope the results of this study will create a better understanding of cognitive and neurological deficits involved in PTSD and allow for the development of more targeted, improved treatment.

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Physiological Reactions to Emotional Stimuli in Individuals with PTSD and Fibromyalgia

The project research aims to understand how people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and fibromyalgia (FM) react to fear modulation tasks (i.e., extinction recall and fear renewal) by examining skin conductance response (SCR) data, which is a reliable indicator of one’s response to threats. The Duval Lab study aims to examine the contextual processing deficits during fear modulation in PTSD and FM. We are testing FM in addition to PTSD because these disorders are highly comorbid and both demonstrate impairments in fear modulation, which is the ability to flexibly shift fear responses from one stimulus to another if a once-threatening stimulus becomes safe. The study spans over two days, where on Day 1 participants underwent fear conditioning and extinction learning, and on Day 2 participants underwent extinction recall and fear renewal in regards to context. We are currently examining the results of the SCR data collected from three different groups, which consists of individuals with PTSD, FM, and healthy controls, and specifically examining the amplitude and count of the SCR. We have not gotten to the part of analyzing the data presented yet (we are still working on organizing and cleaning the data using Acqknowledge software), but we hypothesize that there will be a significantly greater SCR during extinction recall and fear renewal phases among individuals with PTSD and FM. We hope the outcomes of the current study help improve treatments for PTSD and FM.

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Contextual Processing Deficits in PTSD and Fibromyalgia

Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have difficulty differentiating between safe and threatening contexts. Not only do individuals with PTSD suffer from a biased fear response, but individuals with Fibromyalgia (FM) which is highly comorbid with PTSD have a similar trait. In this study, we examined the deficits of PTSD and FM in their reaction to extinction recall and fear renewal by measuring Skin Conductance Response (SCR). On Day 1, subjects are conditioned to an unconditioned stimulus (i.e., electrical current) with a conditioned stimulus (e.g., blue light) in a neutral context (e.g., office). This was followed by extinction learning where they should recognize that the blue light presented in a living room does not induce an electrical shock. On Day 2, these subjects undergo extinction recall to determine how much they react in a non-threatening context (e.g., blue light in the living room) while also undergoing fear renewal to measure reactivity to a threatening context (e.g., blue light in the office). SCR is utilized as a reliable physiological indicator of one’s fear response during these scenarios. The SCR data from both PTSD and FM individuals have been cleaned and analyzed using AcqKnowledge 5.0 software program. The outcome of SCR data will be compared to each other, as well as to healthy controls. There are no tangible results as of now due to the project being slowed because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, but we hope to see that through testing the fear modulation paradigm, we can further our understanding of the differences between PTSD and FM patients versus healthy controls in their reactivity to extinction recall and fear renewal.

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