Emergency managers are faced with the challenge of acting quickly after a hurricane but rarely have detailed information available about type and amount of damage. In response to this need, linear additive geospatial models based on logistic regression analyses of driving variables including wind, rain, surge, topography were developed and automation routines programmed that rapidly and accurately predict a variety of damage types. Since a preponderance of damage is associated with falling trees, over 2000 post-Katrina forested plots were used to fit and validate independent models for hardwood blowdown and pine shear. Additional models using peak wind gusts and maximum sustained winds respectively were fully automated. Most importantly, total model run time was decreased from 36 to 5 hours for the more complicated forest damage models. The models have been vetted by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and will be part of MEMA’s hurricane action response plans.

No description available.

DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is a critical genome-maintenance system. It ensures genome stability by correcting mismatches generated during DNA replication, suppressing homologous recombination, and inducing apoptosis in response to severe DNA damage. As a result, defects in MMR lead to genome-wide mutations and susceptibility to both hereditary and sporadic cancer syndromes. The hallmark of cancer cells defective in MMR is their ability to display frequent instability in simple repetitive DNA sequences, a phenomenon called microsatellite instability (MSI). However, only ~70% of the MSI-positive tumors have identifiable MMR gene mutations, indicating that additional factor(s) are responsible for the MSI phenotype in the remaining 30% MSI-tumors. We demonstrate here that phosphorylation of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), an MMR component required for the initiation and resynthesis steps of the repair reactions, blocks in vitro MMR. We found that nuclear extracts derived from colorectal cell lines containing high levels of phosphorylated PCNA are not only defective in MMR, but also inhibitory to MMR activity in HeLa extracts. To determine if PCNA phosphorylation inhibits MMR, several PCNA isoforms that mimic phosphorylated or non-phosphorylated PCNA were examined for their effects on MMR activity. We show that all phosphorylated PCNA mimics block MMR at the initiation step but MMR was not affected by the non-phosphorylated mimetic PCNA. In vitro gap-filling experiments reveal that the phosphorylated PCNA induces a mutational frequency several fold higher than non-phosphorylated PCNA. Since PCNA has been shown to interact with MMR initiation factors MutSα and MutLα, we examined the interactions of phosphorylated PCNA with these two initiation factors. Interestingly, PCNA phosphorylation reduces the PCNA-MutSα interaction, but not the PCNA-MutLα interaction. Since PCNA is proposed to transfer MutSα to the mismatch site, the simplest explanation of the result is that PCNA phosphorylation inhibits MMR by blocking MutSα-mismatch binding activity. Taken together, our results reveal that PCNA phosphorylation induces genetic instability by inhibiting MMR at the initiation step and by promoting DNA polymerase-catalyzed mis-incorporations. This study provides a novel mechanism by which posttranslational modifications inhibit MMR, leading to genome instability and tumorigenesis. A second part of the study is to determine MMR function of several MutLα mutants associated with relapse leukemia patients. One of the mutants contains a phenylalanine99 to leucine substitution in the MLH1 subunit of MutLα. We show that this mutation inhibits MMR by blocking both the ATPase activity and the endonuclease activity associated with MutLα, supporting the importance of the MutLα ATPase and the endonuclease activities in MMR.

No description available.

A leucemia mieloide aguda (LMA) compreende um grupo heterogêneo de doenças hematológicas caracterizadas pela expansão clonal de células mieloides imaturas que apresentam diferentes tipos de alterações genéticas e epigenéticas. O diagnóstico requer a identificação de infiltração da medula óssea e/ou sangue por blastos mieloides leucêmicos em frequência igual ou superior a 20% das células nucleadas. Os tratamentos mais frequentemente empregados para a LMA englobam o uso de quimioterapia convencional com uso de citarabina e antraciclinas, bem como agentes imunoterápicos. Embora a pesquisa da biologia da LMA tenha levado ao desenvolvimento de novos agentes direcionados a alvos específicos como as mutações em FLT3, faltam avanços para os pacientes com outras leucemias que não a leucemia promielocítica aguda (LPA). A halofuginona (HF) é um derivado halogenado de febrifugina, que possui propriedades antifibróticas, anticancerígenas, antiinflamatórias e pró-apoptóticas. No presente estudo, avaliamos a indução de apoptose pela HF nas linhagens de LMA Kasumi-1,THP-1, MV4-11, U937 e OCI-AML3, verificando a sensibilidade ao tratamento. Verificamos que a linhagem Kasumi-1 foi sensível à atividade pró-apoptótica da HF exibindo dose efetiva 50 DE50 de 125,58 ng/ml, e que as células THP-1 foram resistentes exibindo DE50 de 786,15 ng/ml. As células Kasumi-1 sofreram diminuição significativa da percentagem de células na fase S do ciclo celular, enquanto que as percentagens de células THP-1 em qualquer das fases analisadas não se alterou em comparação às amostras controles tratadas com veículo. Usando a metodologia de Western Blot, foi detectada a ativação da via das caspases com aumento da clivagem de caspase 3 após 3 horas de incubação com HF nas amostras de células Kasumi-1 e após 12 horas para as células THP-1. Bandas correspondentes a forma clivada de PARP foram identificadas em amostras de células Kasumi-1 após 12 horas de tratamento e nas amostras de células THP-1 após 3 horas de tratamento. Usando a metodologia de Proteome Profiler TM Array - HumanPhospho-Kinase Array para rastreio de proteinas fosforiladas pelo tratamento com HF, detectamos que houve modulação de 3 proteínas diferencialmente para as duas linhagens, 9 proteínas moduladas exclusivamente nas células Kasumi-1 e 6 exclusivamente nas células THP-1 . Entre as alterações mais relevantes, destacamos a diminuição da fosforilação de Stat3 e Stat5 nas células Kasumi-1 e a diminuição das formas fosforiladas de p53 nas células THP-1. Nossos achados confirmam o efeito pró-apoptótico da HF, sobretudo nas células Kasumi-1, e sugerem que este efeito envolva a diminuição das fosforilações de Stat3 e de Stat5. / Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous hematological disorder characterized by the clonal expansion of immature myeloid cells exhibiting different types of genetic and epigenetic alterations. A diagnosis is established when a patient presents >= 20% of blast in the bone marrow or in the peripheral blood. The WHO classifies AML in seven subtypes depending on the morphology, immunophenotype, genetics and clinical presentation of the cells. The most common treatment until nowadays is chemotherapy in combination with cytarabine and anthracycline and furthermore also the application of immunotherapeutic agents. Although researchers have attempted to develop new agents targeting directly specific mutations such as FLT3, further studies are necessary to find new therapeutic approaches for other leukemic subtypes aside from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Halofuginone (HF) is a halogenated derivate of Febrifugine, which is a molecule isolated from the plant Dichroa febrifuga. It has been demonstrated that Halofuginone exhibits antifibrotic, anti-cancerogenic, anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic properties. We evaluated the induction of apoptosis of HF in the AML cell lines Kasumi-1,THP-1, MV4-11, U937 e OCIAML3, we verified the sensitivity and resistance of these cell lines after treatment, performed a cell cycle analysis, analyzed the activation of proteins associated with apoptosis and the proteins associated with cell proliferation and survival. We established that the Kasumi-1 cell line was sensitive to the treatment of HF displaying a dose IC50 of 125, 58 ng/ml, while the THP-1 cell lines presented resistance displaying a dose IC50 of 786,15 ng/ml . When treated with HF, the Kasumi-1 cell line stopped in the S phase of the cell cycle displaying significant decrease of proliferation, while HF showed no significant on THP-1. Furthermore we performed a western blot and It was demonstrated that the cleavage of caspase 3 appeared after 3 hours of treatment in Kasumi-1 and after 12 hours of treatment in THP-1, while cleavage of caspase 9 appeared after 12 hours in both cell lines. PARP was cleaved in Kasumi-1 after 12 hours of HF treatment, whereas the cleavage of PARP in THP-1 remained the same after 3 hours of treatment. Performing the methodology of Proteome Profiler TM Array - HumanPhospho-Kinase Array we detected 3 proteins modulated in both cell lines, 9 proteins were modulated only in Kasumi-1 cells and 6 in THP-1 cells. Amongst the different tyrosine kinases and signaling pathways that were modulated, we observed that the phosphorylation of Stat3 and Stat5 was diminished in Kasumi-1, while THP-1 presented iii decreased phosphorylation of p53. Our findings confirm that HF exhibits pro-apoptotic effect on Kasumi-1 and is capable of modulating the various proteins important for cell survival.

No description available.

Submitted by Pós Imunologia (ppgimicsufba@gmail.com) on 2017-02-07T19:17:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_KM_final.pdf: 2714851 bytes, checksum: ae197797f7e0966b1ad54595314ce1fa (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Delba Rosa (delba@ufba.br) on 2017-02-08T16:21:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_KM_final.pdf: 2714851 bytes, checksum: ae197797f7e0966b1ad54595314ce1fa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-08T16:21:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_KM_final.pdf: 2714851 bytes, checksum: ae197797f7e0966b1ad54595314ce1fa (MD5) / CAPES / O tratamento das leucemias agudas continua sendo um grande desafio clínico devido, principalmente à heterogeneidade e alta toxicidade da terapia padrão utilizada. Dessa forma, novos alvos terapêuticos são urgentemente necessários e os anticorpos monoclonais tem surgido como uma das opções terapêuticas mais promissoras. A endoglina, também conhecida como CD105, é um receptor da superfamília do TGF-β, expresso nas células-tronco hematopoiéticas (HSC) de todos os sítios hematopoiéticos, incluindo a medula óssea, onde é descrita como um marcador para HSC de longo prazo. Apesar da expressão de CD105 ter sido relacionada a diversos tipos de tumores sólidos, principalmente devido ao papel desse receptor na angiogênese, relativamente pouco é conhecido em relação a expressão de CD105 e a sua função em neoplasias hematopoiéticas. Este estudo revelou alta expressão de endoglin na maioria dos blastos de pacientes com leucemia mieloide aguda (LMA) e leucemia linfoblástica aguda (LLA). Utilizando um modelo de xenotransplante, verificamos que as blastos CD105+ possuem uma actividade leucemogênica superior em comparação com a população de CD105-. Adicionalmente, investigamos se o bloqueio da endoglina, usando TRC105, poderia resultar em uma opção terapêutica para tratamento das leucemias agudas e descobrimos que na LMA, o TRC105 impediu o engraftment de blastos primários e inibiu a progressão da leucemia após o estabelecimento da doença, mas na LLA, o TRC105 sozinho foi ineficaz devido à uma maior secreção da forma soluvél da endoglina (sENG). No entanto, tanto na LLA quanto na LMA, TRC105 potencializou o efeito terapeutico da quimioterapia padrão e inibiu a progressão da doença, indicando que TRC105 pode representar uma nova opção terapêutica para LLA e LMA. / Successful treatment of acute leukemia remains a clinical challenge due to the toxicity and the relatively poor responses to the current standard therapy. Thus, treatments that address novel therapeutic targets are urgently needed and, for this purpose, monoclonal antibodies have been one of the most promising strategy once they are able to deliver their therapeutic effects with minimal toxicity. Endoglin, also known as CD105, is a receptor of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily that has been found expressed in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from all hematopoietic sites, including the bone marrow, in which it is described as a marker for long-term HSC. CD105 is also found to be expressed in several cancers. However, because CD105 expression has been studied mostly in the context of solid tumors and angiogenesis, relatively little is known about CD105 expression and role in hematopoietic malignancies. We identified endoglin expression on the majority of blasts from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Using a xenograft model, we find that CD105+ blasts are endowed with superior leukemogenic activity compared to the CD105- population. We test the effect of targeting this receptor using the monoclonal antibody TRC105, and find that in AML, TRC105 prevented the engraftment of primary AML blasts and inhibited leukemia progression following disease establishment, but in B-ALL, TRC105 alone was ineffective due to the shedding of soluble CD105. However, in both B-ALL and AML, TRC105 synergized with reduced intensity myeloablation to inhibit leukemogenesis, indicating that TRC105 may represent a novel therapeutic option for B-ALL and AML.

A leucemia mieloide aguda (LMA) compreende um grupo heterogêneo de doenças hematológicas caracterizadas pela expansão clonal de células mieloides imaturas que apresentam diferentes tipos de alterações genéticas e epigenéticas. O diagnóstico requer a identificação de infiltração da medula óssea e/ou sangue por blastos mieloides leucêmicos em frequência igual ou superior a 20% das células nucleadas. Os tratamentos mais frequentemente empregados para a LMA englobam o uso de quimioterapia convencional com uso de citarabina e antraciclinas, bem como agentes imunoterápicos. Embora a pesquisa da biologia da LMA tenha levado ao desenvolvimento de novos agentes direcionados a alvos específicos como as mutações em FLT3, faltam avanços para os pacientes com outras leucemias que não a leucemia promielocítica aguda (LPA). A halofuginona (HF) é um derivado halogenado de febrifugina, que possui propriedades antifibróticas, anticancerígenas, antiinflamatórias e pró-apoptóticas. No presente estudo, avaliamos a indução de apoptose pela HF nas linhagens de LMA Kasumi-1,THP-1, MV4-11, U937 e OCI-AML3, verificando a sensibilidade ao tratamento. Verificamos que a linhagem Kasumi-1 foi sensível à atividade pró-apoptótica da HF exibindo dose efetiva 50 DE50 de 125,58 ng/ml, e que as células THP-1 foram resistentes exibindo DE50 de 786,15 ng/ml. As células Kasumi-1 sofreram diminuição significativa da percentagem de células na fase S do ciclo celular, enquanto que as percentagens de células THP-1 em qualquer das fases analisadas não se alterou em comparação às amostras controles tratadas com veículo. Usando a metodologia de Western Blot, foi detectada a ativação da via das caspases com aumento da clivagem de caspase 3 após 3 horas de incubação com HF nas amostras de células Kasumi-1 e após 12 horas para as células THP-1. Bandas correspondentes a forma clivada de PARP foram identificadas em amostras de células Kasumi-1 após 12 horas de tratamento e nas amostras de células THP-1 após 3 horas de tratamento. Usando a metodologia de Proteome Profiler TM Array - HumanPhospho-Kinase Array para rastreio de proteinas fosforiladas pelo tratamento com HF, detectamos que houve modulação de 3 proteínas diferencialmente para as duas linhagens, 9 proteínas moduladas exclusivamente nas células Kasumi-1 e 6 exclusivamente nas células THP-1 . Entre as alterações mais relevantes, destacamos a diminuição da fosforilação de Stat3 e Stat5 nas células Kasumi-1 e a diminuição das formas fosforiladas de p53 nas células THP-1. Nossos achados confirmam o efeito pró-apoptótico da HF, sobretudo nas células Kasumi-1, e sugerem que este efeito envolva a diminuição das fosforilações de Stat3 e de Stat5. / Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous hematological disorder characterized by the clonal expansion of immature myeloid cells exhibiting different types of genetic and epigenetic alterations. A diagnosis is established when a patient presents >= 20% of blast in the bone marrow or in the peripheral blood. The WHO classifies AML in seven subtypes depending on the morphology, immunophenotype, genetics and clinical presentation of the cells. The most common treatment until nowadays is chemotherapy in combination with cytarabine and anthracycline and furthermore also the application of immunotherapeutic agents. Although researchers have attempted to develop new agents targeting directly specific mutations such as FLT3, further studies are necessary to find new therapeutic approaches for other leukemic subtypes aside from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Halofuginone (HF) is a halogenated derivate of Febrifugine, which is a molecule isolated from the plant Dichroa febrifuga. It has been demonstrated that Halofuginone exhibits antifibrotic, anti-cancerogenic, anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic properties. We evaluated the induction of apoptosis of HF in the AML cell lines Kasumi-1,THP-1, MV4-11, U937 e OCIAML3, we verified the sensitivity and resistance of these cell lines after treatment, performed a cell cycle analysis, analyzed the activation of proteins associated with apoptosis and the proteins associated with cell proliferation and survival. We established that the Kasumi-1 cell line was sensitive to the treatment of HF displaying a dose IC50 of 125, 58 ng/ml, while the THP-1 cell lines presented resistance displaying a dose IC50 of 786,15 ng/ml . When treated with HF, the Kasumi-1 cell line stopped in the S phase of the cell cycle displaying significant decrease of proliferation, while HF showed no significant on THP-1. Furthermore we performed a western blot and It was demonstrated that the cleavage of caspase 3 appeared after 3 hours of treatment in Kasumi-1 and after 12 hours of treatment in THP-1, while cleavage of caspase 9 appeared after 12 hours in both cell lines. PARP was cleaved in Kasumi-1 after 12 hours of HF treatment, whereas the cleavage of PARP in THP-1 remained the same after 3 hours of treatment. Performing the methodology of Proteome Profiler TM Array - HumanPhospho-Kinase Array we detected 3 proteins modulated in both cell lines, 9 proteins were modulated only in Kasumi-1 cells and 6 in THP-1 cells. Amongst the different tyrosine kinases and signaling pathways that were modulated, we observed that the phosphorylation of Stat3 and Stat5 was diminished in Kasumi-1, while THP-1 presented iii decreased phosphorylation of p53. Our findings confirm that HF exhibits pro-apoptotic effect on Kasumi-1 and is capable of modulating the various proteins important for cell survival.

Theses in the theoretical part deals with risk management and its concrete form in the banking sector. Closer it is aimed at an area of the implementation of measures against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML). The main task of AML consists in compliance with the legislative framework of the country where the bank operates. In the context of this regulation shall the bank obtain and keep information on a range of clients. The project, which is addressed in practical patr of the theses, is aimed at improving the system of collection and storage of data on clients in co-organization of J&T BANKA. The project is a computerized database application in MS Access, which allows bank staff to work efficiently with information on clients.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease characterized by the accumulation of immature nonfunctional highly proliferative hematopoietic cells in the blood, due to a blockage in myeloid differentiation at various stages. Since the success of the differentiation agent, All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), much effort has gone into trying to find agents that are able to differentiate AML cells and specifically the leukemic stem cell (LSC). CD44 is a cell surface receptor that is over-expressed on AML cells. When bound to anti-CD44 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), this differentiation block is relieved in AML cells and their proliferation is reduced. The molecular mechanisms that AML cells undergo to achieve this reversal of their apparent phenotype is not fully understood. To this end, we designed a study using quantitative phosphoproteomics approaches aimed at identifying differences in phosphorylation found on proteins involved in signaling pathways post-treatment with CD44-mAbs. The Rho family of GTPases emerged as one of the most transformed pathways following the treatment with CD44-mAbs. The P21 activated kinase 2(PAK2), a target of the Rho family of GTPases, was found to be differentially phosphorylated in AML cells post-treatment with CD44-mAbs. This protein has been found to possess a role similar to that of a switch that determines whether the cell survives or undergoes apoptosis. Beyond confirming these results by various biochemical approaches, our study aimed to determine the effect of knock down of PAK2 on AML cell proliferation and differentiation. In addition, over-expression of PAK2 mutants using plasmid cloning was also explored to fully understand how levels of PAK2 as well as the alteration of specific phospohorylation sites could alter AML cell responses to CD44-mAbs. Results from this study will be important in determining whether PAK2 could be used as a potential therapeutic target for AML once its levels are altered.