No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Obesity is associated with a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation that contributes to the development of insulin resistance. Exercise is known to improve insulin resistance, and emerging evidence suggests that exercise also reduces adipose tissue inflammation. However, the relationship between exercise and inflammation has not been separated from the confounding effect of weight loss. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine whether high-intensity interval training (HIT) improves insulin sensitivity in obese mice independent of weight loss and 2) assess the effect of exercise on the relationship between adipose tissue inflammation and insulin sensitivity.</p> <p>C57BL/6 mice were assigned to one of three groups: a control, chow diet (Chow), 12 weeks of high-fat diet with no exercise (HFD Sed), or 6 weeks of high-fat diet feeding followed by an additional 6 weeks of HIT (HFD Ex). In HFD-induced obese mice, HIT had no effect on body mass, epididymal fat mass, adiposity, or adipocyte size. HIT also did not alter adipose tissue inflammation, macrophage infiltration, or adipose tissue macrophage polarization/inflammation. Nevertheless, when compared to HFD Sed mice, HIT resulted in lower fasting insulin levels and improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity.</p> <p>In conclusion, these finding demonstrate that HIT improves whole-body insulin sensitivity and glucose homeostasis independent of changes in body mass or adipose tissue inflammation. The benefits of exercise in obese individuals are obvious; however, the mechanisms underlying the improvements in insulin sensitivity observed following chronic, HIT remain to be elucidated.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>GM2 gangliosidoses encompass a group of chronic neurodegenerative disorders characterized by metabolic defects in ganglioside catabolism and marked intralysosomal accumulation of GM2 in central nervous system (CNS)-resident neurons. Included in this group are Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff disease. Human cases of Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff disease present with devastating neurological deterioration; however, murine models display drastically divergent phenotypes. Tay-Sachs mice avoid pathology via a sialidase-mediated bypass of β-hexosaminidase A (HEXA) deficiency, though the precise mechanism of avoidance is not fully elucidated. The following work aimed to: i) determine if the murine sialidase-mediated bypass could be potentiated in human cells, and ii) help clarify the mechanism of disease avoidance in Tay-Sachs animals.</p> <p>Adenoviral overexpression of truncated CCAAT displacement protein (CDP^831-1505) in human Tay-Sachs neuroglia augmented neuraminidase 1/lysosomal sialidase (NEU1) protein levels, which reduced intralysosomal GM2 accumulations. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed binding of CDP^831-1505 to the human <em>NEU1</em> promoter in Tay-Sachs neuroglia. These results provide mechanistic and functional evidence supporting therapeutic exploitation of <em>NEU1</em> for Tay-Sachs disease.</p> <p>Comparison of immunological responses of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) to pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or GM2 demonstrated that Sandhoff macrophages secrete increased TNF and reduced IL-10 following lipopolysaccharide stimulation. GM2 treatment failed to stimulate an immune response. Such behaviour occurred in the absence of clearly observable intralysosomal ganglioside accumulations. Altered LAMP2 protein size, potentially due to aberrant glycosylation, is hypothesized to disrupt autophagosomal/lysosomal fusion. Subsequent autophagosomal accumulation could result in inherent macrophage hypersensitivity and immunologic irritability. Downstream interleukin-10 (IL-10)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3) axis, mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), and glycogen synthase kinase 3-beta (GSK3β) signaling pathways were affected in Sandhoff BMDMs. These data indicate inherent differences in immunological responses of BMDMs from Sandhoff mice, presumably related to their β-hexosaminidase B (HEXB) deficiency.</p> <p>Data presented here provides evidence to suggest a paradigm shift in the neurodegenerative model of Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff Diseases towards one that places immune cells as an initiating factor for widespread neuroinflammation.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>Crohn’s Disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by an overzealous immune response to a microbial trigger in genetically susceptible individuals. Although this microbial trigger is unknown, <em>Escherichia coli</em> with adherent and invasive properties (Adherent-Invasive <em>Escherichia coli</em>, AIEC) is preferentially enriched in a proportion of Crohn’s Disease patients. AIEC can adhere to and invade intestinal epithelial cells and replicate intracellularly within epithelial cells and macrophages <em>in vitro</em>. One important colonization factor expressed by AIEC is the type 1 fimbrial adhesin protein FimH. FimH mediates colonization of CEABAC10 transgenic mice and can bind several host cell receptors including the macrophage receptor CD48 <em>in vitro</em> indicating a potential role for FimH in macrophage interaction. However, it was not known whether FimH contributed to phagocytosis of AIEC or colonization of wild-type mice. Here we show that FimH enhances early intracellular AIEC levels <em>in vitro</em> and colonization <em>in vivo</em>. We found that deletion of <em>fimH</em> may reduce intracellular AIEC burden at 2 hours post-infection and that this effect was modulated by bacteria opsonisation. Using a competitive index assay, we show that a Δ<em>fimH</em> mutant is unable to chronically colonize CD-1 mice at the same levels as the parental strain. Our results demonstrate that FimH is an important AIEC colonization factor and may increase interaction with macrophages. Identifying factors such as FimH which contribute to colonization and persistence will further our understanding of AIEC survival strategies within the host. Development of therapeutics targeting FimH may provide a means to reduce harmful bacteria overgrowth particularly after surgical intervention.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

The HIV protein, Vpr, is a multifunctional accessory protein critical for efficient viral infection of target CD4+ T cells and macrophages. Vpr is incorporated into virus particles and functions to transport the preintegration complex into the nucleus where the process of viral integration into the host genome is completed. This action is particularly important in macrophages, which as a result of their terminal differentiation and non-proliferative status, would be otherwise more refractory to HIV infection. Vpr has several other critical functions including activation of HIV-1 LTR transcription, cell-cycle arrest due to DCAF-1 binding, and both direct and indirect contributions to T-cell dysfunction. The interactions of Vpr with molecular pathways in the context of macrophages, on the other hand, support accumulation of a persistent reservoir of HIV infection in cells of the myeloid lineage. The role of Vpr in the virus life cycle, as well as its effects on immune cells, appears to play an important role in the immune pathogenesis of AIDS and the development of HIV induced end-organ disease. In view of the pivotal functions of Vpr in virus infection, replication, and persistence of infection, this protein represents an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. Numerous studies have reported that Vpr alters NF-kappa B signaling in various cells, however, the findings have so far been largely conflicting with reports both stimulatory and inhibitory effects of Vpr. Our aim was to investigate the role of Vpr signaling in myeloid cells and address discrepancies that have been reported in the field. Our results show that Vpr expressed intracellularly is inhibitory to NF-kappa B, while extracelluar Vpr may have some stimulatory effects. Consistent with this notion, we report that Vpr has inhibitory effects that are specific to the TNF-alpha pathway, but not the LPS pathway, suggesting that multiple targets of Vpr may exist for NF-kappa B regulation. Further, we identify VprBP as one possible cellular component of Vpr's regulation of I-kappa B-alpha in response to TNF-alpha stimulation. We did not identify such a role for HSP27, which instead seems to inhibit Vpr functions. Finally, our findings suggest that NF-kappa B regulation by Vpr is further changed by the presence of other HIV-1 components within the cells, as U1 cells lacking Vpr were unexpectedly less responsive to TNF-alpha than those cells that had normal Vpr expression levels. This data suggests that Vpr may serve an important role in vivo by selectively inhibiting immune activation while stimulating NF-kappa B mediated viral production in HIV-1 infected T-cells and myeloid cells. M-CSF is a cytokine that promotes monocyte differentiation and survival. When over-expressed, M-CSF contributes to pathology in a wide variety of diseases including osteoporosis, obesity, certain human cancers, and in HIV-1 infection, particularly with respect to monocyte/macrophage infection and the development of HIV-1. In this study, our aim is to expand on the current knowledge of M-CSF regulation by NF-kappa B, a prominent transcription factor during inflammation and HIV-1 infection. Our results suggest that TNF-alpha promotes M-CSF secretion in macrophages and activates the -1310/+48 bp M-CSF promoter in Mono-Mac 1 cells. Inhibitors of the NF-kappa B pathway, diminish this response. We identified four putative NF-kappa B and four C/EBP-beta binding sites within the M-CSF promoter. Our findings using M-CSF promoter constructs mutated at individual NF-kappa B locations suggest these sites are redundant with respect to M-CSF promoter regulation. TNF-alpha treatment promoted NF-kappa B p65 binding to the M-CSF promoter in PMA treated U937 cells chronically infected with HIV-1 (U1 cells), but not in PMA treated uninfected U937 cells, suggesting that the presence of HIV-1 increases the NF-kappa B response. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that NF-kappa B induces M-CSF expression on a promoter level via multiple functional NF-kappa B binding sites and that this pathway is likely relevant in HIV-1 infection of macrophages. The oncogenic potential of M-CSF receptor has been has been suggested over thirty years ago, however, few current studies have focused on the role of the receptor in AML. In a clinical trial for AML, Sunitinib was found to hold some efficacy for treating the disease. The authors hypothesized that the primary therapeutic target of Sunitinib in AML is FLT3 kinase. However, FLT3 inhibition alone has not been shown to recapitulate all the effects of Sunitinib in vitro and, furthermore, the drug is also known to have cross reactivity to other potential oncogenic receptors. In this study, we treated three myeloid cell lines, Mono-Mac 1, THP-1 and U937 with Sunitinib and a proprietary cFMS inhibitor from Johnson and Johnson to test the anti-cancer effect in of such treatment. We observed that only Mono-Mac 1 cells had diminished proliferation in vitro. Mono-Mac 1 cells had inhibited ERK as a result of cFMS inhibition and showed a dose dependent increase in cFMS expression with both Sunitinib and J&J cFMS-1 treatment. Our results suggest potential for cFMS as an important target of Sunitinib or other similar drugs AML, either independently or in combination with other targets. Alternatively, cFMS may be a marker for differentiation of AML and may be linked with responsiveness to certain therapeutics. In both cases, the future study of cFMS may produce more targeted therapeutic approaches and may be a suitable tool for the development of personalized medicine for AML. / Biomedical Neuroscience

Excessive tissue fibrosis in various lung diseases contributes to decline in lung function and subsequent morbidity and mortality. Mechanisms involve complex networks of molecules such as cytokines that are not clearly worked out in conditions such as Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Furthermore, pulmonary virus infection has been linked to exacerbations of IPF. Previous studies have demonstrated that transient pulmonary over-expression of Oncostatin M (OSM) leads to increased extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation, Th2-skewed cytokines and Arg1+ M2-like macrophage accumulation in mouse models. OSM can also robustly induce interleukin-33 (IL-33), an IL1 family cytokine or alarmin, both in vivo and in vitro mouse lung systems. Since others have shown that soluble IL-33 exacerbates bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis in mouse models and is associated with Th2-type lung diseases, IL-33 may mediate OSM effects on ECM and Arg1+ macrophage-like cell accumulation. The main hypothesis in this thesis is that OSM can induce IL-33 expression and Arg1+ cells, that OSM can potentiate IL-33 release from virally-infected epithelial cells, and that OSM can prime lungs to subsequent influenza infection and exacerbate pathology. Results demonstrated that OSM induced robust up-regulation of pulmonary IL-33 and Arg1 mRNA and protein expression in vivo, in comparison to another gp130 cytokine, IL-6. However, IL-6 was required for OSM-induced arginase-1 expression in vivo, but not IL-33 expression in vivo. OSM-induced Arg1 expression was also dependent upon IL-33 presence as demonstrated in IL-33-/- animals. This finding implicates a role for both IL-33 and IL-6 in mediating OSM-induced Arg1+ macrophage-like cell accumulation within the lung. Additionally, results showed that a respiratory Influenza A virus infection in vivo alone induced a time-dependent increase in OSM and IL-33 (Day 4), however reduced IL-33 by 7-days post-infection. Influenza infection in AdOSM-primed mice and led to decreased IL-33 expression and eosinophilic infiltration within the lung 5-days post-influenza infection. Collectively, these results demonstrate that OSM can drive Th2-associated pathology correlated to increased IL-33 and Arg1 expression. Contrary to expectations, influenza A virus infection led to a reduction in OSM-induced Th2-phenotype in vivo. Further exploration into the OSM-IL-33 pathway will provide insight into innate immune mechanisms of lung inflammation, virus infection and control of ECM accumulation. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)