The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19 and can result in preterm birth or severe disease or death in the mother. The research objective was to quantify the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in placental tissue and evaluate whether the placenta mounts an antiviral innate immune response. Furthermore, the study seeks to understand whether the timing of a COVID-19 infection during pregnancy correlates with viral load at the time of delivery and placental pathology. I, along with the two research technicians I am working closely with, hypothesize that a SARS-CoV-2 infection modulates the placental innate immune pathway in pregnant women and result in high viral loads in the context of placental pathology. The virus may amplify or dampen the innate immune response, significantly impacting viral clearance and potentially inducing substantial injury to maternal and fetal tissue. In the study, I helped extract RNA from two tissue types in the placenta, chorionic villous tissue and chorioamniotic membranes, from pregnant women with and without COVID-19 at different trimesters. I have begun to extract RNA, synthesize complementary DNA (cDNA), and perform quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to quantify the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 per mg of tissue. In SARS-CoV-2 positive samples, I have also begun to quantify the relative gene expression of ifnb, mxa, ifit1, and il6, which will allow my team and I to evaluate the innate immune response. Our preliminary results indicate a low, but significant frequency of SARS-CoV-2 in placental tissues with rare high viral loads associated with a significant IL-6 response. I will help analyze our data through visual graphs and statistical analysis once the data is uploaded to the lab’s database. This project will not only improve our understanding of pregnancy pathologies, but also make significant strides in what is known about SARS-CoV-2’s impact on pregnancy health.

Sleep problems in adolescents are commonly associated with bedtime media use due to subsequent psychological and cognitive arousal. The purpose of Sleepazoid is to better understand the impact of mind-body interventions on mitigating the effects of media use on sleep in adolescents. Participants virtually attended assessment visits and played pre-selected mobile video games while we conducted arousal level measurements during varied time intervals. We conducted assessment visits at baseline and follow-up to establish arousal levels through Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) at rest, and during the gameplay and recovery phases. The Actiheart device measures HRV through heart rhythms and variability in time between each individual heartbeat while the Empatica E4 Wristband measures EDA through the degree to which skin conducts electricity. We monitored the participants during the various phases and tracked their activity for media-induced arousal task compliance. After the remote assessment visit, participants continued to track media use, sleep, and their arousal responses on designated study nights. The pandemic necessitated major protocol changes such as mailing the measurement devices, remotely downloading games, and conducting Microsoft Teams sessions in comparison to the original in-person design. This created barriers such as unstable internet connection and improper camera positioning which hindered our ability to obtain reliable data during assessment tracking. Despite the challenges of implementing virtual assessments, it is possible to transition a psychophysiological experimental protocol to remote administration by revising participant instructions, introducing instructional videos for visual reference, and ensuring a more robust protocol with closer collaboration with the participants. Ultimately, state arousal levels are predicted to return more quickly to baseline in the mind-body intervention group (e.g: bedtime yoga, breathing exercises) during follow-up assessments, during and after ceasing evening media use, and at bed time in comparison to the control group.

Midfacial Hypoplasia (MFH) is a disorder marked by an underdevelopment of the upper jaw, cheekbones, and eye sockets as well as changes in the upper airway, which can cause chewing and breathing difficulties. Severe cases are often treated with invasive surgery, making it beneficial to investigate the ramifications of MFH further in order to treat this disorder more easily and effectively. MFH is commonly found in pigs and resembles human instances, enabling us to study this disorder more closely using a novel pig model. An abnormal tissue bulge has been found in the upper airway of affected pigs. This project seeks to identify the tissue layers within this bulge and to determine which tissue types are primarily causing the bulge by analyzing their thicknesses. Sections encompassing this bulging area collected from 19 pigs (6 normal, 13 affected) were paraffin-embedded and cut sagittally. The slides were examined and captured under a light microscope, then the widths of each layer were measured via ImageJ software. Three layers present in all samples have been identified as follows: submucosal (with lymph nodules and salivary glands), muscle, and loose connective tissue. The differences between normal and hypoplastic pigs will be compared and statistically analyzed using t-tests. We expect that there would be significant differences in tissue layer thickness and composition. The findings of this project would provide useful insight into the consequences of MFH, and therefore help develop new treatment methods for MFH in humans.

The lifetime prevalence of PTSD is approximately 6.8% among adults in the United States, with an estimated 36.6% experiencing serious impairment. While increased reactivity to trauma stimuli, or hyperarousal, is heavily researched and well-understood, differences in the appraisal of neutral stimuli are minimally studied. Hostile Assessment Bias (HAB) is a measure of the extent to which a person views others’ actions as hostile or threatening towards them. People with higher levels of Hostile Assessment Bias may be at greater risk of decreased functionality and increased emotional distress due to their disproportionately negative reaction to neutral stimuli. Utilizing one of our existing studies which investigate the use of Prazosin, an alpha-1 adrenergic receptor antagonist, in treating subjective symptoms and functional distress in veterans diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we investigated the relationship between PTSD severity and increased Hostile Assessment Bias while a participant is not receiving treatment for PTSD, examine the role trauma type and substance abuse play in hostile cognition, and evaluate functional impairment in veterans with both PTSD and increased HAB.We also evaluated if medication (prazosin) improves HAB and if the improvement is associated with biomarkers of noradrenergic signaling. With a positive relationship established and prazosin effectively normalizing hostile assessment patterns, it could provide a new way to target functionally impairing symptoms. We expect this research to have applications in understanding and preventing police brutality, given police officers’ repeated exposure to trauma. The next steps would include participating in the design of a clinical trial based on first responders, including the police.

Midfacial hypoplasia (MFH) is a disorder characterized by underdevelopment of the upper jaw, nose, and cheek bones which can impede feeding and breathing. The causes of MFH are not yet fully understood, but a novel pig model suggests that the posterior nasal septal cartilage is ossified, or converted to bone, prematurely in pigs with MFH. Thus, we predict that there is an increase in the amount of ossified septum in pigs with MFH. To test the hypothesis that pigs with MFH have increased septal ossification, we measured the area of the entire septum and the fraction occupied by bone on CT scans taken from 20 pigs with MFH and 10 normal pigs ages 3-10 months using ImageJ. All measurements were standardized for size by dividing by skull length. We compared MFH and normal pigs with t-tests using excel. As predicted, the fraction of ossified septum was greater in MFH pigs (0.39 ± 0.08) than normal pigs (0.25 ± 0.06, p<0.0001). The nasal septal cartilage is thought to be the primary driver of facial growth. A decrease in septal cartilage due to increased ossification may hamper normal growth and lead to MFH. Premature ossification of the nasal septal cartilage may also be a cause of MFH in humans and this finding could be used to develop better treatments for this disorder.