Donna Huber, Author at Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases

Signaling pathways involved in environmental sensing in Trypanosoma cruzi

Donna Huber on October 9, 2020

Trypanosoma cruzi is a unicellular parasite and the etiologic agent of Chagas disease. The parasite has a digenetic life cycle alternating between mammalian and insect hosts, where it faces a variety of environmental conditions to which it must adapt in order to survive. The adaptation to these changes is mediated by signaling pathways that coordinate …

Glycomics, Glycoproteomics and Glycogenomics: an Inter-Taxa Evolutionary Perspective

Donna Huber on September 29, 2020

Glycosylation is a highly diverse set of co- and post-translational modification of proteins. For mammalian glycoproteins, glycosylation is often site-, tissue- and species-specific, and diversified by microheterogeneity. Multitudinous biochemical, cellular, physiological and organismic effects of their glycans have been revealed, either intrinsic to the carrier proteins or mediated by endogenous reader proteins with carbohydrate recognition …

Dennis Kyle Interviewed by CBS News

Donna Huber on September 28, 2020

Dennis Kyle, director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and GRA Eminent Scholar Antiparasitic Drug Discovery, appeared on CBS News to discuss Naegleri Fowleri, an amoeba that is found in warm freshwater that causes a rare, but often fatal, infection in the brain.

Assessing the Beneficial Effects of the Immunomodulatory Glycan LNFPIII on Gut Microbiota and Health in a Mouse Model of Gulf War Illness

Donna Huber on September 27, 2020

The microbiota's influence on host (patho) physiology has gained interest in the context of Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic disorder featuring dysregulation of the gut-brain-immune axis. This study examined short- and long-term effects of GWI-related chemicals on gut health and fecal microbiota and the potential benefits of Lacto-N-fucopentaose-III (LNFPIII) treatment in a GWI model. …

Discovery of repurposing drug candidates for the treatment of diseases caused by pathogenic free-living amoebae

Donna Huber on September 24, 2020

Diseases caused by pathogenic free-living amoebae include primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (Naegleria fowleri), granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (Acanthamoeba spp.), Acanthamoeba keratitis, and Balamuthia amoebic encephalitis (Balamuthia mandrillaris). Each of these are difficult to treat and have high morbidity and mortality rates due to lack of effective therapeutics. Since repurposing drugs is an ideal strategy for orphan diseases, …

Resistance to some, but not other dimeric lindenane sesquiterpenoid esters is mediated by mutations in a Plasmodium falciparum esterase

Donna Huber on September 24, 2020

Unique lindenane sesquiterpenoid dimers from Chloranthecae spp. were recently identified with promising in vitro antiplasmodial activity and potentially novel mechanisms of action. To gain mechanistic insights to this new class of natural products, in vitro selection of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to the most active antiplasmodial compound, chlorajaponilide C, was explored. In all selected resistant clones, …

Dennis Kyle: Finding Solutions for Deadly Diseases

Donna Huber on September 21, 2020

Dennis Kyle leads the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Diseases, and his endowment enables him to run a 16-person lab of student researchers, postdocs, and research scientists fighting a host of parasitic diseases around the world. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA) GRA Endowment helps researchers save lives through drug discovery The Amoeba Summit in …

Trainee Spotlight: Melissa Sleda

Donna Huber on September 16, 2020

Melissa Sleda, a Ph.D. trainee is Silvia Moreno’s laboratory, is in her third year at UGA. She is originally from Sandusky, Michigan and attended Lawrence Technological University where she majored in Molecular and Cell Biology with a minor in Chemistry. At UGA, she has held positions as the Secretary for the Cell Bio Grad …

Comparative sequences of the Wolbachia genomes of drug-sensitive and resistant isolates of Dirofilaria immitis

Donna Huber on September 15, 2020

The recent identification of isolates of D. immitis with confirmed resistance to the macrocyclic lactone preventatives presents an opportunity for comparative genomic studies using these isolates, and examining the genetic diversity within and between them. We studied the genomes of Wolbachia endosymbionts of five isolates of D. immitis maintained at the University of Georgia. Missouri and Georgia-2 are maintained as drug …

Monoclonal Antibodies Generated against Glycoconjugates Recognize Chemical Linkers

Donna Huber on September 15, 2020

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that recognize glycans are useful tools to assess carbohydrates' structure and function. We sought to produce IgG mAbs to the human milk oligosaccharide (HMO), lacto-N-fucopentaose III (LNFPIII). LNFPIII contains the Lewisx antigen, which is found on the surface of schistosome parasites. mAbs binding the Lewisx antigen are well-reported in the literature, but mAbs recognizing …

Author: Donna Huber