The technology is based on a piece of synthetic DNA – an “aptamer” –  which targets and binds with a human protein called nucleolin. Early tests show that this aptamer may stop viruses, including novel coronavirus, from “hijacking” nucleolin to replicate inside the body.  

UofL is seeking to fast-track development, including application to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to start treating patients seriously affected with COVID-19.  

The aptamer was discovered by UofL’s Paula Bates, John Trent and Don Miller, who have applied it in a variety of ways, most notably as a potential therapeutic drug against multiple types of cancer. With the current global pandemic of coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes, Bates partnered with fellow researcher Kenneth Palmer to apply the technology once again.

“Like many scientists, as soon as I heard about the new coronavirus, I wanted to help and started to think about how my area of research might intersect with coronavirus research efforts,” said Bates, a professor of medicine. “I am fortunate to be at UofL, which is one of the few places in the country where we have the facilities to do experiments using the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

Palmer, director of UofL’s Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CPM), conducted proof-of-concept experiments showing the aptamer was effective against the virus at doses previous research has shown to be safe in patients. Palmer also is working on another potential COVID-19 treatment, Q-Griffithsin, developed at UofL in partnership with the National Cancer Institute and the University of Pittsburgh. 

The CPM houses UofL’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, one of only 12 regional and two national biocontainment labs in the United States and the only one in Kentucky. Established with support from the NIH to conduct research with infectious agents, the lab includes Biosafety Level 3 facilities built to the most exacting federal safety and security standards. The stringently secure facilities protect researchers and the public from exposure to the pathogens being investigated. 

UofL is providing financial support for COVID-19 research, but additional funds are needed to continue the work over time. Donations specifically for the research .

UofL’s center specifically will receive $8.7 million as part of the national effort. 

Under the direction of Rose Marie Robertson, MD, the association’s deputy chief science and medical officer, and Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD, the Smith and Lucille Gibson Chair in Medicine at UofL, the Center examines the short- and long-term cardiovascular effects of tobacco products and the overall toxicity of tobacco products and their constituents.

The AHA Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center received $20 million in its initial funding in 2013 through this same interagency partnership between the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration as the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products began its investment in the Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science. The AHA Center is a multi-institutional network focused on creating a broad scientific base to inform the FDA’s regulation of tobacco product manufacturing, distribution and marketing.

The renewal grant awards were based on the scientific and technical merit of the applicant organizations. The AHA Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center’s quality of research and productivity in its first five years created a strong foundation for future research and led to the renewed funding.

“We are honored to continue to be a part of this important national movement to protect the public health from the tragic consequences of tobacco product use that takes the lives of more than 480,000 Americans each year,” Robertson said. “In light of the fast-paced shifts in the landscape of new tobacco products, an accelerating trend of the use of these products by our nation’s children and an emerging generation of dual or poly-tobacco product users, the need for a better understanding of the health effects of these novel products has become even more imperative.”

During the past five years, more than 50 investigators from 12 institutions throughout the nation have collaborated on 82 publications from the center that examined topics such as the reasons behind the growing prevalence of adults and young adults who are vaping, the toxicity of flavoring chemicals used in e-cigarettes and the preliminary indicators of the growing use of poly-use, or the practice of using multiple tobacco products at the same time.

To date, researchers have found the use of tobacco products – such as traditional cigarettes, hookahs, smokeless tobacco, electronic cigarettes and e-hookahs – leads to a decrease in immune cells and prevents repair of damaged endothelial cells, increasing the risk of contracting secondary infections. Additionally, use of electronic hookahs can increase the risk of blood clots.

“Dr. Bhatnagar and his colleagues continue to demonstrate their leadership in the field of environmental cardiology, which obviously includes the use of tobacco,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi, PhD. “This renewal demonstrates the significance of the research being conducted and the potential impact it has on anyone who uses tobacco or similar products. 

“Hopefully it will impact those who are considering using tobacco both by providing information regarding health effects that can be used in health risk warnings, and also by providing FDA data regarding the toxicity of individual constituents within tobacco-derived aerosols.”

Research at the nine institutions – Boston University, Johns Hopkins University,  New York University, University of Louisville, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Wake Forest University, Stanford University, University of Iowa and National Jewish Hospital – participating in the AHA Center over the next five years will focus on understanding the toxic potential of combustible and newer forms of tobacco products, identifying the biological markers of cardiovascular injury caused by components of tobacco products and assessing the risk of heart disease for different racial and ethnic groups of people from the use of newer tobacco products.

“Identifying the biomarkers of cardiovascular injury caused by tobacco use can lead to improved standards for testing of novel tobacco products and lead to policies regulating the level of harmful chemicals present in tobacco products, thus aiming to reduce the overall burden of cardiovascular injury in the general population,” Bhatnagar said.

The researchers hope to identify specific substances from tobacco products and in their smoke or aerosols that contribute to heart disease. This includes flavoring chemicals used in electronic nicotine delivery systems such as  e-cigarettes, e-hookahs, JUUL and others, along with chemical solvents used in such products.

The center also has responsibility for training the next generation of tobacco regulatory scientists who will continue research into tobacco and its health effects. To this end, 23 people have been trained as fellows in tobacco regulatory science and 11 fellowship projects have been funded over the first 5 years. The center has also funded 12 short-term projects to study emerging topics of interest to tobacco regulation.

The renewed center has been designed to retain this flexibility to respond to FDA’s research needs in a shifting landscape of tobacco use through rapid-response research funding and independent fellowship grants that can enhance the center’s research database alongside its flagship projects.

Here are some highlights from Monday’s press conference: 

“More than 90 million adults in the United States are obese and more than 30 million adults suffer from diabetes. Our faculty, staff and students work every day to understand the causes and impacts of both so that we can develop the next generation of preventions, cures and treatments,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi, PhD. “This group of dynamic researchers now is looking at how our environment, in the broadest sense of the word, plays a role. This understanding has the potential to change not just people in Louisville, but literally the world. This is some of what makes UofL a great place to learn, work and invest.”

Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD, director of the UofL Diabetes and Obesity Center and the recently created Envirome Institute, which houses the Diabetes and Obesity Center, earned a competitive renewal grant that provides funding for essential core programs for all researchers in the center. Additionally, the center grant helps set the director of the research with an emphasis on metabolic and inflammatory mechanisms leading to diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance; stem cell biology; and environmental determinants of cardiometabolic disease. This marks the second successful five-year renewal that Bhatnagar has earned.

Petra Haberzettl, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, and Bradford Hill, PhD, associate professor of medicine, received funding to examine the effects of air pollution on stem cell health.

Jason Hellman, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, received funding to explore how exercise can reduce inflammation. His previous work has shown previously uncovered new mechanisms of sustained inflammation in atherosclerotic lesions in diet-induced obesity.

Matt Nystoriak, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, received support to study how the molecule carnosine can be activated in protecting humans against airborne particulate matter.

Timothy O’Toole, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, earned a competitive renewal grant to gain a better understanding of how diabetic conditions and pollutant exposure affects small pieces of genetic materials that line blood vessels.

They can head on over to Louisville Slugger Field, 401 E. Main St and see the Louisville Bats take on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs of Allentown, Penn., on MARVEL Super Hero Night No. 2. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the game starts at 6:30 p.m.

The event will support the at the Brown Cancer Center, said Elea Fox, executive director of development for the cancer center. “This is a great opportunity for baseball fans to support the region’s only comprehensive cancer center,” Fox said. “It gives supporters the chance to take take part in a fun evening while giving back to the Brown Cancer Center.”

In addition to fund-raising, representatives from the M. Krista Loyd Resource Center and the will be at the game providing cancer screenings and educational materials. Located on the first floor of the Brown Cancer Center, 529 S. Jackson St., the center is named for a former patient and her family who generously support the programs and services offered to the patients and to the community.

From coffee to counseling, the resource center provides a peaceful environment for cancer patients to learn, relax and heal emotionally. The goal of the M. Krista Loyd Resource Center is to help connect patients and family members with the services that go beyond medical treatment to achieve the best possible experience.

łÉČËÖ±˛Ąal materials, videos and Internet access to cancer-related websites are offered to patients, and the staff provides information patients need to cope with their condition and its treatment. Patients are connected with support groups and other free services that can help in the healing process.

About Louisville Bats’ MARVEL Super Hero Night No. 2

Coming off the success of MARVEL Super Hero Night No. 1 on June 23, the second MARVEL Super Hero Night on Aug. 11 will feature the Hulk with giveaways and promotions. Fans should be on the lookout for character meet-and-greet opportunities, special super hero-themed jerseys worn by the players and additional super hero merchandise, sights and sounds. Plus, the first 2,000 fans through the gates will receive a special edition MARVEL Hulk bobblehead.

An added feature will come the following week: The hero-themed jerseys worn by players will be auctioned off online, also benefitting the resource center.

A pre-game party with band will open the evening, and Raymond Loyd – whose family donated funding to create the M. Krista Loyd Resource Center – will throw out the first pitch. He will be joined on the field with other members of the Loyd family, including Krista’s children.

Cancer heroes and survivors will be honored throughout the evening, and resource center staff will be on hand with cancer awareness and education materials. An added feature will come the following week: The hero-themed jerseys worn by players will be auctioned off online, also benefitting the resource center. For details and ticket options, go to the Louisville Bats’ .

Check out video from the press event: 

Today, UofL announced a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help fund the Green Heart project. The university also announced a $2 million grant from The Nature Conservancy to support the endeavor.

The Green Heart study will look at the connections between a green environment and human health. The institute will study air quality, innovative landscape design, the qualities of a friendly, healthy neighborhood and human health.

“The Green Heart project is the epitome of collaboration,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi, PhD. “Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar and his team are bringing together people from not only all of the university, but throughout Louisville and beyond to create a new paradigm for population research that truly has international implications.

“His creative thinking is leading to innovative public-private partnerships that eventually will lead to healthier communities.”

“People appreciate trees and they’re good and they’re aesthetically pleasing, but whether they actually have specific quantifiable health-promoting effects by removing pollutants from air has never been rigorously tested,” said Bhatnagar, director of the Envirome Institute and the Smith and Lucille Gibson Chair in Medicine. “Through the Green Heart project, we are changing that.”

More than half the world’s population resides in urban areas, which have higher than average levels of air pollution. Air pollution is a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease and is linked to 7 million premature deaths worldwide annually, 200,000 in the United States alone.

Bhatnagar and his team will include 16 low-vegetation neighborhood clusters in Louisville to examine the impact of urban greenery on their health. The researchers are recruiting 700 community participants within these 16 clusters for the study. The team will examine blood, urine and hair samples to assess cardiovascular health.

In eight of the clusters, the team and their partners will plant as many as 8,000 native trees of all sizes. Additionally, they will plant shrubbery and grasses to further optimize the ability to filter pollutants from the air.

Two years later, the researchers again will collect samples from the volunteers and analyze the differences. They also will compare the results to those from the participants in the eight neighborhood clusters that did not live in the areas that had the plantings.

“We believe that the greening of the neighborhoods will positively impact not only the air quality, but also the health of the people who live in those areas,” Bhatnagar said. “If we are correct, we may be able to create new strategies for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

“The results of this project also will provide new insights into the effects of urban vegetation on community environment. These findings will be relevant to the development of new public health polices and the optimization of ongoing planting efforts in cities around the world to enhance public health.

The Green Heart Project is a collaborative initiative of the University of Louisville with Washington University in St. Louis; Cornell University, The Nature Conservancy, Hyphae Design Laboratory, the United States Forest Service and other partners. The grant from the National Institutes supports health evaluation of community participants, whereas the greening efforts are supported by the grant from The Nature Conservancy.

Check out highlights from today’s announcement: 

Bolli is director of UofL’s Institute of Molecular Cardiology and serves as scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute at UofL. He is also a professor and chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the School of Medicine.

The Maestro Award recognizes achievements in the field of cardiology and medicine, leadership in the regional and national cardiology community, charity work, mentorship and vigilant care of the sick.

In the past year, Bolli received one the largest grants ever for medical research at the University of Louisville, saw the impact factor jump on a major medical journal he edits, and led the Stem Cell Summit at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Anaheim, Calif.

The $13.8 million grant Bolli and his UofL team received from the National Institutes of Health is to study a promising new type of adult cardiac stem cell that has the potential to treat heart failure.

Bolli’s research focus has been on how to repair the heart and cure heart failure using a patient’s own stem cells. It is an approach that could revolutionize the treatment of heart disease.

He also serves as editor of the journal Circulation Research, which achieved its highest-ever “impact factor,” a measure of its importance in the medical field, last year. Circulation Research is an official journal of the American Heart Association and is considered the world’s leading journal on basic and translational research in cardiovascular medicine.

Bolli will be recognized and presented with the Maestro Award on stage at the Kentucky chapter’s annual meeting at the Lexington Center in Lexington, on Oct. 13, 2018.

A national talk the following year will be named in his honor.

“This is the most advanced piece of arteriographic equipment in the world at the moment,” said Douglas Coldwell, MD, PhD, director of vascular and interventional radiology and interventional oncology at UofL Hospital and a professor of radiology and bioengineering at the UofL School of Medicine. “And we are the only ones to have it in this area. This really is a big deal.”

The Discovery IGS 740 provides exceptionally detailed, 3-D images in real time of patient anatomy, which Coldwell said is invaluable in trauma cases.  Doctors can accurately determine the site of bleeding and close it off, saving lives.

He said Discovery’s laser-guided tools give doctors the ability to be much more precise in treatment.

“With this new system, we’ve taken a leap forward in patient care in this community and region,” Coldwell said.

With its unique mobile platform, the Discovery has the power and capability of traditional fixed imaging units, but rides on the floor, moving around the patient as necessary, free of interference from fixed floor or ceiling structures. At the touch of a button on bedside controls, doctors can use its laser guidance mechanism to precisely position it just about anywhere for the best possible images of parts of the anatomy. It can then be moved aside so medical professionals can work efficiently and have unobstructed access to patients.

Its exceptionally high-quality images allow doctors to perform delicate procedures such as blood vessel interventions with accuracy and confidence, Coldwell said.

“It allows us to get in, treat a patient and do it without complications, and have a better patient outcome,” he said. Even arteries can be looked at in 3-D, allowing doctors to “plan exactly where we’re going to go in treatments,” such as for stent and angioplasty.

Its large digital detector also gives doctors the ability to see more in a single exam with fewer X-ray images, and fewer injections of contrast dye, and carries just a fraction of radiation of traditional units, making it much safer for patients and staff.

“Everyone is concerned about radiation,” he said. “With this equipment, we get 1/10^th to 1/100^th of the radiation of other units.”

The Discovery unit’s precision makes it perfect for use in patients at the UofL Brown Cancer Center.

“It allows for amazingly targeted radiation,” Coldwell said.

Tumors can be treated by injecting radioactive beads the size of talcum powder particles into them via arteries. “This requires precise placement, which we can do with the Discovery system,” Coldwell said. “A very high dose of radiation can be given to the tumor, while sparing the surrounding tissues. That means fewer side effects for patients.”

The equipment has its own dedicated room at the hospital. Mike Goode, the hospital’s director of imaging and neurodiagnostic services, said installation was finished last month at a cost of around $2 million, including precision leveling of seamless floors to hold the sensitive, heavy equipment, which took nearly a month.

Doctors have been seeing patients with the system for a few weeks, and the difference is profound, Coldwell said.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” he said. “It’s a game-changer.”

The study by Lorrel Brown, MD, an assistant professor at the UofL School of Medicine and physician director for resuscitation at UofL Hospital, is titled “CPR instruction in U.S. high schools: What is the state in the nation?”

In the U.S., 350,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year. Only 30 percent get bystander CPR, which affects survival, Brown said. Only 11 percent of those 350,000 survive.

“If we improve survival by just 1 percent, that’s 3,500 more people who will live,” Brown said.

The American Heart Association wants to double the percentage of cardiac arrest victims who receive bystander CPR by 2020, and CPR training in high schools has been endorsed by a variety of organizations. Thirty-nine states have passed laws requiring the training before graduation, including Kentucky, which passed a law last year. Similar laws in the remaining 11 states are being considered.

For the study, Brown examined the state laws and characterized them based on stringency of training.

“We know high school students can learn CPR. However, we have found CPR skill retention in high schoolers is poor, with only 30 percent performing adequate CPR six months after training,” she said. “We wanted to know, is there a better way to do it? How can we make the best use of this opportunity?”

The study had two parts:

1. What the law in each state requires and
2. How the laws are being implemented in schools

To find out, Brown sent a survey to schools in the 39 states. She asked how CPR was being taught, who was doing the teaching and at what grade level.

“We found a wide degree of variability from state to state, and even school to school,” she said. “While the laws all have some similar features, such as teaching the hands-only method, they still leave a lot to the individual schools to decide.”

Most laws don’t recommend a specific program. Some require the training take place in a specific grade, while others don’t. Most training was being taught as part of a physical education class, but it varied widely who taught it, from a firefighter, a nurse, to the American Red Cross. Most laws don’t require the instructor to be certified to teach, an important distinction, Brown said, since not everyone who is certified in CPR will necessarily be a good instructor.

She said a major barrier for schools is the cost of CPR training. Certified instructors are not always readily available, and most states don’t provide funding for CPR training, leaving it to individual schools and districts. And high-quality mannequins, which are important for a more realistic experience and muscle memory, are expensive, Brown said. Thirty-six percent of schools surveyed were using a low-quality, inexpensive inflatable one.

She said the study “hopefully will help standardize the process to provide high-quality training.” Brown was assisted in the study by two UofL medical students, third-year Carlos Lynes, and fourth-year Travis Carroll, with Henry Halperin, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, advising on the study.

She said it’s too early to tell whether the training in U.S. high schools has been effective in saving lives, but in some places such as Denmark, similar laws lead to increased rates of bystander CPR and survival.

“We’re still about 10 years out in the U.S.,” she said. With about 4 million students per year now graduating with CPR training, “by then we’ll have an army of people trained in CPR.”

Expanding CPR training has been especially important to Brown, who has worked for several years on unique approaches such as halftime demonstrations at UofL men’s basketball games. She founded and directs a program called “Alive in 5,”  a 5-minute method of teaching CPR she developed that could become a standard for training. She studied the method at the Kentucky State Fair and found adults could learn high-quality CPR in just 5 minutes.

“We are still investigating the best method that is effective and efficient,” she said.

The Green Heart Project will examine the link between neighborhood greenery and human health. This research, a collaboration led by the University of Louisville, The Nature Conservancy, Hyphae Design Laboratory and the Institute for Healthy Air Water and Soil, will inform a new municipal decision-making process, one that prioritizes health.

Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD, a professor and researcher with the University of Louisville School of Medicine, has been developing the idea and building the Green Heart team for more than two years.

“No one knows whether and to what extent trees and neighborhood greenery affects human health and why,” said Bhatnagar. “This work will tell us exactly how to design a neighborhood that supports human health and could provide protection from everything from asthma to heart disease to dementia.”

Existing research – including a pilot study in Louisville by the Institute for Healthy Air Water and Soil – supports a link between urban greening and health outcomes. However, the Green Heart Project is the first controlled experiment to test urban greening in the same way a new pharmaceutical intervention is tested.

The focal point of the project is a 5-year health study. The research team will first assess the risk of diabetes and heart disease, stress levels and the strength of social ties in 700 participants from the neighborhood. At the same time, the team will take baseline measurements of air pollution levels.

Then, next fall, the team will plant approximately 8,000 trees, plants and shrubs (many of them mature specimens) throughout the neighborhood to create an urban ecosystem that promotes physical activity while decreasing noise and air pollution. Over the next three years, the 700 participants will receive annual check-ups to evaluate how the increasing greenery has affected their physical and mental health, and their social ties.

The project is focused in several neighborhoods of South Louisville, and brings together the power and expertise of university researchers, city officials and nonprofit leaders. Funding for the work comes from a diverse range of sources, including the National Institutes of Health and The Nature Conservancy.

“The Nature Conservancy believes that the fate of humanity and the fate of our natural world are intrinsically linked,” said David Phemister, the group’s Kentucky state director. “Conservation is fundamentally about nature and people. Green Heart provides a first-of-its-kind opportunity to scientifically quantify that link and provide the evidence base for better policies and investments in nature in the future.”

The project is a broad collaboration that includes several universities as well as Hyphae Design Laboratory, a consulting, design and engineering firm in Oakland, Calif., that works with architects, biologists and engineers to create new solutions to urban environmental challenges.

The Institute for Healthy Air Water and Soil is leading the community outreach work for the project, working with neighborhood residents to gather feedback and recruit participants. Institute founder Christina Lee Brown said this work will change how decisions are made.

“Our environment has a direct and deep influence on all aspects of our well-being,” Brown said. “We must have the scientific data on how to build an urban environment that supports human health. The Green Heart Project will give us the momentum we need to make decisions through the lens of health.”

The summit, a high-profile event within the meeting of approximately 25,000 clinicians and researchers from around the world, brings together top international experts who will present the latest and most exciting work in stem cells, cell therapy and cardiac regeneration.

The association meeting is Nov. 11-15; the summit will be held on Nov. 14.

Bolli, director of UofL’s Institute of Molecular Cardiology and scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute at UofL, was asked by the association to organize the event this year. He is well-known in the field of stem cell research, and last month he and his team at UofL received a $13.8 million award from the National Institutes of Health to study a promising new type of adult cardiac stem cell that has the potential to treat heart failure.

Bolli also serves as editor of Circulation Research, an official journal of the American Heart Association that is considered the world’s leading journal on basic and translational research in cardiovascular medicine.

He will give the opening introduction, as well as an overview before each part of the summit, which will have two sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon.

“I’m honored to be selected to lead the summit this year,” Bolli said. “It reaffirms UofL’s leadership in the field of cell therapy for cardiovascular disease. This will be an outstanding program and I expect it to be well-received.”