A National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant will allow UAMS researcher Nirmala Parajuli, DVM, Ph.D., to study a novel way to improve the long-term outcomes of patients who receive kidneys from deceased donors.

Parajuli, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, will use the five-year $2.46 million grant to study a drug therapy that could reduce damage to donated kidneys during cold storage.

Transplants from deceased donors account for about 70% of all kidney transplants, and long-term outcomes are generally poor.

“There are about 100,000 patients waiting for kidney transplants, and many of them will die while they are waiting,” Parajuli said. “My goal is to reduce the kidney injury caused by cold storage and increase the pool of healthy kidneys available to the people who need them.”

In her preclinical research, she is testing drugs mixed in the solution used to store kidneys from rats and donated human kidneys that were rejected for transplantation.

The drugs, Parajuli hopes, will block the molecular pathways that play a role in kidney injury during storage, which ultimately will increase long-term kidney survival.

As a UAMS Research Academy Scholar, Parajuli received training and other support to develop her grant submission. The academy’s Mentored Grant-Writing program is supported by the UAMS Division of Research and Innovation, the Translational Research Institute, and the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

The Translational Research Institute is supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant will allow UAMS researcher Isabelle Racine Miousse, Ph.D., to ramp up her study of a nutrient that may have a role in the effectiveness of immunotherapy for cancer patients.

Miousse will receive $220,000 per year for up to five years as one of four project leaders at the Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center, a new NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The university announced April 6 that the center will receive $10.8 million over five years.

The funding will support Miousse’s preclinical cancer studies involving methionine, an amino acid important for human growth and derived primarily from consuming meat.

Miousse, an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, will test whether reducing dietary methionine can improve results of immunotherapy drugs used to treat melanoma patients.

“This has never been tried in combination with immunotherapy drugs,” Miousse said, noting that immunotherapy alone works remarkably well, but only for 50% of melanoma patients. “So far the results of this research are very encouraging, and I am hopeful that this next phase of study will take us into clinical trials.”

Unlike most cancer treatments, she notes, this one has beneficial side effects.

“Reducing methionine in the diet promotes the metabolism of fats and sugars in animal models,” Miousse said. “Methionine restriction could fight cancer and improve general health at the same time.”

Miousse’s work has been supported by the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s two-year KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award for promising early career researchers. The KL2 provides salary support, research seed funding of $50,000 and translational research training. The institute is supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

LITTLE ROCK – Early results from a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)-led COVID-19 antibody study show that 3.5% of Arkansans have been infected with the novel coronavirus through August.

UAMS researcher Joshua Kennedy, M.D., revealed the initial findings of the Arkansas Coronavirus Antibodies Seroprevalence Survey during a presentation Oct. 21 with Laura James, M.D., director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

Laura James, M.D.

The Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA)-sponsored talk focusing on UAMS’ COVID-19 research efforts featured James, an ARA fellow, Kennedy and John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D., also a UAMS COVID-19 researcher. UAMS has eight other studies testing new therapies for COVID-19 either active or in startup.

Kennedy, associate professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, along with Craig Forrest, Ph.D., and Karl Boehme, Ph.D., associate professors in the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology, have spearheaded an effort to analyze blood samples from Arkansans.

One aspect of the study involved using remnant blood samples from patients who visit UAMS clinics, including three Regional Campus clinics, and have their blood drawn for health reasons other than COVID-19. The samples, which would be discarded otherwise, are being collected and shipped to UAMS from across the state for the antibody test, which was developed in the laboratories of Boehme and Forrest.

Of 1,220 adult blood samples tested so far, 43 were positive, or 3.5%. From this analysis, samples were collected in July and August, 2020. While low overall, Kennedy said, there are noteworthy differences across racial and ethnic groups:

• Hispanic (13 of 73 positive = 17.8%)
• Black/African American (21/501 = 4.19%)
• White/Caucasian (7/550 = 1.27%)

Kennedy said that, “based on the data and statistical analysis to date, Hispanics/Latinx and Blacks/African Americans have a higher percentage of positive COVID-19 antibody tests. This relationship will need to be studied further for other factors that might influence these numbers. We hope to work through some of these issues over the next two waves of the study.”

“These early results show the importance of our efforts to survey statewide,” said James, associate vice chancellor for Clinical and

Karl Boehme, Ph.D.

Translational Research at UAMS. “We will continue to evaluate antibody rates over the next several months to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in Arkansas.”

Seroprevalence is the proportion of people in a population whose blood serum tests positive for a particular disease. Unlike diagnostic tests for COVID-19 the seroprevalence antibody testing looks back into the immune system’s history. A positive antibody test means the person was exposed to the virus and developed antibodies against the virus.

It will give state leaders a good estimate of how many Arkansans have been infected with the virus since it first came to the state, even if they did not become ill or have symptoms.

Kennedy praised the collaboration of UAMS Regional Campuses, whose family medical centers in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Pine Bluff are all contributing remnant blood samples. The collaboration was also made possible by the new UAMS Rural Research Network and the Translational Research Institute, whose resources are helping make use of Regional Campuses’ infrastructure to include rural areas of Arkansas in health research.

The study began this summer after UAMS researchers developed high-accuracy antibody testing methods. As part of the research program, UAMS is collecting blood samples from nearly 7,500 Arkansas adults and children. Arkansas Children’s is leading the pediatric component of the study. The UAMS College of Public Health is leading the epidemiology component of the study, using the contact tracing call center to enroll study participants and collect health histories and blood samples from individuals who represent the entire state.

The study is supported by $3.3 million in federal coronavirus aid that was then allocated by the Arkansas Coronavirus Aid, Relief and

Craig Forrest, Ph.D.

Economic Security Act Steering Committee created by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

The Translational Research Institute is supported by grant TL1 TR003109 through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Community-based organizations are invited to apply for a new research leadership training program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that includes seed funding for community projects.

Applications are due by Oct. 14, 2019, for the Community Partners Educated as Arkansas Research Leaders (CPEARL) Program, supported by the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

Up to six community-based organizations will be selected, with two or three leaders or emerging leaders per organization invited to participate. Up to $2,500 in seed funding will be provided to each organization to tackle a health-related community project.

The one-year program will begin Jan. 15, 2020, with a six-week intensive training offered by the Translational Research Institute in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Health.

“UAMS research can play a bigger role in improving health, especially if we can engage communities most burdened by poor health in influencing our research,” said Kate Stewart, M.D., M.P.H., director of the research institute’s Community Engagement Program. “We will use this new program to build capacity of community leaders and empower them with the knowledge to partner in research addressing our state’s health disparities.”

Experts in community-based research, clinical and public health practice and community engagement will provide interactive learning sessions during the six-week intensive training. Each team will have a UAMS researcher assigned to mentor them throughout the year and the opportunity for one-on-one consultations with a community mentor. The program is free and all trainings will be held in Little Rock.

Interested community-based organizations may contact

Funding for the project is supported by the Translational Research Institute, Clinical and Translational Science Award UL1 TR003107, through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, visit the CPEARL Program Page.

Applications may be submitted to triceteam@uams.edu.

Questions? Contact RBHale@uams.edu.

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) is wrapping up 2017 with good tidings!

The November/December TRIbune features some helpful new developments with clinical trials: Trails Today, a CTSA initiative that makes it easier for the public to find clinical trials of interest; TriNetX, which is matching UAMS investigators with industry sponsored Clinical Trials; and ClinCard, a new more efficient way of compensating research participants. You’ll also read about our latest pilot awardees – the first time we’ve offered pilots in implementation science. Our TRI & Me features Geoffrey Curran, Ph.D., who leads TRI’s implementation science efforts and directs the UAMS’ Center for Implementation Research. You’ll also find the latest TRI-supported publications cited by your colleagues.

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