HJNO Sep/Oct 2022

34 SEP / OCT 2022  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   Healthcare Briefs Students may also enroll in the RN to BSN degree program, a one-year program of study specifically for the RN with an associate degree or diploma in nursing. The RN to BSN degree program provides a broad liberal and professional education that builds upon the competencies and knowledge achieved in previous nursing education and practice. Students will graduate with a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree from LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing. LSU Health New Orleans will also offer a master’s degree with a nurse educator concentration. The nurse educator concentration is an intensive Master of Science in Nursing degree designed for completion in one year. The curriculum is built on theory and skills acquired in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing. The purpose is to prepare nurses to become nurse educators and accomplish their career goals in academic, practice and service settings. Students will graduate from LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing with a Master of Science in Nursing. LSUHealth Research Suggests Novel Combination Therapy for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Research led by Suresh Alahari, PhD, professor of Biochemistry at LSU Health New Orleans schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies, suggests a combination of drugs already approved by the FDA for other cancers may be effective in treating chemo-resistant triple- negative breast cancer. The results are published in Molecular Cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumors lack estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). A subtype representing 12-55% of triple- negative breast cancer tumors has androgen receptors (AR). Since androgen receptors stimulate tumor cell progression in estrogen receptor-negative breast cancers, they have become a target of triple-negative breast cancer therapy. As well, since a substantial number of patients with triple-negative breast cancer develop resistance to paclitaxel, the FDA-approved chemotherapeutic agent for triple-negative breast cancer, new therapeutic approaches are needed. Working in a mouse model and tissue from patients with triple-negative breast cancer, the research team screened 133 FDA-approved drugs that have a therapeutic effect against androgen receptor cells. They found that ceritinib, an FDA-approved drug for lung cancers, efficiently inhibited the growth of androgen receptor triple- negative breast cancer cells. To improve the response, they also selected enzalutamide, an FDA-approved androgen receptor antagonist for prostate cancer treatment. “We designed a novel combinational strategy comprising enzalutamide and ceritinib to treat AR+ TNBC tumors through the dual blockade of androgen-dependent and androgen- independent AR signaling pathways,” said Alahari. They found that the combination of ceritinib and enzalutamide showed a robust inhibitory effect on the growth of AR+ TNBC cells. They also tested a combination of paclitaxel and ceritinib. “The combination of paclitaxel and ceritinib showed drastic inhibition of tumor growth compared to a single drug alone,” Alahari added. “All agents used in our study are FDA-approved, and thus the proposed combination therapy will likely be useful in the clinic.” Triple-negative breast cancer is more prevalent in younger women, those of African and Hispanic descent, and carriers of deleterious germline mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility genes. This aggressive type accounts for 15–20% of all breast cancers. Tulane University Awarded $3.5M to Study HowKiller Immune Cells Prevent Birth Defects Over half the population carries a herpesvirus that doesn’t cause any symptoms. It’s so common that physicians don’t routinely screen for it, not even during pregnancy. But of those individuals who contract the virus during pregnancy, nearly a third transmit it to their developing child where it can cause microcephaly, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disabilities. Though for most, cytomegalovirus, or CMV, doesn’t pose an issue, Tulane University researchers will use a new $3.5 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to investigate how specialized immune cells may block CMV transmission during pregnancy. Amitinder Kaur, MD, professor of microbiology and immunology and chair of the division of immunology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, will lead a team to examine natural killer cells of chronic and acute CMV infection throughout pregnancy in a nonhuman primate model. Natural killer cells modulate the maternal immune system by protecting the developing fetus from potential pathogens while also suppressing maternal immunity enough to maintain the pregnancy itself. But our understanding of these natural killer cells lags, particularly in the context of CMV infection. In mothers with longstanding or chronic CMV, the virus rarely infects the fetus even though the mother is in an immunosuppressed state. The research team seeks to understand what natural killer cells need in order to block transmission of the virus during pregnancy, and how this knowledge could be applied toward future CMV vaccine development. “Infection with CMV is widespread, and usually occurs without incident,” said Kaur. “It is only when a mother becomes infected with CMV during pregnancy that it can pose a real danger to her fetus, and it is those outcomes that we seek to prevent by better understanding how CMV- infected mothers harness natural killer cells to avoid congenital transmission.” Study Pinpoints WuhanMarket as Origin of COVID-19 Pandemic The global COVID-19 pandemic likely started in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, according to a new study that looks at the distribution of the earliest known cases of SARS-CoV-2. The study was published simultaneously in the journal Science along with a genetic analysis that finds the virus likely jumped from host animals to people twice before sparking the pandemic. Tulane University virologist Robert Garry is a co-author on both studies along with several of the world’s leading scientists that investigate the origins of outbreaks. “This is the largest in-depth study of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 that we’ve been able to do yet,” said Garry, professor of microbiology