Irving C. Allen

The Pro-Inflammatory Chemokines CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11 Are Upregulated Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection in an AKT-Dependent Manner

Viruses · 2021 · 144 citations

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmissible RNA virus that is the causative agent of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Patients with severe COVID-19 may develop acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and require mechanical ventilation. Key features of SARS-CoV-2 induced pulmonary complications include an overexpression of pro-inflammatory chemokines and cytokines that contribute to a 'cytokine storm.' In th…

Starting a Fire Without Flame: The Induction of Cell Death and Inflammation in Electroporation-Based Tumor Ablation Strategies

Frontiers in Oncology · 2020 · 79 citations

New therapeutic strategies and paradigms are direly needed for the treatment of cancer. While the surgical removal of tumors is favored in most cancer treatment plans, resection options are often limited based on tumor localization. Over the last two decades, multiple tumor ablation strategies have emerged as promising stand-alone or combination therapeutic options for patients. These strategies are often employed to treat tumors in areas where surgical resection is not possible or where chemoth…

Fabrication and characterization of PLGA nanoparticles encapsulating large CRISPR–Cas9 plasmid

Journal of Nanobiotechnology · 2020 · 75 citations

BACKGROUND: The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and Cas9 protein system is a revolutionary tool for gene therapy. Despite promising reports of the utility of CRISPR-Cas9 for in vivo gene editing, a principal problem in implementing this new process is delivery of high molecular weight DNA into cells. RESULTS: Using poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), a nanoparticle carrier was designed to deliver a model CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid into primary bone marrow derived ma…

Regulation of neonatal IgA production by the maternal microbiota

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 47 citations

, which is enriched in the milk of immunodeficient dams. Moreover, we show that while the production of neonatal IgA is dependent on neonatal T cells, the immunodeficient maternal microbiota-mediated enhancement of neonatal IgA has a T cell-independent component. Indeed, this enhancement may be dependent on type 3 innate lymphoid cells in the neonatal small intestinal lamina propria. Interestingly, maternal microbiota-induced neonatal IgA does not cross-react with common enteric pathogens. Futur…

Histotripsy for the Treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma Liver Tumors: <i>In Vivo</i> Feasibility and <i>Ex Vivo</i> Dosimetry Study

IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control · 2021 · 38 citations

Histotripsy is a noninvasive, nonionizing, and nonthermal focused ultrasound ablation method that is currently being developed for the treatment of liver cancer. Promisingly, histotripsy has been shown for ablating primary [hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)] and metastatic [colorectal liver metastasis (CLM)] liver tumors in preclinical and early clinical studies. The feasibility of treating cholangiocarcinoma (CC), a less common primary liver tumor that arises from the bile ducts, has not been expl…