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RESEARCH
Big Ideas. Bold Plans. Strategic Opportunities
Effective Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research follows a strategic path to identify problems, craft hypotheses and frame studies that will create knowledge and inform trends in care. Philanthropic support provides nimbleness to leverage unique opportunities with proof-of-concept experiments that earn competitive federal grants.
RESEARCH
Breakthroughs Fuel Health Innovation
Professor Xinyuan Chen and Ph.D. student Yiwen Zhao work in Chen’s lab on a virus-like particle platform they hope will help lead to a universal flu vaccine.
Xinyuan Chen Aims To Produce Universal Flu Vaccine, New Coronavirus Vaccine
A URI College of Pharmacy professor has developed a novel virus-like particle platform to aid in the development of a safe and effective universal flu vaccine and a new coronavirus vaccine.
Xinyuan Chen recently received a $433,125 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to continue his research into the novel vaccine platform. The platform is made of flagellin-coated virus-like particles, in which flagellin is located on the virus-like particle surface in a highly oriented and repetitive fashion. Flagellin is the structural protein of flagellum that enables bacterial motility and also an agonist of the immune system. Yet, Flagellin sometimes overstimulates the immune system and causes adverse reactions.
Chen and his Ph.D. student, Yiwen Zhao, have discovered that by coating the flagellin on the surface of virus-like particles, the body’s immune system can be properly activated to potentiate vaccine-induced immune responses without adverse reactions. At the same time, the middle region of flagellin can be
replaced with long or short antigens for convenient vaccine development. “Our human body has a mechanism to recognize pathogens. By developing the vaccine with flagellin-coated virus-like particles, our bodies can more strongly respond to that type of vaccine,” Chen said. “Virus-like particles don’t replicate inside the body, so they are very safe.” Chen and Zhao have filed a provisional patent application for the new vaccine platform, which will be used to develop a universal flu vaccine that would protect “Universal flu vaccine against multiple strains of the is a concept that would flu, instead of the few strains allow us to develop the annual vaccine currently immunity against protects against. multiple viral strains.” “Universal flu vaccine is a —Xinyuan Chen concept that would allow us to develop immunity against multiple viral strains.” Chen said. “In our approach, a conserved extracellular domain of matrix protein 2 will replace the highly flexible region of flagellin to develop vaccines broadly effective against multiple strains of the flu.”
Pharmacy Professors Attract Millions in Research Funding
Studies Tackle Such Conditions as HIV, Alzheimer’s, Flu and More
The College of Pharmacy continues to expand and strengthen its research community and activities with external funding. The past year represents another successful campaign for COP researchers as they continue to build on their research endeavors, and the College’s No.10 national ranking in federally funded research.
To recognize the successes of our faculty scholars and researchers and further encourage collaborations at the University and with outside partners, the COP Research Committee has compiled a list of research awards for the period of July 2019–June 2020. Please join us in applauding their efforts so far and wishing them success in their research goals. Log onto cutt.ly/URIresearch for a look at current funded research projects.
Dangers of Opioid Use During Pregnancy
Study To Show Impacts on Mother, Child of Prescription Opioid Use
Prescription opioid use among pregnant women has increased in recent years, putting both mother and unborn baby at risk. It is necessary to comprehensively evaluate the safety of opioids on both mother and infant, the subject of a funded study in the URI College of Pharmacy.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Xuerong Wen aims to fill gaps in research on the effects of maternal opioid use on pregnancy complications and long-term developmental outcomes of children, and optimize medication assisted treatment for pregnant women with opioid use disorder. Her study has been funded by an initial grant of $435,000 from the National Institutes of Health, and a supplemental grant of $256,000 awarded in October 2020.
Wen’s research is based on studies of linked mother-infant datasets, including nationwide health administrative data, R.I. Medicaid claims, R.I. vital statistics, and R.I. education records, to examine various short- and long-term outcomes. Initial results have shown that prescription opioid use is associated with increased risks of adverse pregnancy and obstetric complications, congenital malformations (in musculoskeletal system), or neurodevelopmental disorders (mental disorders and developmental delays in the unborn child).
Wen is now taking the initial study further, implementing advanced Bayesian statistical modeling to assess long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. The study aims to show that maternal exposure to prescription opioids during pregnancy increases obstetric complications, increases birth defects in infants, and reduces long-term neurodevelopment and educational status in children.
A College of Pharmacy researcher has received a research grant to address barriers patients face in accessing needed medications for cancer. The grant is funded by the Pharmacy Quality Alliance and the National Pharmaceutical Council.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Ami Vyas will lead a study to identify significant patient access barriers and facilitators of adherence with oral anti-cancer medications. The study will examine patient out-of-pocket costs, socioeconomic characteristics, clinical factors, and subsequent health outcomes. It will leverage the recent alliance and council framework that defines the patient journey to medication access. The framework also identifies quality measurement gaps that could address the financial and nonfinancial factors that stand between patients and the medications they need.
Higher out-of-pocket costs for oral anti-cancer medications can lead to prescription abandonment, delayed initiation, and other forms of nonadherence, Vyas said, potentially leading to worsening conditions.
“Our project will determine the association between patient out-of-pocket costs of oral anticancer medications and treatment adherence among adult cancer patients in the United States and will also determine how adherence impacts patient health outcomes,” Vyas said. “Our research will provide crucial evidence-based information for several stakeholders to develop and implement approaches aimed at improving patient access to oral anticancer medications.”
Vyas’ 12-month research project is ongoing. Findings are expected to be presented at a meeting of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance. “Our project will determine the association between patient out-of-pocket costs of oral anti-cancer medications and treatment adherence among adult cancer patients in the United States and will also determine how adherence impacts patient health outcomes.”
— Assistant Professor Ami Vyas
Assistant Professor Matt Bertin works in his lab in Avedisian Hall on projects including one to derive medications from algal blooms.
Study to Reduce Neuroinflammation Progresses
Matt Bertin’s Research into The Use of Chemicals from Algal Blooms Published in National Journal
A URI College of Pharmacy professor’s study on the potential use of chemicals commonly found in algal blooms to reduce neuroinflammation has been published in a journal of one of the largest scientific organizations. Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Matthew Bertin is teaming up with biotech firm Biosortia Pharmaceuticals Inc. to study the chemicals produced by algal blooms, which may hold the key to reducing neuroinflammation, a primary cause for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s progress. His progress has been published in American Chemical Society journal, ACS Omega. Using mass spectrometry, Bertin and his team have isolated three micropeptins from Biosortia’s chromatography library that have shown as much as 50 percent reduction in neuroinflammation in mouse cells, even in tiny doses. “We don’t actually know how they are working yet,” Bertin said. “Are they inhibiting something? Are they activating something? How are they reducing the inflammation?” Finding out is the next step. The team will use cell imaging to visualize the effect the micropeptins have. One possibility involves proteases, enzymes in a cell that cause inflammation. “They are like scissors in a cell that aid in activating other different proteins that cause inflammation,” Bertin said. “If you can inhibit that protease—if you can be the rock that blocks the scissors—you can stop that inflammation process.” Bertin’s team will next look at the effect the two micropeptins have on human cells, and seek a way to transport the molecules into the brain. The micropeptins are too large to easily slide through the body’s natural blood-brain barrier. “We’re going to try to determine how it gets transported in. There are tunnels in the cell that act like gates that let in certain molecules into a cell,” Bertin said. “Brain cells have that barrier to keep unwanted molecules out, so getting peptins into the brain is always difficult in pharmacology.”
Pharmacy Professor Angela Slitt, architect of a new, saliva-based coronavirus test developed in her lab in Avedisian Hall, has been rewarded with one on the university’s premier faculty awards.
Slitt was presented with the 2021 URI Scholarly Excellence award, which recognizes significant achievement from one faculty member each year. The recipients — nominated by their peers and by students—“demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to their job and to the University,” according to URI Foundation & Alumni Engagement, which presents the award. “Professor Angela Slitt has demonstrated the ability to think big and ‘make a difference’ in her research and her mentorship of graduate students, post-docs, and other researchers,” the award announcement reads. “Dr. Slitt has demonstrated tremendous prowess in securing federal funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as both a principal investigator and co-investigator.” Slitt has received an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award R01 grant, and currently serves as a project co-director of an NIH/NIEHS Superfund award. She has more than 80 peer-reviewed publications in highly regarded journals. She teaches in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, along with actively serving on University and external committees.
Big Ideas. Bold Plans. Transformative Faculty Leadership
Teaching and research excellence define URI College of Pharmacy, and each generation stands on the shoulders of its predecessors. In today’s competitive environment, funding is needed to recruit and retain gifted faculty like Angela Slitt to continue the legacy of excellence.
