Carolinas Research Day 2021

Biomedical Studies

02 Predicting the Effects of Oxidative Stress in Disease Phenotypes

Elizabeth Lawson, OMSI, Nicholas Kinney, PhD

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Carolinas

Abstract: Glutathione is an important metabolite related to resisting cell damage by reactive oxygen species, as well as other harmful reactants. Maintaining an appropriate GSH/GSSG ratio is key to avoiding cell damage and death considering a wide variety of diseases. Response to oxidative stress, and therefore appropriate glutathione response, is altered in various chronic diseases. Here we use gene expression data (RNAseq) to repurpose a published model of glutathione metabolism and predict effects of oxidative stress in medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain malignancy. Future work will expand the investigation to well-established chronic diseases such as diabetes and autism. There is also potential to link the investigation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as it is hypothesized that healthy glutathione levels could offset inflammatory effects of the virus.

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