Abstracts RCMI.indd 1 3/13/2020 12:51:25 PM PLANNING COMMITTEE Planning Committee Chair Elizabeth Ofili, MD, MPH, FACC Morehouse School of Medicine Program Manager Kimberly Lawson, MPH Morehouse School of Medicine RTRN Communications Director Traci Hayes, MBA, DrPH Jackson State University Planning Committee Co-Chairs Emma Fernandez-Repollet, PhD Paul B. Tchounwou, PhD University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus Jackson State University Daniel F.K. Sarpong, PhD Richard Yanagihara, MD, MPH Xavier University of Louisiana University of Hawaii at Manoa ABSTRACT COMMITTEE Abstract Committee Chair Richard J. Noel, Jr., PhD Ponce Health Sciences University Abstract Committee Co-Chairs Guadalupe X. Ayala, PhD, MPH David D. Lo, MD, PhD San Diego State University University of California Riverside Julie Ann Baldwin, PhD Priscilla Pemu, MD, MSCR Northern Arizona University Morehouse School of Medicine Adriana Campa, PhD, RD, MBA Brian Rivers, PhD, MPH Florida International University Morehouse School of Medicine Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD Daniel F.K. Sarpong, PhD University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus Xavier University of Louisiana Deepak Kumar, PhD Bruce Shiramizu, MD North Carolina Central University University of Hawaii This conference was supported by a U13 MD014961 Award from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD); workshops were partially supported by a UO1 GM132771 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), and a UL1 TR002378 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications are solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Institutes of Health. 66 PRHSJ Vol. 39 No. 1 • March, 2020 Abstracts of the RCMI 2019 National Conference Abstracts RCMI.indd 2 3/13/2020 12:51:25 PM Editorial Message We are delighted to publish the abstracts from the 2019 Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) National Conference held in Bethesda, MD on December 15-17, 2019. The conference highlighted excellence and innovation in basic, behavioral and clinical research, especially from programs sponsored by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). Supported by a multi-institutional cooperative U13 award, the conference focused on advances achieved by RCMI investigators on research to reduce health disparities and improve minority health. Through congressional mandate, the RCMI program was initiated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1985. The authorizing legislation called attention to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary’s Task Force annual report on the status of the health of the American people and noted the disparities in the health status between minority and majority Americans. The legislation also acknowledged the important role that minority educational institutions have traditionally played in training professionals who provide health care to the minority community. Based on this mandate, the primary goals of the RCMI program are (1) to enable minority institutions that offer doctorates in the health professions and/or health-related sciences to strengthen their research environment to become more competitive in obtaining support for the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research, and (2) to foster training and development of the next generation of researchers from underrepresented populations. The 2019 RCMI National Conference was aligned with NIMHD’s vision to advance the science of minority health and health disparities research by enabling all investigators showcase their research experiences on diseases that disproportionately affect health disparity and minority populations. The conference included plenary sessions, workshops, oral and poster presentations, and concurrent sessions. Over the three-day period, there were abundant opportunities for sharing research information, attending mentoring and professional development workshops, identifying collaborators and conducting networking activities. More than two hundred participants submitted abstracts in areas related to basic and applied minority health and health disparities research, behavioral and social determinants of health, capacity building, clinical and translational minority health and health disparities research, community-based participatory research and research in special populations and sub-groups. We are pleased to share this work through publication of the conference abstracts. Lastly we thank all our submitting authors and the Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal for allowing us to share with the scientific community the knowledge and efforts of the RCMI investigators in eliminating health disparities and improving minority health. Cordially, Elizabeth Ofili, MD Richard Noel, PhD Conference Chair Abstract Committee Chair Morehouse School of Medicine Emma Fernández-Repollet, PhD Ponce Health Sciences University Conference Co-chair University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus Abstracts of the RCMI 2019 National Conference PRHSJ Vol. 39 No. 1 • March, 2020 67 Abstracts RCMI.indd 3 3/13/2020 12:51:26 PM ORAL ABSTRACTS 11.01.008 TARGETING MITOTIC REGULATORS IN BASAL BREAST │BASIC & BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE│ CANCERS HI Saavedra, Y Rivera-Rivera, S Jusino 11.01.004 Department of Basic Sciences, Program of Pharmacology (HIS and YRR) and Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences of the VERNONIA AMYGDALINA DELILE FOR PROSTATE Ponce Health Sciences University (SJ) CANCER THERAPY Purpose: While non-Hispanic white women (NHW) are more Clement G. Yedjou and Paul B. Tchounwou prone to develop breast cancers than Hispanic/Latino (H/L) Jackson State University and African American (AA) women, H/L and AA women have Prostate cancer is one of the common cancers in males higher probabilities of dying from breast cancers. This is in and its incidence keeps increasing globally. Approximately part due to AA and H/L women with breast cancer being: (1) 81% of prostate cancer is diagnosed during the early stage more frequently diagnosed with later-stage/grade and larger of the disease. The treatment options for prostate care breast tumors, (2) more likely to develop hormone-receptor- include surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, but negative (mainly triple-negative, TNBC: ER-PR-Her2-) breast these treatments often have side effects that may result to cancers, and (3) to the aggressive nature of TNBC, which poor quality of life such as impotence or decrease bowel are more likely to be metastatic, refractive to anti-hormonal function. Our central goal is to test the anticancer activity therapies and to relapse after chemotherapy than luminal of Vernonia amygdalina Delile (an edible medicinal plant subtypes. Our laboratory is investigating the molecular drivers that is relatively inexpensive, nontoxic, and virtually of cancer disparities between AA, H/L, and NH by identifying without side effects) for the prevention of prostate cancer transcriptional networks unregulated in Her2+ and TNBC. using human adenocarcinoma (PC-3) cells as a test model. Methods: Because these subtypes display more centrosome To address our specific goal, PC-3 cells were treated with amplification (CA), proliferation, and chromosome instability Vernonia amygdalina Delile (VAD). Cell viability and cell (CIN) than luminal subtypes, we performed several expression morphology was analyzed by acridine orange and propidium screens that identified the Cdk/Rb/E2F pathway as a major iodide (AO/PI) dye using the fluorescent microscope. driver of CA/CIN in hormone-receptor-negative breast tumors. DNA damage was evaluated by the comet assay. Cell cycle That allowed us to identify Nek2, SgoI, and TTK as critical arrest and cell apoptosis was evaluated by Flow Cytometry drivers of CA/CIN in breast cancer cells. Results: Our data assessment. Nucleosomal DNA fragmentation was detected indicate that these kinases have novel functions since they by DNA ladder assay. Data obtained from the AO/PI dye signal survival, EMT, and invasion in TNBC cells and affect assessment indicated that VAD significantly reduced the patient survival. We have confirmed the relationship between number of live cells in a dose-dependent manner, showing a mitotic kinases and invasion with a tissue microarray of AA, gradual increase in the loss of viability in VAD-treated cells. H/L and NHW white women with breast cancers. Discussion: Similar result was previously obtained by the MTT assay. Our ultimate goal is to inhibit TTK, Nek2, and SgoI in TNBCs We observed a significant increase in DNA damage in VAD- in order to prevent progression into metastatic stages or to treated cells compared to the control group. Flow cytometry specifically target metastatic cells. data showed that VAD induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/ G1 checkpoint. Flow cytometry data also showed that VAD 11.01.001 induced caspase-3 activation in treated cells compared to the control group. We observed the formation of the DNA ladder KDM5B IS ESSENTIAL FOR PI3K/AKT SIGNALING IN in gel electrophoresis by induction of apoptosis in PC-3 cells PROSTATE CANCER treated with VAD. These results suggest that inhibition of G LI; T Kanagasabai; W Lu; SI Celada; M Izban; BR cancer cell growth, induction of DNA damage, cell cycle arrest Ballard; Q Yan; RJ Matusik; and Z Chen at the G0/G1 checkpoint, and apoptosis through caspase-3 MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE (GL, TK, WL, SIC, MI, activation and nucleosomal DNA