Epidemiology

Projects

UAMS demonstrates its expertise in Epidemiology through the following current capacities and projects being conducted by the members of Molecular Epidemiology and Community-Based Expert Teams.

Molecular Epidemiology

Funded molecular and pharmacogenomic projects include the following:

Pharmacogenomics of hormonal therapy for breast cancer aims to define the specific enzymes critical to the metabolism of anastrozole and fulvestrant and then to test the hypothesis that functional genetic variants of the metabolic enzymes will influence time to recurrence and overall survival of breast cancer patients.

SULT1A1 expression and response to tamoxifen seeks to determine the relationship between expression levels of the enzyme SULT1A1 (a drug-metabolizing enzyme) and the presence of a genetic polymorphism that affects the rate of metabolism.

UCP2 expression and response to chemotherapy for breast cancer attempts to determine (1) whether UCP2 genotypes predict protein expression levels in breast cancer tumors, (2) how expression levels influence response to cytotoxic chemotherapy, and (3) whether genotype or protein expression is the better predictor of response to therapy.

Dietary intervention studies against cooked meat carcinogens investigates the effect of a dietary intervention (i.e., consumption of either a juice rich in apiaceous vegetables, black tea, nonalcoholic wine or beer, or grapefruit juice) on heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA)-DNA adduct formation to guide future studies designed to assess short-term approaches to preventing risk of breast, colon, and prostate cancer associated with consumption of HAA-containing meats.

Community-Based Epidemiology

Funded community-based epidemiology projects include the following:

Spit for the Cure The ultimate goals of the Spit for the Cure cohort comprising of 5,300 women are to establish the largest annotated biorepository for breast cancer research, provide a pool of willing individuals for in-depth epidemiologic studies, and educate women on the importance of participation in research studies.

County-level Database Development The Department of Epidemiology is engaged in the development of a database that currently includes data at the county level for more than 100 health and population indicators, providing information about county residents of all ages (children, youths, adults) and a wide variety of demographic, economic, education, and health factors.

Stimulant Use in Rural Arkansas. A 6-year study in Arkansas funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse studied 450 stimulant users over a 3-year period with follow-up every 6 months, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods; the specific goal was to characterize use of stimulants and health services.

State-based Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A research team has recently completed data collection in a state-based health and nutrition examination survey, which is expected to provide highly accurate estimates of the prevalence of chronic conditions and diseases in the state.

ANGELS Evaluation and Perinatal Regionalization Project. To evaluate a high-risk obstetrics telehealth consultation program, a group of cross-institutional researchers have worked to develop a data set linking Medicaid claims data and hospital discharge data with data from birth, death, and fetal death certificates. These data will also provide unique and important opportunities to examine pregnancy risks and birth outcomes in a large, high-risk population.

Arkansas Birth Defects Registry. This study is currently completing investigations to unravel the complex interactions among maternal and fetal genetic variants, maternal lifestyle factors, and the occurrence of CHDs and to determine the impact of maternal oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity on the development of CHDs.

UAMS Translational Research Institute
4301 W. Markham #Slot 577, Little Rock, AR 72205, 501-614-2287


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