Code Blue and Gold

The quarterly newsletter of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine

1 March 2025 – 1 June 2025

Aging Institute

Hernández-Arciga U, Stamenkovic C, Yadav S, Nicoletti C, Albalawy WN, Al Hammood F, Gonzalez TF, Naikwadi MU, Graham A, Smarz C, Little GJ, Williams SG, McMahon B, Sipula IJ, Vandevender AM, Chuan B, Cooke D, Pinto AFM, Flores LC, Hartman HL, Diedrich JK, Brooke RT, Alder JK, Frahm KA, Pascal LE, Stolt E, Troensegaard H, Øvrebø B, Elshorbagy A, Molina E, Vinknes KJ, Tan RJ, Weisz OA, Bueno M, Eickelberg O, Steinhauser ML, Finkel T, Ables GP, Ikeno Y, Olsen T, Sacco A, Jurczak MJ, Sukoff Rizzo SJ, Parkhitko AA. Dietary methionine restriction started late in life promotes healthy aging in a sex-specific manner. Sci Adv. 2025 Apr 18;11(16):eads1532. PMID: 40238871.

Lear TB, Larsen MB, Lin B, Treat BR, Cao Q, Boudreau ÁN, Lockwood KC, Alfaras I, Kennerdell JR, Salminen L, Camarco DP, Tong Y, Ma J, Liu J, Tan JX, Tuncer F, Villandre JJ, Hertzel L, Myerburg MM, Chen Y, St Croix C, Sekine Y, Evankovich JW, Barratt-Boyes SM, Finkel T, Chen BB, Liu Y. Inhibition of virally induced TFEB proteasomal degradation as a host-centric therapeutic approach for coronaviral infection. Sci Adv. 2025 Jun 6;11(23):eadv4033. PMID: 40465712.

Tan JX. Harnessing lysohormesis for healthy ageing. Nat Cell Biol. 2025 Apr;27(4):548-551. PMID: 40128375.

Cardiology

Garfein J, Sekikawa A, Mrkva A, Dalmacy D, Berry JD, Tiruneh YM, Magnani JW. Educational Attainment and the Effect of Intensive Blood Pressure Reduction: A Post Hoc Analysis of the SPRINT Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Jun 3;14(11):e037712. PMID: 40396422.
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He M, Chen X, Yu F, Qin B, Wang H, Lavery L, Villanueva FS. Enhanced Antitumor Efficacy and Reduced Cardiotoxicity of Ultrasound-Mediated Doxorubicin Delivery by Microbubble-Liposome Complexes. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2025 May 13:S0301-5629(25)00127-9. PMID: 40368702.

Howard A, Gohel P, Singla V, Naniwadekar A, Thoma F, Mulukutla S, Bhonsale A, Kancharla K, Voigt A, Shalaby A, Estes NAM 3rd, Jain S, Saba S. Cardiovascular resource utilization in patients with diastolic dysfunction: A retrospective cohort analysis. Am Heart J Plus. 2025 May 1;54:100550. PMID: 40416092.

Classical Hematology

Carreño M, Lenhart D, Pant R, Mondal P, Salvatore SR, Pires MF, Novelli EM, Schopfer FJ, Ghosh S, Vitturi DA. Nitrated fatty acids protect against acute kidney injury in sickle cell disease. Blood Adv. 2025 Jun 24;9(12):2886-2890. PMID: 40117493.

Morris CR, Hatabah D, Korman R, Gillespie S, Bakshi N, Brown LA, Harris F, Leake D, Rees CA, Khemani K, Vichinsky EP, Locke A, Wynn B, Griffiths MA, Wilkinson H, Kumari P, Sudmeier L, Shiva S, Dampier CD. Arginine Therapy for Pain in Sickle Cell Disease: A Phase-2 Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Am J Hematol. 2025 Jul;100(7):1119-1131. PMID: 40270092.

Perfetto M, Ishfaq M, Mohideen A, Rondelli CM, Gillis S, Tejero J, Stratman AN, Riggins R, Yien YY. FAM210B regulates iron homeostasis and sex-specific responses in stress erythropoiesis. Exp Hematol. 2025 May 10:104797. PMID: 40355042.

Endocrinology and Metabolism

Abou-Al-Shaar H, Albalkhi I, Shariff RK, Mallela AN, Fazeli PK, Tos SM, Mantziaris G, Meng Y, Bernstein K, Kaisman-Elbaz T, Abofani H, Lin YY, Lee CC, Tripathi M, Upadhyay R, Palmer JD, Nabeel AM, Reda WA, Tawadros SR, Abdelkarim K, El-Shehaby AMN, Emad RM, Peker S, Samanci Y, Wegner RE, Shepard MJ, Liscak R, Simonova G, Almeida T, Benjamin C, Kondziolka D, Sheehan JP, Niranjan A, Hadjipanayis CG, Lunsford LD. Outcomes of stereotactic radiosurgery for pituitary metastases: an international multi-institutional study. Pituitary. 2025 May 29;28(3):69. PMID: 40442537.

Yeo RX, Mau T, Ross ZM, Edenhoffer NP, Liu J, Barnes HN, Lui LY, Adkins JN, Sanford JA, Seldin MM, Viesi CH, Zhou M, Gregory HL, Toledo FGS, Stefanovic-Racic M, Lyles M, Wood AN, Mattila PE, Blakley EA, Miljkovic I, Cawthon PM, Newman AB, Kritchevsky SB, Cummings SR, Goodpaster BH, Justice JN, Kershaw EE, Sparks LM. Investigating the role of adipose tissue in mobility and aging: design and methods of the Adipose Tissue ancillary to the Study of Muscle, Mobility, and Aging (SOMMA-AT). J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2025 May 5;80(6):glaf015. PMID: 39886989.

Zupa MF, Rothenberger SD, Bauer JG, Zheng Y, Johnson AE, Kinnee E, Rosland AM. Geographic and Sociodemographic Factors and Receipt of Metabolic Disease Specialty Care. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 May 1;8(5):e2511559. PMID: 40392552.
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Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

Palma NA, Lucas AL, Katona BW, Athanasiou A, Kureshi NM, Ford L, Keller T, Weber S, Schiess R, King T, Simeone DM, Brand R. A High Performing Biomarker Signature for Detecting Early-Stage Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma in High-Risk Individuals. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Jun 2;17(11):1866. PMID: 40507347.

Rogal SS, Neely B, Merante M, Slazinski K, McFarland L, Brodkorb C, Cooper J, Lamorte C, Gibson S, Comstock E, Morano J, Maier M, Beste LA, Rozenberg K, Chartier M, Chinman MJ, Ross D, Yakovchenko V. Getting to Implementation for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (GTI-PrEP): A data-driven approach to PrEP prescribing. Implement Sci Commun. 2025 Jun 2;6(1):71. PMID: 40457361.

Villars JA, Anderson TS, Yabes JG, Schoen RE, Vajravelu RK. Proton Pump Inhibitor Use Exceeding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Approved Treatment Duration for Patients With Peptic Ulcer Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2025 May;34(5):e70152. PMID: 40296703.

General Internal Medicine

Hanmer J, Liu Y, Leon-Jhong A, Bui T, Meltzer A, Kogan J, Schuster J, Fischer GS, Bryk J. Better Care, Same Cost – Reducing Unplanned Care for Multi-visit Patients: A Payer-Provider Model. J Gen Intern Med. 2025 Jun;40(8):1877-1884. PMID: 39227542.

Shang M, Hull I, Liebschutz JM, Abesamis M, Lynch M, Tamama K, Glikes L, Roy PJ, León-Barriera R, Shulman JA, Thiel B, Patel K, Heffner D, Then J, Mapel J, Baker K, Bauzá G, Rickens J, Padival S, Viehman JA, Nauriyal V, Gordillo G, Teunis T, Jarrett NJ, Zamarripa C, Lee J, Mangel E, Arnon M, Feterik K, Jawa R. Building Multidisciplinary Consensus on Inpatient Xylazine Management through Clinical Protocols. Subst Use Addctn J. 2025 Apr 15:29767342251329681. PMID: 40231487.
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Shuey B, Wen H, Suda KJ, Burnett A, Wharam JF, Anderson TS, Liebschutz JM. Sex-Based Differences in Binge and Heavy Drinking Among US Adults. JAMA. 2025 May 27;333(20):1831-1833. PMID: 40238125.
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Geriatric Medicine

Conklin CA, Coffman B, Greco CM, Tyagi S, Clarkson BD. Mindfulness and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to Attenuate Situational Urgency Urinary Incontinence (UUI): A randomized pilot study. Continence. 2025 Jun;(14).10.1016/j.cont.2025.101765.
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Lerman TT, Gadot C, Greenberg N, Kruchin B, Rahat O, Buturlin K, Erez A, Goldenberg G, Barsheshet A, Golovchiner G, Orvin K, Eisen A, Levi A, Kornowski R, Fishman T, Goldman A, Seluk L, Scandrett K, Nace DA, Forman DE, Fishman B. The Safety Profile of Amiodarone Among Older Adults (Age ≥75 Years): A Pharmacovigilance Study from the FDA Data. Am J Med. 2025 May;138(5):819-826. PMID: 39842538.

Weiner DK, Gentili A, Garay E, Fang M, Joseph L, Lawson L, Lee CC, Rossi M, He Y, Perera S. Correlates of Pain-Related Disability in Older Veterans with Chronic Low Back Pain. Pain Med. 2025 May 26:pnaf066. PMID: 40418220.

Infectious Diseases

Li Y, Stellfox ME, Evans KM, Mills EG, Squires KM, Dorazio AJ, Shields RK, Van Tyne D. Functional genomics of antibiotic susceptibility in Enterococcus faecalis from infective endocarditis. J Infect Dis. 2025 May 30:jiaf272. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaf272. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40444324.

Li Y, Soto-Ramirez ZN, Roscher J, Medvec T, Alaoui-El-Azher M, Piazza P, Chen Y, Sluis-Cremer N, Rinaldo CR, Macatangay BJC. Senescence-related cytokine levels are associated with HIV-1 serostatus and persistence. AIDS. 2025 Apr 9. PMID: 40202938.

Sundermann AJ, Kumar P, Griffith MP, Waggle KD, Rangachar Srinivasa V, Raabe N, Mills EG, Coyle H, Ereifej D, Creager HM, Ayres A, Van Tyne D, Pless LL, Snyder GM, Roberts M, Harrison LH. Real-Time Genomic Surveillance for Enhanced Healthcare Outbreak Detection and Control: Clinical and Economic Impact. Clin Infect Dis. 2025 Apr 30:ciaf216. PMID: 40302215.
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Malignant Hematology and Medical Oncology

Dowling KF, Ghosh-Choudhary SK, Carleton N, Prigg K, Steinman RA. Development and evaluation of a symposium model for building physician-scientist skills, connections, and persistence. JCI Insight. 2025 May 13:e191555. PMID: 40359028.

Tarhini AA, Obermayer A, Lee SJ, LaFramboise WA, Hodi FS, Karunamurthy AD, Eljilany I, Chen DT, Hwu P, El Naqa IM, Streicher H, Sondak VK, Storkus WJ, Butterfield LH, Shaw TI, Kirkwood JM. Integrative Immune Signature of Complementary Circulating and Tumoral Biomarkers Maximizes the Predictive Power of Adjuvant Immunotherapeutic Benefits in High-Risk Melanoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 May 20. PMID: 40392969.

Zandberg DP, Allred JB, Rosenberg AJ, Kaczmar JM, Swiecicki P, Julian RA, Poklepovic AS, Bauman JR, Phan MD, Saba NF, Rivera E, Rowland K, Davar D, Cordes J, Ho AL, Zhang M, Berg SA, Munster PN, Schwartz GK. Phase II (Alliance A091802) Randomized Trial of Avelumab Plus Cetuximab Versus Avelumab Alone in Advanced Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma. J Clin Oncol. 2025 May 31:JCO2500759. PMID: 40448574.
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Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

Hannan SJ, Iasella CJ, Sciullo M, Moore C, Rivosecci R, Sacha L, Sutton RM, Koshy R, Shigemura N, Sanchez PG, Farah R, Hage CA, Alder JK, McDyer JF. Belatacept as an alternative immunosuppressive agent for bone marrow-sparing in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis lung transplant recipients with short telomeres. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2025 May 7:S1053-2498(25)01961-8. PMID: 40345564.

Labar AS, Ulrich BC, Lovelace TC, Bain WG, Shah FA, White EB, Abe EA, Giacona F, Alba GA, Thompson BT, Schmidt EP, Zuchelkowski BE, Evankovich JW, Yang H, Ramanan R, Murray H, Haidar G, Snyder ME, Qin S, Wang X, Zhang Y, Nouraie SM, Dela Cruz C, Turnquist HR, Ray P, Ray A, Methé B, Benos PV, Morris A, McVerry BJ, Alladina J, Kitsios GD. Plasma Levels of Soluble ST2 Reflect Extrapulmonary Organ Dysfunction and Predict Outcomes in Acute Respiratory Failure. Crit Care Med. 2025 May 22. PMID: 40402026.

Sciurba FC, Criner GJ, Christenson SA, Martinez FJ, Papi A, Roche N, Bourbeau J, Korn S, Bafadhel M, Han MK, Kolterer S, Miller K, Mouneimne D, Fletcher J, Mayer B, Min J, Pavord ID; MATINEE Study Investigators. Mepolizumab to Prevent Exacerbations of COPD with an Eosinophilic Phenotype. N Engl J Med. 2025 May 1;392(17):1710-1720. PMID: 40305712.
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Renal-Electrolyte

Boyd-Shiwarski CR, Beacham RT, Lashway JA, Querry KE, Griffiths SE, Shiwarski DJ, Knoell SA, Nguyen NH, Nkashama LJ, Valladares MN, Bandaru A, Marciszyn AL, Franks J, Sullivan M, Watkins SC, Rodan AR, Huang CL, Stocker SD, Kashlan OB, Subramanya AR. Kidney-specific WNK1 amplifies kidney tubule responsiveness to potassium via WNK body condensates. J Clin Invest. 2025 Jun 10:e188792. PMID: 40493421.

Puttarajappa CM, Urbanski M, Fallahzadeh MK, Budhiraja P, Balaraman V, Butsch WS, Morford H, Anand PM, Woodside KJ, Orandi BJ; co-authors; American Society of Transplantation Kidney Pancreas Community of Practice Obesity Workgroup Members (in addition to authors above). Practices in the Management of Kidney Transplant Candidates and Recipients with Obesity: A Survey of U.S. Transplant Programs. Am J Transplant. 2025 May 31:S1600-6135(25)00290-4. PMID: 40456410.

Weltman MR, Han Z, Lavenburg LU, Alghwiri AA, Yabes JG, Nolin TD, Jhamb M. Effect of a Population Health Management Intervention on Medication Therapy Problems in People With Chronic Kidney Disease: Post Hoc Analysis of the K-CHAMP Cluster-Randomized Trial. Kidney Med. 2025 Mar 18;7(5):100995. PMID: 40330910.

Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology

Aggarwal R, Pongtarakulpanit N, Sullivan DI, Moghadam-Kia S, Bae SS, Wilkerson J, Saygin D, Marder G, Venuturupalli S, Dellaripa PF, Danoff SK, Doyle T, Hunninghake GM, Lee JS, Fischer A, Falk J, Johnson C, Koontz D, Ascherman DP, Oddis CV. Abatacept for the treatment of myositis-associated interstitial lung disease (ATtackMy-ILD).Rheumatology (Oxford). 2025 Apr 24:keaf218. PMID: 40272902.

Charles-Schoeman C, Schessl J, Bata-Csörgő Z, Dimachkie MM, Griger Z, Moiseev S, Oddis CV, Schiopu E, Vencovský J, Clodi E, Levine T, Aggarwal R. Predictors of response to intravenous immunoglobulin in patients with dermatomyositis: the ProDERM study. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2025 Jun 1;64(6):3767-3776. PMID: 39918968.

Sattui SE, Stadler J, Borchin RL, Burroughs C, Gandolfo L, Cuthbertson D, Yeung C, Larson K, Merkel PA, Spiera R; Vasculitis Patient-Powered Research Network. Frailty and Associated Outcomes in Patients With Vasculitis. J Rheumatol. 2025 Jun 1:jrheum.2024-1079. PMID: 40233991.

Vascular Medicine Institute

Bugga P, Mushala BAS, Stoner MW, Manning JR, Bhattarai N, Sharifi-Sanjani M, Vandevender A, Mooli RGR, Ramakrishnan SK, Kaufman BA, Shiva SS, Happe CL, Mullet SJ, Gelhaus SL, Jurczak MJ, Scott I. Cardiac-specific GCN5L1 deficiency promotes MASLD in HFpEF. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 May 21:2025.02.05.636634. PMID: 39975261.

Goossen CJ, Kufner A, Dustin CM, Al Ghouleh I, Yuan S, Straub AC, Sembrat J, Baust JJ, Gomez D, Kračun D, Pagano PJ. Redox regulation of lung endothelial PERK, unfolded protein response (UPR) and proliferation via NOX1: Targeted inhibition as a potential therapy for PAH. Redox Biol. 2025 May;82:103554. PMID: 40154102.

Yeh YS, Evans TD, Iwase M, Jeong SJ, Zhang X, Liu Z, Park A, Ghasemian A, Dianati B, Javaheri A, Kratky D, Kawarasaki S, Goto T, Zhang H, Dutta P, Schopfer FJ, Straub AC, Cho J, Lodhi IJ, Razani B. Identification of lysosomal lipolysis as an essential noncanonical mediator of adipocyte fasting and cold-induced lipolysis. J Clin Invest. 2025 Mar 17;135(6):e185340. PMID: 40091840.
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Internal Medicine Residency

Flores CV, Chan SY. Therapeutic targets for pulmonary arterial hypertension: insights into the emerging landscape. Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2025 Jun;29(6):327-343. PMID: 40368635.

Hansell CE, Aneis HA, Kitsios GD, Bain WG, Zhao Y, Suber TL, Evankovich JW, Sharma L, Ramakrishnan SK, Prendergast NT, Hensley MK, Malik S, Petro N, Patel JJ, Nouraie SM, Dela Cruz CS, Zhang Y, McVerry BJ, Shah FA. Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Is Prognostic of Mortality in Acute Respiratory Failure. Crit Care Explor. 2025 Mar 24;7(4):e1247. PMID: 40126931.

Kundrick J, Naniwadekar A, Singla V, Kancharla K, Bhonsale A, Voigt A, Shalaby A, Estes NAM, Jain SK, Saba S. Machine learning applied to wearable fitness tracker data and the risk of hospitalizations and cardiovascular events. Am J Prev Cardiol. 2025 May 17;22:101006.: 40496758.