Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BS

Department

Biomedical Sciences

Faculty Mentor

Nancy A. Rice

Advisor(s)

Padmamalini Thulasiraman, Robin J. Mockett

Abstract

Accounting for the majority of deaths worldwide, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) present the greatest health challenge of the twenty-first century. Specifically, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) exceed all other NCDs in annual deaths and especially affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Hypertension, being the primary risk factor for CVD, affects over 75% of adults in LMICs due to inadequate health care and preventative measures. Additionally, epigenetic modifications of DNA are important mechanisms that regulate gene expression; DNA methylation, in particular, affects cytosine residues in cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) islands on regulatory sequences. Previous research in our laboratory analyzed percent methylation at 8 different CpG islands in intron 1 of the NF-κB1 gene. As a result, this study further investigates the hypothesis that hypomethylated regulatory sequences of the NF-κB1 gene allows for greater transcriptional activity, resulting in a sustained inflammatory response and ultimately leading to hypertension. Results from this study showed that there may be increased percent methylation in normotensive/elevated versus hypertensive Kenyans (3.09% ± 0.47% and 2.43% ± 0.43%, respectively) when eight CpG sites of intron 1 were analyzed (n=20). In addition, Pearson's correlation showed that 23 pairs of CpG sites in the target sequence were positively associated with percent methylation. Moreover, results depicted statistical significance in predictive ability in 5 CpG sites for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and 6 CpG sites for diastolic blood pressure (DBP).

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