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The COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly changed almost all aspects of people's everyday lives. This included new challenges in the education of Native American students with disabilities who live in rural and remote areas of the United States. Native American students with disabilities living on reservations are served by local schools, tribally controlled schools, and Bureau of Indian Education schools under the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In rural reservation communities during COVID-19, special education services for students with disabilities were significantly disrupted. Contributing factors were high rates of poverty, lack of adequate funding and staffing for health care, populations with higher rates of chronic illness, high percentages of homes with no running water or electricity, shortages of certified special educators, and barriers to alternative forms of education due to lack of access to high-speed internet and technology.

Arizona teacher education programs are largely concentrated in urban or suburban areas, with the majority of practicum experiences and student teaching placements located in the same metropolitan areas. However, in Arizona, 35% of K-12 students are served by the 135 school districts that qualify as "rural." In the extreme southwest corner of Arizona bordering Mexico, 70% of these rural K-12 students are of Hispanic background with Spanish as their first language, and 26.7% of these Hispanic families are living below the poverty line. The "Grow Your Own" programs described here, developed through university-school district partnerships, are specifically designed to prepare culturally responsive educators to meet the needs and ultimately improve the lives of students with disabilities in southwestern Arizona rural border communities.

Oleanolic acid is a widely distributed natural product, which possesses promising antitumor, antiviral, antihyperlipidemic, and anti-inflammatory activities. A heterodimeric complex formed by integrin αM (CD11b) and integrin β2 (CD18) is highly expressed on monocytes and macrophages. In the current study, we demonstrate that the I domain of αM (αM-I domain) might present a potential cellular target for oleanolic acid. In vitro data show that oleanolic acid induces clustering of αM on macrophages and reduces their non-directional migration. In accordance with experimental data, molecular docking revealed that oleanolic acid binds to the αM-I domain in its extended-open form, the dominant conformation found in αM clusters. Molecular dynamics simulation revealed that oleanolic acid can increase the flexibility of the α7 helix and promote its movement away from the N-terminus, indicating that oleanolic acid may facilitate the conversion of the αM-I domain from the extended-closed to the extended-open conformation. As demonstrated by metadynamics simulation, oleanolic acid can destabilize the local minimum of the αM-I domain in the open conformation partially through disturbance of the interactions between α1 and α7 helices. In summary, we demonstrate that oleanolic acid might function as an allosteric agonist inducing clustering of αM on macrophages by shifting the balance from the closed to the extended-open conformation. The molecular target identified in this study might hold potential for a purposeful use of oleanolic acid to modulate chronic inflammatory responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, frankincense extracts have been commonly used in traditional medicine, and more recently, in complementary medicine. Therefore, frankincense constituents such as boswellic and lupeolic acids are of considerable therapeutic interest. Sixteen frankincense nutraceuticals were characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), revealing major differences in boswellic and lupeolic acid compositions and total contents, which varied from 0.4% to 35.7%. Frankincense nutraceuticals significantly inhibited the release of proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8, by LPS-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and whole blood. Moreover, boswellic and lupeolic acid contents correlated with TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 inhibition. The nutraceuticals also exhibited toxicity against the human triple-negative breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-453, and CAL-51 in vitro. Nutraceuticals with total contents of boswellic and lupeolic acids >30% were the most active ones against MDA-MB-231 with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) ≤ 7.0 µg/mL. Moreover, a frankincense nutraceutical inhibited tumor growth and induced apoptosis in vivo in breast cancer xenografts grown on the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). Among eight different boswellic and lupeolic acids tested, β-ABA exhibited the highest cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231 with an IC50 = 5.9 µM, inhibited growth of cancer xenografts in vivo, and released proinflammatory cytokines. Its content in nutraceuticals correlated strongly with TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 release inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oleanolic acid is a widely distributed natural product, which possesses promising antitumor, antiviral, antihyperlipidemic, and anti-inflammatory activities. A heterodimeric complex formed by integrin α M (CD11b) and integrin β 2 (CD18) is highly expressed on monocytes and macrophages. In the current study, we demonstrate that the I domain of α M (α M -I domain) might present a potential cellular target for oleanolic acid. In vitro data show that oleanolic acid induces clustering of α M on macrophages and reduces their non-directional migration. In accordance with experimental data, molecular docking revealed that oleanolic acid binds to the α M -I domain in its extended-open form, the dominant conformation found in α M clusters. Molecular dynamics simulation revealed that oleanolic acid can increase the flexibility of the α7 helix and promote its movement away from the N-terminus, indicating that oleanolic acid may facilitate the conversion of the α M -I domain from the extended-closed to the extended-open conformation. As demonstrated by metadynamics simulation, oleanolic acid can destabilize the local minimum of the α M -I domain in the open conformation partially through disturbance of the interactions between α1 and α7 helices. In summary, we demonstrate that oleanolic acid might function as an allosteric agonist inducing clustering of α M on macrophages by shifting the balance from the closed to the extended-open conformation. The molecular target identified in this study might hold potential for a purposeful use of oleanolic acid to modulate chronic inflammatory responses., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Jin, Han, Zhang, Zhao, Ulrich, Syrovets and Simmet.)