After successful clearance of an infection, a significant number of memory T cells remain in both lymphoid andnon-lymphoid tissues to protect against re-infection. Tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells are a population ofmemory T cells localized to non-lymphoid tissues without continuous re-circulation.

Oral health is associated with nutritional intake and overall well-being in elderly populations and progressivelydeteriorates with aging. In addition, salivary gland function, which plays a major role in oral defense, alsodecreases with age. However, the mechanisms involved in this age-related decline have not beencomprehensively studied due to a lack of proper laboratory animal models for studying changes in oral healthwith aging. The common marmoset is a relatively short-lived non-human primate (NHP) that recapitulates manyof the physiological changes that occur in human aging.

This proposal seeks support for the South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program (STX MSTP) at theUniversity of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), a federally designated Hispanic-servinginstitution in a minority-majority city. As national leader in clinical and translational research on Hispanic,military, and Veteran health issues, UTHSCSA addresses regional health disparities that present both challengesand opportunities for medical research that are of nationwide relevance.

Cognitive impairment has a serious detrimental impact on the quality of life for prostate cancer survivorstreated by androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Neuroimaging studies have shown structural and functionaldeficits in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus (Hipp), which mediate higher order cognitiveprocesses, including cognitive flexibility and spatial cognition, that are impaired after ADT. In this project, we willinvestigate mechanisms that underly the cognitive impairments we have now shown to be induced by androgendeprivation in rats.

Stimulant abuse is a serious public health problem with untold medical, societal, and economic impactworldwide. Despite decades of research into the neurobiology of drug abuse, there are no FDA-approvedpharmacotherapies for stimulant abuse. One strategy to reduce the time required to get candidate medicationsinto the clinic is to repurpose drugs, already approved by the FDA for other indications, to treat stimulant abuse,and one strategy to improve the therapeutic effectiveness of a drug is to administer it in combination with seconddrug with a complimentary mechanism of action.