About the Authors

Dequina A. Nicholas

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Division of Biochemistry, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Kangling Zhang

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Christopher Hung

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Division of Biochemistry, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Shane Glasgow

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Division of Biochemistry, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Aruni Wilson Aruni

Affiliation Department of Basic Sciences, Division of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Juli Unternaehrer

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Division of Biochemistry, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Kimberly J. Payne

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

William H. R. Langridge

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Division of Biochemistry, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Marino De Leon

madeleon@llu.edu

Affiliations Center for Health Disparities and Molecular Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Department of Basic Sciences, Division of Physiology, Loma Linda University School Medicine, Loma Linda, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: DN WL MD. Data curation: DN KZ. Formal analysis: DN KZ AA. Funding acquisition: DN MD. Investigation: DN KZ CH SG AA JU WL MD. Methodology: DN KZ MD WL. Project administration: DN MD WL. Resources: WL MD. Supervision: WL MD. Validation: DN KZ CH. Visualization: DN. Writing – original draft: DN. Writing – review & editing: DN KP WL MD.