Publications by authors named "B-J Huang"

Objective: To identify clinicopathologic and genomic features associated with brain metastasis after resection of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and to evaluate survival after brain metastasis.

Methods: Patients who underwent complete resection of stage I-IIIA LUAD between 2011 and 2020 were included. A subset of patients had broad-based panel next-generation sequencing performed on their tumors.

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Multiplexed proteomics has become a powerful tool for investigating biological systems. Using balancer-peptide conjugates (e.g.

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Purpose: The Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Gene Curation Expert Panels (GCEPs) have historically focused on specific organ systems or phenotypes; thus, the ClinGen Syndromic Disorders GCEP (SD-GCEP) was formed to address an unmet need.

Methods: The SD-GCEP applied ClinGen's framework to evaluate the clinical validity of genes associated with rare syndromic disorders. 111 Gene-Disease Relationships (GDRs) associated with 100 genes spanning the clinical spectrum of syndromic disorders were curated.

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Cysteine residues are crucial for the formation of conserved disulfide bonds in therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which are essential for their folding and structural stability. The presence of free thiols in mAbs can indicate incomplete disulfide bond formation, potentially impacting the molecule's conformational stability. Free thiol quantitation has been achieved using labeling-based strategies such as maleimide and haloalkyl derivatives at both intact and peptide levels.

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  • Repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene are a leading genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia, but understanding how this mutation causes neuron death is still unclear, complicating the search for effective therapies.
  • Researchers analyzed data from over 41,000 ALS and healthy samples to identify potential treatments, discovering that acamprosate, a drug used for other conditions, might be repurposed for C9orf72-related diseases.
  • Their findings demonstrated that acamprosate has neuroprotective properties in cell models and works similarly well as the current treatment, riluzole, showing the potential of using genomic data to find new drug applications.
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Purpose: To evaluate the surveillance value of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for detecting distant metastasis and indicating systemic therapeutic efficacy in conjunctival melanoma (CoM).

Design: Retrospective, observational case series.

Methods: From July 2021 to June 2023, 30 CoM patients in our center underwent plasma ctDNA assessment, out of which 12 individuals presented with distant metastases.

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  • A study evaluated an AI model's ability to detect prostate cancer in scans done at different institutions, focusing on biparametric MRI (bpMRI) scans from both an external and an in-house setup.
  • This research included 201 male patients and showed that the AI detected a greater percentage of lesions on in-house scans compared to external ones (56.0% vs. 39.7% for intraprostatic lesions and 79% vs. 61% for clinically significant prostate cancer).
  • Factors that improved the AI's detection rates included higher PI-RADS scores, larger lesion sizes, and better quality of diffusion-weighted MRI images.
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  • The study aims to assess the occurrence and characteristics of macular retinoschisis (MRS) in individuals with high myopia within a Chinese population.
  • Conducted as a population-based, cross-sectional analysis, the study involved 213 highly myopic eyes from 129 participants who underwent optical coherence tomography scans.
  • The findings revealed a 22.5% prevalence of MRS among the eyes, with key risk factors identified including older age, higher intraocular pressure, thinner choroidal thickness, glaucoma, and the presence of an epiretinal membrane.
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Heart failure is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Elevated intracardiac pressures and myocyte stretch in heart failure trigger the release of counter-regulatory natriuretic peptides, which act through their receptor (NPR1) to affect vasodilation, diuresis and natriuresis, lowering venous pressures and relieving venous congestion. Recombinant natriuretic peptide infusions were developed to treat heart failure but have been limited by a short duration of effect.

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  • * A major challenge identified is the poor adhesion of human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) to animal PSCs, which hinders the creation of effective chimeras.
  • * To address this, researchers developed a synthetic biology technique that uses nanobody-antigen pairs to boost cell adhesion, leading to better integration of human PSCs in mouse embryos and improving understanding of cell interactions during early development.
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Targeted antineoplastic immunotherapies have achieved remarkable clinical outcomes. However, resistance to these therapies due to target absence or antigen shedding limits their efficacy and excludes tumours from candidacy. To address this limitation, here we engineer an oncolytic rhabdovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVΔ51), to express a truncated targeted antigen, which allows for HER2-targeting with trastuzumab.

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The Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS) Registry (NCT01990040) is a multinational real-world study evaluating the long-term safety of teduglutide in patients with SBS and intestinal failure (SBS-IF) in routine clinical practice. This paper describes the study methodology and baseline characteristics of adult patients who have (ever-treated) or have never (never-treated) received teduglutide. A total of 1411 adult patients (679 ever-treated; 732 never-treated) were enrolled at 124 sites across 17 countries.

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  • SARS-CoV-2 can spread from asymptomatic individuals, posing a greater risk to cancer patients who frequently visit healthcare facilities and are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 outcomes.* -
  • A study of lung cancer patients revealed that over half of those with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection were asymptomatic at diagnosis, and a significant number were never clinically diagnosed.* -
  • The findings indicate that older patients and those with early-stage lung cancer are more likely to have asymptomatic infections, highlighting the need for continued preventive measures in high-risk populations.*
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  • The 2022 European LeukemiaNet (ELN) classification predicts outcomes for younger acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients but was tested for those aged 60 and older receiving lower-intensity treatment (LIT), involving 595 patients with varying risk levels.
  • Results showed that while ELN risk is predictive of overall survival, it fails to distinguish between favorable and intermediate risks, prompting further exploration into adverse-risk patients' molecular abnormalities.
  • A new "Beat-AML" risk classification was developed, combining favorable and intermediate risks and integrating mutation scoring, leading to better survival predictions for older AML patients and aiding treatment decisions with clear risk group delineations.
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Innate immune responses to microbial pathogens are regulated by intracellular receptors known as nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) in both the plant and animal kingdoms. Across plant innate immune systems, "helper" NLRs (hNLRs) work in coordination with "sensor" NLRs (sNLRs) to modulate disease resistance signaling pathways. Activation mechanisms of hNLRs based on structures are unknown.

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The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor and tumor-associated antigen abnormally expressed in various types of cancer, including breast, ovarian, and gastric cancer. HER2 overexpression is highly correlated with increased tumor aggressiveness, poorer prognosis, and shorter overall survival. Consequently, multiple HER2-targeted therapies have been developed and approved; however, only a subset of patients benefit from these treatments, and relapses are common.

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Arenavirus-based vectors are being investigated as therapeutic vaccine candidates with the potential to elicit robust CD8 T-cell responses. We compared the immunogenicity of replicating (artPICV and artLCMV) and non-replicating (rPICV and rLCMV) arenavirus-based vectors expressing simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) Gag and Envelope (Env) immunogens in treatment-naïve non-human primates. Heterologous regimens with non-replicating and replicating vectors elicited more robust SIV IFN-γ responses than a homologous regimen, and replicating vectors elicited significantly higher cellular immunogenicity than non-replicating vectors.

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  • - Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is linked to gastrointestinal dysfunction and altered gut microbiota, affecting social skills and repetitive behaviors; this study explores how probiotics can interact with gut health in ASD mouse models.
  • - Mice models showed compromised intestinal barriers, with increased permeability and inflammation markers; C. butyricum probiotic helped enhance intestinal barrier function and mitigate behavioral issues in these mice.
  • - Results suggest that gut microbiota plays a significant role in ASD via the gut-brain axis, indicating that C. butyricum probiotics could be a potential therapeutic avenue for improving gut health and behavioral symptoms in ASD.
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Objective: Research into the risk factors associated with late recurrence (>2 years after surgery) of lung adenocarcinoma is limited. We investigated the incidence of and clinicopathologic and genomic features associated with late recurrence of resected stage I-IIIA lung adenocarcinoma.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with completely resected pathologic stage I-IIIA lung adenocarcinoma (2010-2019).

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Prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 can provide protection against infection and severe COVID-19. We aimed to determine the impact of preexisting immunity on vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates. We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed 66 test-negative design studies that examined VE against infection or severe disease (hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, or death) for primary vaccination series.

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Background: Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer type. Most patients are diagnosed at advanced stages with poor prognosis. A non-invasive assay for the detection of early-stage gastric cancer is highly desirable for reducing associated mortality.

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Monoclonal antibodies are commonly engineered with an introduction of Met428Leu and Asn434Ser, known as the LS mutation, in the fragment crystallizable region to improve pharmacokinetic profiles. The LS mutation delays antibody clearance by enhancing binding affinity to the neonatal fragment crystallizable receptor found on endothelial cells. To characterize the LS mutation for monoclonal antibodies targeting HIV, we compared pharmacokinetic parameters between parental versus LS variants for five pairs of anti-HIV immunoglobin G1 monoclonal antibodies (VRC01/LS/VRC07-523LS, 3BNC117/LS, PGDM1400/LS PGT121/LS, 10-1074/LS), analyzing data from 16 clinical trials of 583 participants without HIV.

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  • - The study investigates how genomic context affects gene regulation, focusing on the Igf2/H19 locus in mice, where CTCF binds to a control region that determines which gene is activated based on enhancers.
  • - By using synthetic regulatory genomics to replace the native genetic locus with 157-kb payloads, researchers discovered new long-range regulatory relationships and how enhancers interact with their environment.
  • - The research found that while the H19 enhancers depend on their native location, the Sox2 locus control region operates independently, suggesting that the context of enhancers is crucial for their function across different cell types.
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Based on (10087±44)×10^{6}  J/ψ events collected with the BESIII detector, a partial wave analysis of the decay J/ψ→γK_{S}^{0}K_{S}^{0}η^{'} is performed. The mass and width of the X(2370) are measured to be 2395±11(stat)_{-94}^{+26}(syst)  MeV/c^{2} and 188_{-17}^{+18}(stat)_{-33}^{+124}(syst)  MeV, respectively. The corresponding product branching fraction is B[J/ψ→γX(2370)]×B[X(2370)→f_{0}(980)η^{'}]×B[f_{0}(980)→K_{S}^{0}K_{S}^{0}]=(1.

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Adoptively transferred T cells and agents designed to block the CD47-SIRPα axis are promising cancer therapeutics that activate distinct arms of the immune system. Here we administered anti-CD47 antibodies in combination with adoptively transferred T cells with the goal of enhancing antitumour efficacy but observed abrogated therapeutic benefit due to rapid macrophage-mediated clearance of T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or engineered T cell receptors. Anti-CD47-antibody-mediated CAR T cell clearance was potent and rapid enough to serve as an effective safety switch.

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