Publications by authors named "Betty Pham"

Introduction: Clozapine is the gold standard treatment for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, however adverse events remain a clinical challenge.

Areas Covered: This review presents a narrative synthesis of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that have reported the onset, incidence, prevalence, and management of clozapine's adverse events. We conducted a systematic literature search using PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, OvidMEDLINE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from inception to April 2024.

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  • An intergenic region on chromosome 4q31 linked to COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) susceptibility and lung function was studied, focusing on the gene HHIP, which shows different expression patterns in human and mouse lungs.
  • Various molecular techniques like snATAC-seq and CRISPR/Cas9 were used to identify and manipulate regulatory elements affecting HHIP expression in human lung cells.
  • The research found that a distal enhancer regulates HHIP expression, influenced by TGFβ, and reduced HHIP levels lead to enhanced epithelial-mesenchymal transition, suggesting a role in COPD development.
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  • - The impact of genomic diagnosis on congenital malformations is limited by a lack of understanding of how genetic variants cause diseases and if this knowledge can lead to tailored treatments.
  • - Researchers discovered harmful genetic mutations in a key regulator gene linked to congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), a severe developmental disorder affecting the diaphragm and lungs.
  • - In mouse studies, restoring normal histone acetylation through treatment improved lung development and reduced CDH-related complications, suggesting potential therapeutic approaches for affected patients.
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The impact of placental dysfunction and placental injury on the fetus and newborn infant has become a topic of growing interest in neonatal disease research. However, the use of placental pathology in directing or influencing neonatal clinical management continues to be limited for a wide range of reasons, some of which are historical and thus easily overcome today. In this review, we summarize the most recent literature linking placental function to neonatal outcomes, focusing on clinical placental pathology findings and the most common neonatal diagnoses that have been associated with placental dysfunction.

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We describe a case of late onset sepsis in an extremely low birth weight male neonate born at 23 and 4/7 weeks gestational age to a 30-year-old primigravid mother due to preterm labor. The mother was otherwise healthy with an unremarkable prenatal course. She received steroids and ampicillin prior to delivery.

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Although HHIP locus has been consistently associated with the susceptibility to COPD including airway remodeling and emphysema in genome-wide association studies, the molecular mechanism underlying this genetic association remains incompletely understood. By utilizing Hhip mice and primary human airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs), here we aim to determine whether HHIP haploinsufficiency increases airway smooth muscle mass by reprogramming glucose metabolism, thus contributing to airway remodeling in COPD pathogenesis. The mRNA levels of HHIP were compared in normal and COPD-derived ASMCs.

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  • * Researchers used CRISPR technology to modify rs2076295 and observed its effects on gene expression, cellular integrity, and migration in airway epithelial cells.
  • * Findings indicate that rs2076295 influences gene expression related to the extracellular matrix and cell migration, potentially contributing to the development of IPF.
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Obesity commonly co-exists with fatty liver disease with increasing health burden worldwide. Family with Sequence Similarity 13, Member A (FAM13A) has been associated with lipid levels and fat mass by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, the function of FAM13A in maintaining metabolic homeostasis in vivo remains unclear.

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Murine studies have linked TGF-β signaling to emphysema, and human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) studies of lung function and COPD have identified associated regions near genes in the TGF-β superfamily. However, the functional regulatory mechanisms at these loci have not been identified. We performed the largest GWAS of emphysema patterns to date, identifying 10 GWAS loci including an association peak spanning a 200 kb region downstream from .

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Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple associations with emphysema apicobasal distribution (EABD), but the biological functions of these variants are unknown. To characterize the functions of EABD-associated variants, we integrated GWAS results with 1) expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) from the Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) project and subjects in the COPDGene (Genetic Epidemiology of COPD) study and 2) cell type epigenomic marks from the Roadmap Epigenomics project. On the basis of these analyses, we selected a variant near ACVR1B (activin A receptor type 1B) for functional validation.

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Cigarette smoke (CS) is one of the major risk factors for many pulmonary diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer. The first line of defense for CS exposure is the bronchial epithelial cells. Elucidation of the epigenetic changes during CS exposure is key to gaining a mechanistic understanding into how mature and differentiated bronchial epithelial cells respond to CS.

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Rationale: The identification of causal variants responsible for disease associations from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) facilitates functional understanding of the biological mechanisms by which those genetic variants influence disease susceptibility.

Objective: We aim to identify causal variants in or near the FAM13A (family with sequence similarity member 13A) GWAS locus associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Methods: We used an integrated approach featuring conditional genetic analysis, massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs), traditional reporter assays, chromatin conformation capture assays, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based gene editing to characterize COPD-associated regulatory variants in the FAM13A region in human bronchial epithelial cell lines.

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NK cells are important in the immune response against tumors and virally infected cells. A balance between inhibitory and activating receptors controls the effector functions of NK cells. We examined the fate of circulating NK cells and the expression of the NK cell-activating receptors in pediatric liver transplant recipients.

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