Publications by authors named "Ethan Lai"

Background: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) providing excess energy increase adiposity. The effect of other food sources of sugars at different energy control levels is unclear.

Objectives: To determine the effect of food sources of fructose-containing sugars by energy control on adiposity.

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Article Synopsis
  • About 40 genes are known to be linked to congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT), which is a major cause of chronic kidney disease in children; however, these genes only explain 20% of cases.
  • A study identified ARHGEF6 gene variants that could contribute to CAKUT by affecting cell signaling, particularly involving proteins that facilitate cell movement and adhesion.
  • The research used exome sequencing on 1,265 families and found mutations in ARHGEF6 in some individuals, suggesting that defects in this gene can disrupt kidney development and result in CAKUT.*
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Purpose: Congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract (CAKUT) constitute the leading cause of chronic kidney disease in children. In total, 174 monogenic causes of isolated or syndromic CAKUT are known. However, syndromic features may be overlooked when the initial clinical diagnosis of CAKUT is made.

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Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is a leading cause of chronic kidney disease. We found recessive variants in two families with early-onset NS by exome sequencing. Overexpression of wild-type (WT) , but not cDNA constructs bearing patient variants, increased active CDC42 and promoted filopodia and podosome formation.

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Purpose: Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) are the most common cause of chronic kidney disease in childhood and adolescence. We aim to identify novel monogenic causes of CAKUT.

Methods: Exome sequencing was performed in 550 CAKUT-affected families.

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Adult-onset immunodeficiency (AOID) with anti-interferon-γ (IFN-γ) autoantibodies (autoAbs) is an emerging immunodeficiency syndrome in Asian countries. The presence of neutralizing anti-IFN-γ autoAbs are significantly associated with severe disseminated opportunistic infections. However, the characteristics of the neutralizing antibodies in patients are poorly defined.

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Background: Expression vector engineering technology is one of the most convenient and timely method for cell line development to meet the rising demand of novel production cell line with high productivity. Destabilization of dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) selection marker by addition of AU-rich elements and murine ornithine decarboxylase PEST region was previously shown to improve the specific productivities of recombinant human interferon gamma in CHO-DG44 cells. In this study, we evaluated novel combinations of engineered motifs for further selection marker attenuation to improve recombinant human alpha-1-antitrypsin (rhA1AT) production.

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