Publications by authors named "Lirong Cao"

Article Synopsis
  • The influenza virus constantly evolves to avoid human immunity, requiring annual updates of vaccine strains for effectiveness against seasonal epidemics.* -
  • A new computational method called beth-1 has been developed to forecast virus evolution and select optimal vaccine strains by analyzing mutation fitness and immune response data.* -
  • In tests, beth-1 outperformed existing methods in predicting viral changes and showed better or comparable results in neutralization experiments in mice, making it a valuable tool for selecting influenza vaccine strains.*
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Family selection is an important method in fish aquaculture because growth is the most important economic trait. Fast-and slow-growing families of tiger puffer fish (Takifugu rubripes) have been established through family selection. The development of teleost fish is primarily controlled by the growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) axis that includes the hypothalamus-pituitary-liver.

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To understand leaf litter stoichiometry in a subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest, we measured the contents of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in leaf litters of 62 main woody species in a natural forest of Nature Reserve in Sanming, Fujian Province. Differences in leaf litter stoichiometry were analyzed across leaf forms (evergreen, deciduous), life forms (tree, semi-tree or shrub), and main families. Additionally, the phylogenetic signal was measured by Blomberg's to explore the correlation between family level differentiation time and litter stoichiometry.

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Article Synopsis
  • Virus evolution involves changes that help pathogens adapt to their hosts and surroundings, with certain mutations increasing the likelihood of infection.
  • These advantageous mutations can quickly dominate a population, as seen through a logistic growth pattern that is influenced by the rate of mutation and external factors affecting the virus.
  • The proposed model applies to COVID-19 data, specifically the B.1.1.7 variant in England, providing insight into how these mutations evolve and spread over time.
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Article Synopsis
  • Timely evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for effective pandemic response, as it helps assess their effectiveness against emerging variants of concern.
  • Analysis of 78 studies found that the genetic distance of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants from the original vaccine strain significantly predicts vaccine effectiveness (VE), explaining over 86% of the changes in VE.
  • The VE-GD framework allows for real-time predictions of vaccine protection against new variants, helping to inform public health strategies and vaccine distribution.
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The utility of 2-diphenylphosphoryloxy-1,3-dienes for the construction of substituted six-membered nitrogen heterocycles is presented. These dienes undergo boron trifluoride-promoted aza-Diels-Alder reactions when reacted with imines or related species formed in situ using aldehydes and amine derivatives. The stability of the dienes allows this three-component reaction to be carried out with no special precautions to eliminate water or air.

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Imine- and phosphinimine-supported indium complexes were used as catalysts in the polymerization of racemic lactide and ε-caprolactone as well as their copolymerization by the sequential and simultaneous addition of monomers. Tuning the electronics and sterics of the indium centers by either (i) changing the nature of the nitrogen donors and (ii) coordinating a hemilabile side group had a significant effect on the reactivity of the complexes, their stability, and their control in the synthesis of block copolymers. Specifically, the imine-supported complex () showed the highest activity in the homo- and copolymerization of the cyclic esters, in contrast to the phosphinimine-supported complex (), which was significantly slower and less stable.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluates how virus mutations and government policies affect COVID-19 transmission in Hong Kong.
  • It reveals a positive correlation between virus mutations and transmissibility (R), while government interventions negatively impact R, indicating their effectiveness.
  • Key findings include that mutations in specific proteins (spike, nucleocapsid, and ORF1b) increase transmissibility, and prohibiting gatherings is the most effective policy to reduce virus spread.
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  • COVID-19 led to frequent genetic mutations in SARS-CoV-2, particularly in the spike protein, affecting the virus's transmissibility.
  • Researchers analyzed SARS-CoV-2 strain sequencing data from California to track how genetic distances changed over time across various viral proteins.
  • The study found consistent increases in genetic distance for some proteins, while others showed temporary mutations, suggesting different mutation patterns may influence the virus's characteristics and warrant further research.
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  • The study investigates how seasonal influenza viruses, specifically H3N2, evolve and evade immunity due to genetic mutations called effective mutations (EMs).
  • A new statistical and computational method was developed to analyze the dynamics of these mutations and their impact on population immunity over time, known as effective mutation periods (EMPs).
  • The research identified 46 key mutations in the influenza virus's hemagglutinin gene, which could help improve vaccine design, showing that these major variants last longer in Southeast Asia compared to temperate regions.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic poses serious threats to global health, and the emerging mutation in SARS-CoV-2 genomes, e.g., the D614G substitution, is one of the major challenges of disease control.

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The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide and threatened human life. Diagnosis is crucial to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections and save lives. Diagnostic tests for COVID-19 have varying sensitivity and specificity, and the false-negative results would have substantial consequences to patient treatment and pandemic control.

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Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), accompanied with protumor and antitumor activity, has been studied in multiple cancers. However, the role of iNOS expression in osteosarcoma (OS) is far from being fully understood. In present work, iNOS levels were detected in OS tissues and cell lines.

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The circulation of P.1 SARS-CoV-2 lineage becomes a challenge of pandemic control. Among the COVID-19 cases reported in Brazil, P.

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As COVID-19 is posing a serious threat to global health, the emerging mutation in SARS-CoV-2 genomes, for example, N501Y substitution, is one of the major challenges against control of the pandemic. Characterizing the relationship between mutation activities and the risk of severe clinical outcomes is of public health importance for informing the healthcare decision-making process. Using a likelihood-based approach, we developed a statistical framework to reconstruct a time-varying and variant-specific case fatality ratio (CFR), and to estimate changes in CFR associated with a single mutation empirically.

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Assessment of influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) and identification of relevant influencing factors are the current priorities for optimizing vaccines to reduce the impacts of influenza. To date, how the difference between epidemic strains and vaccine strains at genetic scale affects age-specific vaccine performance remains ambiguous. This study investigated the association between genetic mismatch on hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes and A(H1N1)pdm09 VE in different age groups with a novel computational approach.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic poses a serious threat to global health, and pathogenic mutations are a major challenge to disease control. We developed a statistical framework to explore the association between molecular-level mutation activity of SARS-CoV-2 and population-level disease transmissibility of COVID-19.

Methods: We estimated the instantaneous transmissibility of COVID-19 by using the time-varying reproduction number (R).

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The emerging N501Y mutation in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which becomes prevalent in the UK rapidly, is one of the major challenges of COVID-19 control. To explore the transmission advantage, we estimate that the N501Y substitution increases the infectivity by 52% (95% confidence interval: 46, 58) in terms of the reproduction number.

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The effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccines varies with the matching of vaccine strains to circulating strains. Based on the genetic distance of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase gene of the influenza viruses to vaccine strains, we statistically quantified the relationship between the genetic mismatch and vaccine effectiveness (VE) for influenza A/H1N1pdm09, A/H3N2 and B. We also proposed a systematic approach to integrate multiple genes and influenza types for overall VE estimation.

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Deoxynivalenol (DON) poses a serious health threat to animals and humans consuming DON-contaminated food and feed. Biological means of detoxification of DON are considered as one of the effective strategies. The aim of the work was to study ameliorative effects of Bacillus subtilis ASAG 216 on DON-induced toxicosis in piglets.

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Objectives: Characterizing and predicting the evolutionary process of influenza, which remains challenging, are of importance in capturing the patterns of influenza activities and the development of prevention and control strategies. In this study, we quantified genetic mutation activity and developed a statistical model to predict dominant influenza A serotype with limited sequencing data.

Data And Methods: A total number of 8097 and 7090 HA sequences for A/H1N1 and A/H3N2 were collected from 2008/09 to 2018/19 flu season in seven countries or regions.

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Article Synopsis
  • The intestinal epithelium acts as the first defense against food contaminants but is particularly sensitive to Fusarium toxins like deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEA).
  • A study on piglets showed that low doses of DON and ZEA in their diets led to intestinal inflammation, altered protein expression, and changes in gut microbiota over a 3-week period.
  • Switching back to a control diet for 2 weeks did not completely reverse the negative effects of these toxins, highlighting potential long-term impacts on health and growth in both animals and humans.
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Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe progressive neurodevelopmental disease characterized by psychomotor regression. The gene is one of the pathogenic genes associated with the congenital Rett variant, which is less studied. Only a few Chinese patients with mutation have been reported.

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