Publications by authors named "Q-H Zhang"

Purpose: Inflammatory processes have been involved in diabetic retinopathy (DR). Interleukin (IL)-17A, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, is associated with DR occurrence and development. However, mechanisms underlying the IL-17A impact on DR need further investigations.

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There is a new awareness of the widespread nature of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its connection to cardiovascular disease (CVD). This has catalyzed collaboration between cardiologists, hepatologists, endocrinologists, and the wider multidisciplinary team to address the need for earlier identification of those with MASLD who are at increased risk for CVD. The overlap in the pathophysiologic processes and parallel prevalence of CVD, metabolic syndrome, and MASLD highlight the multisystem consequences of poor cardiovascular-liver-metabolic health.

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Rationale And Objectives: Comprehensive data on the use of ventilation-perfusion single-photo emission computed tomography/computed tomography (V/Q SPECT/CT), an established diagnostic tool for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, in identifying pulmonary hypertension secondary to fibrinous mediastinitis (PH-FM) is scarce. This study aimed to assess its diagnostic efficacy for PH-FM.

Materials And Methods: Patients with PH due to pulmonary artery stenosis were assessed using V/Q SPECT/CT, computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), and digital subtraction pulmonary angiography (PAG).

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  • The study focuses on enhancing microbial chassis cells, particularly the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis, for better performance in the circular economy.
  • Researchers improved the genome-scale metabolic model of Z. mobilis to overcome limitations in producing valuable biochemicals like D-lactate by introducing a new production pathway.
  • The findings also highlight the potential for commercialization and environmental benefits of using lignocellulosic materials for D-lactate production, paving the way for advancing biorefinery techniques.
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Background And Objectives: Cases and studies of neurologic symptoms in children caused by genetic metabolic diseases have been widely reported. Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency (OTCD) is the most common urea cycle disorder, which is due to mutations in the OTC gene located on chromosome Xp21.1.

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  • Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in China has a poor prognosis and the effectiveness of adjuvant therapy (AT) after surgery remains unclear, prompting this study to evaluate its impact on recurrence-free survival (RFS) among affected patients.* -
  • The study analyzed medical records of 523 ESCC patients who underwent surgery without prior therapy, using propensity score matching to compare 137 pairs of patients with and without AT, revealing that AT may improve RFS, especially in patients with higher propensity scores.* -
  • Findings suggest that AT can enhance RFS outcomes for certain groups, indicating that a higher propensity score correlates with greater benefits from AT, but further research is needed to better understand how to guide
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  • * Results indicate a decline in overall stroke burden trends, but with notable increases in East Asia and Southern Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting a variated impact across different regions and genders.
  • * A key finding is that stroke burden correlates negatively with the sociodemographic index, suggesting higher burdens in regions with lower socioeconomic status, while trends also shifted upward between 2019 and 2021, coinciding with the pandemic.
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Purpose: This study aimed to assess the drug risk of drug-related keratitis and track the epidemiological characteristics of drug-related keratitis.

Methods: This study analyzed data from the U.S.

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  • Traditional digital electronics principles may limit the design of complex gene circuits, prompting the need for innovative approaches in biocomputation.
  • The introduction of the tristate-based logic synthesis (TriLoS) framework using genetic variants of tristate buffers enables efficient design of multi-layered gene networks for performing advanced Boolean logic.
  • This research paves the way for programmable cell-based therapies that can tailor drug release based on specific diseases, potentially leading to significant advancements in precision medicine.
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Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii)-associated polymorphic effector proteins are crucial in parasite development and regulating host anti-T. gondii immune responses.

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Background: STIM1 (stromal interaction molecule 1) regulates store-operated calcium entry and is involved in pulmonary artery vasoconstriction and pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell proliferation, leading to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Methods: Bioinformatics analysis and a 2-stage matched case-control study were conducted to screen for noncoding variants that may potentially affect transcriptional regulation in 242 patients with idiopathic PAH and 414 healthy controls. Luciferase reporter assay, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blot, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay, and intracellular Ca measurement were performed to study the mechanistic roles of those noncoding variants in PAH.

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  • Asian soybean rust (ASR), caused by the fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi, severely impacts soybean crops, with a lack of resistant varieties hindering effective management.
  • Researchers isolated two genes, Rpp6907-7 and Rpp6907-4, from a resistant Chinese soybean landrace, which together provide broad-spectrum resistance to ASR.
  • The study reveals that Rpp6907-7 is the primary gene conferring resistance, while Rpp6907-4 regulates its activity, indicating their potential in breeding improved soybean varieties.
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Exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) is effective in inducing remission in pediatric Crohn disease (CD). EEN alters the intestinal microbiome, but precise mechanisms are unknown. We hypothesized that pre-diagnosis diet establishes a baseline gut microbiome, which then mediates response to EEN.

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Drug resistance poses a significant challenge in the development of effective therapies against SARS-CoV-2. Here, we identified two double mutations, M49K/M165V and M49K/S301P, in the 3C-like protease (3CLpro) that confer resistance to a novel non-covalent inhibitor, WU-04, which is currently in phase III clinical trials (NCT06197217). Crystallographic analysis indicates that the M49K mutation destabilizes the WU-04-binding pocket, impacting the binding of WU-04 more significantly than the binding of 3CLpro substrates.

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Background: Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) has a long-term impact on hepatic consequences. A comprehensive evaluation of the global burden of HCV-related health outcomes can help to develop a global HCV prevention and treatment program.

Methods: We used the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study to comprehensively investigate burden and temporal trends in incidence, mortality and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of HCV-related diseases, including liver cancer and cirrhosis and other liver diseases across 264 countries and territories from 2010 to 2019.

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Background Translocator protein (TSPO) PET has been used to visualize microglial activation in neuroinflammation and is a potential imaging tool for detecting autoimmune encephalitis (AIE). Purpose To compare the detection rate between TSPO radioligand fluorine 18 (F) DPA-714 PET and conventional MRI and assess the relationship between F-DPA-714 uptake and clinical features in participants with AIE. Materials and Methods Healthy volunteers and patients with AIE were enrolled in this prospective study between December 2021 and April 2023.

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Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a prevalent disorder characterized by recurrent episodic upper airway obstruction. Using data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), we apply principal component analysis (PCA) to seven SDB-related measures. We estimate the associations of the top two SDB PCs with serum levels of 617 metabolites, in both single-metabolite analysis, and a joint penalized regression analysis.

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This study aimed to evaluate and compare the performance of three anti-S and one anti-N assays that were available to the project in detecting antibody levels after three commonly used SARS-CoV-2 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson). It also aimed to assess the association of age, sex, race, ethnicity, vaccine timing, and vaccine side effects on antibody levels in a cohort of 827 individuals. In September 2021, 698 vaccinated individuals donated blood samples as part of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) COVID-19 Immunity Study.

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Purpose: To reveal the clinical significance, pathological involvement and molecular mechanism of imprinted in Prader-Willi syndrome (IPW) in RPE anomalies that contribute to AMD.

Methods: IPW expression under pathological conditions were detected by microarrays and qPCR assays. In vitro cultured fetal RPE cells were used to study the pathogenicity induced by IPW overexpression and to analyze its upstream and downstream regulatory networks.

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Introduction: In metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, the diagnostic efficacy of controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) was not very accurate in evaluating liver fat content. The aim of this study was to develop a score, based on CAP and conventional clinical parameters, to improve the diagnostic performance of CAP regarding liver fat content.

Methods: A total of 373 participants from 2 independent Chinese cohorts were included and divided into derivation (n = 191), internal validation (n = 75), and external validation (n = 107) cohorts.

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Here, we present a gene regulation strategy enabling programmable control over eukaryotic translational initiation. By excising the natural poly-adenylation (poly-A) signal of target genes and replacing it with a synthetic control region harboring RNA-binding protein (RBP)-specific aptamers, cap-dependent translation is rendered exclusively dependent on synthetic translation initiation factors (STIFs) containing different RBPs engineered to conditionally associate with different eIF4F-binding proteins (eIFBPs). This modular design framework facilitates the engineering of various gene switches and intracellular sensors responding to many user-defined trigger signals of interest, demonstrating tightly controlled, rapid and reversible regulation of transgene expression in mammalian cells as well as compatibility with various clinically applicable delivery routes of in vivo gene therapy.

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Background: Atherosclerosis is a globally prevalent chronic inflammatory disease with high morbidity and mortality. The development of atherosclerotic lesions is determined by macrophages. This study aimed to investigate the specific role of myeloid-derived CD147 (cluster of differentiation 147) in atherosclerosis and its translational significance.

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This study was conducted to investigate effects of dietary and supplementation on the intestinal stem cell proliferation, immunity, and ileal microbiota of broiler chickens challenged by coccidia and . A total of 336 one-day-old Ross 308 chickens were randomly assigned into four groups. Chickens in the control (CTR) group were fed basal diet, and chickens in the three challenged groups were fed basal diets supplemented with nothing (CCP group), 1.

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Background: The effectiveness of acupuncture for patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), reported in a few small-scale studies, is not convincing.

Objective: To investigate whether acupuncture leads to better effects on CSU than sham acupuncture or waitlist control.

Design: A multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial.

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The blood proteome holds great promise for precision medicine but poses substantial challenges due to the low abundance of most plasma proteins and the vast dynamic range of the plasma proteome. Here we address these challenges with NUcleic acid Linked Immuno-Sandwich Assay (NULISA™), which improves the sensitivity of traditional proximity ligation assays by ~10,000-fold to attomolar level, by suppressing assay background via a dual capture and release mechanism built into oligonucleotide-conjugated antibodies. Highly multiplexed quantification of both low- and high-abundance proteins spanning a wide dynamic range is achieved by attenuating signals from abundant targets with unconjugated antibodies and next-generation sequencing of barcoded reporter DNA.

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