Publications by authors named "Weihong Gu"

Background And Aims: Necrotizing enterocolitis is a severe gastrointestinal complication of prematurity. Using small intestinal organoids derived from fetal tissue of a gestational age similar to an extremely preterm infant, this study aims to assess the effect of diet on intestinal epithelial growth and differentiation to elucidate the role nutrition type plays in intestinal development and modifies the risk for necrotizing enterocolitis.

Methods: Organoids were cultured for 5 days in growth media and 5 days in differentiation media supplemented 1:40 with 4 different diets: parental milk, donor human milk, standard formula, or extensively hydrolyzed formula.

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Understanding the pulmonary adaptive immune system of pigs is important as respiratory pathogens present a major challenge for swine producers and pigs are increasingly used to model human pulmonary diseases. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) has accelerated the characterization of cellular phenotypes in the pig respiratory tract under both healthy and diseased conditions. However, combining scRNAseq with recovery of paired T cell receptor (TCR) α and β chains as well as B cell receptor (BCR) heavy and light chains to interrogate their repertoires has not to our knowledge been demonstrated for pigs.

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Understanding when host-microbiome interactions are first established is crucial for comprehending normal development and identifying disease prevention strategies. Furthermore, bacterially derived metabolites play critical roles in shaping the intestinal immune system. Recent studies have demonstrated that memory T cells infiltrate human intestinal tissue early in the second trimester, suggesting that intestinal immune education begins in utero.

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Watermelon is one of the most important edible plants worldwide. Owing to its special cultivation conditions, watermelon is exposed to many biological and abiotic stresses during its development. Lectin receptor-like kinases (LecRLKs) are plant-specific membrane proteins that play important roles in sensing and responding to environmental stimuli.

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Proper development of mucosal immunity is critical for human health. Over the past decade, it has become evident that in humans, this process begins in utero. However, there are limited data on the unique features and functions of fetal mucosal immune cells.

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In both humans and NOD mice, type 1 diabetes (T1D) develops from the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells by T cells. Interactions between both helper CD4 and cytotoxic CD8 T cells are essential for T1D development in NOD mice. Previous work has indicated that pathogenic T cells arise from deleterious interactions between relatively common genes which regulate aspects of T cell activation/effector function ( ), peptide presentation (, ), and T cell receptor (TCR) signaling ().

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The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English.

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Article Synopsis
  • A genome-wide association study (GWAS) on multiple system atrophy (MSA) was conducted using data from various populations including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, European, and North American samples.
  • The study identified a significant genetic variant, rs2303744 on chromosome 19, which showed strong association with MSA in East Asian populations and was also significant in European/North American samples despite differences in allele frequencies.
  • The associated variant leads to an amino acid change in the cPLA2γ enzyme, resulting in reduced enzymatic activity that could disrupt biological processes involving membrane phospholipids and α-synuclein, potentially contributing to the disease's development.
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  • - Mycoviruses, such as hypovirus 1 (ThHV1) and its defective RNA variant, were introduced into a fungal biological control agent, T-51, creating a new strain (51-13) with altered traits and antifungal properties.
  • - The study found that strain 51-13 exhibited significantly different antifungal activities in its culture filtrate and volatile organic compounds compared to the original T-51 strain, showing stronger inhibition against some pathogens.
  • - Transcriptome analysis revealed over 5,500 differentially expressed genes in 51-13, leading to enriched metabolic pathways and the identification of several secondary metabolites, including indole-3-lactic acid and p-coumaric acid methyl ester
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Article Synopsis
  • Non-motor symptoms (NMS) are essential for diagnosing multiple system atrophy (MSA) and can appear before motor symptoms, but few studies have focused on their timing and differences compared to Parkinson's disease (PD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
  • The study involved 61 patients with MSA, 87 with PD, and 30 with PSP, using the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) to assess the prevalence and timing of NMS in MSA relative to motor symptom onset.
  • Results showed that MSA patients had significantly more NMS than those with PD and PSP, with certain symptoms like fainting and lack of motivation indicating MSA, while issues like forgetfulness were
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Influenza virus infections are a major cause of respiratory disease in humans. Neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) are the primary antiviral medication used to treat ongoing influenza infections. However, NAIs are not always effective for controlling virus shedding and lung inflammation.

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Unlabelled: Natural killer T (NKT) cells activated with the glycolipid ligand α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) stimulate a wide variety of immune cells that enhance vaccine-mediated immune responses. Several studies have used this approach to adjuvant inactivated and subunit influenza A virus (IAV) vaccines, including to enhance cross-protective influenza immunity. However, less is known about whether α-GalCer can enhance live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) vaccines, which usually induce superior heterologous and heterosubtypic immunity compared to non-replicating influenza vaccines.

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Many aspects of the porcine immune system remain poorly characterized, which poses a barrier to improving swine health and utilizing pigs as preclinical models. Here, we employ single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to create a cell atlas of the early-adolescent pig thymus. Our data show conserved features as well as species-specific differences in cell states and cell types compared with human thymocytes.

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spp. are widely used in plant disease control and growth promotion due to their high efficacy and multiple biocontrol mechanisms. T-51 is an effective biocontrol agent against gray mold disease by direct contact.

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Background: China has made tremendous progresses in serving the needs of its people living with rare diseases in the past decade, especially over the last 5 years. The Chinese government's systematic approach included a series of coordinated initiatives, amongst these are: forming the Rare Disease Expert Committee (2016), funding the "Rare Diseases Cohort Study" (2016-2020), and publishing its first "Rare Disease Catalog" (2018). Herein, we present the National Rare Diseases Registry System (NRDRS)-China's first national rare diseases registry, and the analysis of cases registered in the first 5 years ending Dec 31, 2020.

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In China, there are severe unmet medical needs of people living with rare diseases. Relatedly, there is a dearth of data to inform rare diseases policy. This is historically partially due to the lack of informatics infrastructure, including standards and terminology, data sharing mechanisms and network; and concerns over patient privacy protection.

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Background: Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is an exciting field of study, with a growing number of causal genes and an expanding phenotypic spectrum. The microrchidia family CW-type zinc finger 2 gene (MORC2) was newly identified as a causative gene of CMT2Z in 2016. We aimed to describe the phenotypic-genetic spectrum of MORC2-related diseases in the Chinese population.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is 1 of the highly fatal and most aggressive types of malignancies and accounts for the vast majority of Pancreatic Cancer. Numerous studies have reported that the tumor microenvironment (TME) was significantly correlated with the oncogenesis, progress, and prognosis of various malignancies. Therefore, mining of TME-related genes is reasonably important to improve the overall survival of patients with PDAC.

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Article Synopsis
  • Emerging evidence suggests that gut dysbiosis may influence the development and progression of Huntington's disease (HD).
  • A study involving 33 HD patients and 33 healthy controls analyzed their fecal microbiota and related cytokine responses, finding significant differences in microbial diversity and abundance between the two groups.
  • The study established correlations between specific gut bacteria and clinical features of HD, as well as inflammatory cytokines, highlighting the potential importance of gut health in understanding HD.
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Paroxysmal dyskinesias are a group of neurological diseases characterized by intermittent episodes of involuntary movements with different causes. Paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) is the most common type of paroxysmal dyskinesia and can be divided into primary and secondary types based on the etiology. Clinically, PKD is characterized by recurrent and transient attacks of involuntary movements precipitated by a sudden voluntary action.

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Influenza A viruses (IAVs) circulate widely among different mammalian and avian hosts and sometimes give rise to zoonotic infections. Vaccination is a mainstay of IAV prevention and control. However, the efficacy of IAV vaccines is often suboptimal because of insufficient cross-protection among different IAV genotypes and subtypes as well as the inability to keep up with the rapid molecular evolution of IAV strains.

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Mutations in the synaptic nuclear envelope protein 1 (SYNE1) gene have been reported to cause autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia (ARCA) type 1 with highly variable clinical phenotypes. The aim of this study was to describe the phenotypic-genetic spectrum of SYNE1-related ARCA1 patients in the Chinese population. We screened 158 unrelated patients with autosomal recessive or sporadic ataxia for variants in SYNE1 using next-generation sequencing.

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Influenza A viruses (IAV) are a major cause of respiratory diseases in pigs. Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are an innate-like T cell subset that contribute significantly to IAV resistance in mice. In the current work, we explored whether expanding and activating iNKT cells with the iNKT cell superagonist α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) would change the course of an IAV infection in pigs.

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Clinical genetic testing results are compiled into a standardized report by genetic specialists and provided to clinicians and patients (Should the patient be intellectually disabled or under 18, the report will be provided to his/her parents or legal guardians). The content of genetic testing report should conform to relevant guidelines, industry standards and consensus. The decisions of clinicians will be made based on the report and clinical indications.

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