Publications by authors named "Weihua Gan"

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is highly prevalent worldwide, and its global burden is substantial and growing. CKD displays a number of features of accelerated senescence. Tubular cell senescence is a common biological process that contributes to CKD progression.

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Background And Purpose: Activation of the renin-angiotensin system, as a hallmark of hypertension and chronic kidney diseases (CKD) is the key pathophysiological factor contributing to the progression of tubulointerstitial fibrosis. LIM and senescent cell antigen-like domains protein 1 (LIMS1) plays an essential role in controlling of cell behaviour through the formation of complexes with other proteins. Here, the function and regulation of LIMS1 in angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced hypertension and tubulointerstitial fibrosis was investigated.

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Direct tubular injury caused by several medications, especially chemotherapeutic drugs, is a common cause of AKI. Inhibition or loss of cyclin-dependent kinase 12 (CDK12) triggers a transcriptional elongation defect that results in deficiencies in DNA damage repair, producing genomic instability in a variety of cancers. Notably, 10-25% of individuals developed AKI after treatment with a CDK12 inhibitor, and the potential mechanism is not well understood.

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Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with common pathophysiological processes, such as inflammation and fibrosis, in both the heart and the kidney. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms that drive these processes are not yet fully understood. Therefore, this study focused on the molecular mechanism of heart and kidney injury in CKD.

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The prevalence of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is increasing annually. Damage to and loss of podocytes occur early in DKD. tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs), originating from tRNA precursors or mature tRNAs, are associated with various illnesses.

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Our previous study found that miR-26a alleviates aldosterone-induced tubulointerstitial fibrosis (TIF). However, the effect of miR-26a on TIF in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) remains unclear. This study clarifies the role and possible mechanism of exogenous miR-26a in controlling the progression of TIF in DKD models.

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Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) involves a variety of pathological processes, and ferroptosis plays a vital role in CKD progression. Targeting ferroptosis is a promising strategy for the treatment of CKD. However, inhibitors of ferroptosis have not been used in the clinical treatment of CKD.

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Podocyte injury plays a key role in the production of proteinuria and is closely related to the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Alleviating podocyte injury is beneficial to prevent the occurrence and development of CKD. tRNA-derived RNA fragments (tRFs) are associated with podocytes injury processes such as protein binding, cell adhesion, synapses, the actin cytoskeleton.

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Renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis (TIF) is considered as the final convergent pathway of diabetic nephropathy (DN) without effective therapies currently. MiRNAs play a key role in fibrotic diseases and become promising therapeutic targets for kidney diseases, while miRNA clusters, formed by the cluster arrangement of miRNAs on chromosomes, can regulate diverse biological functions alone or synergistically. In this study, we developed clustered miR-23a/27a/26a-loaded skeletal muscle satellite cells-derived exosomes (Exos) engineered with RVG peptide, and investigated their therapeutic efficacy in a murine model of DN.

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Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most important causes of end-stage renal disease and current treatments are ineffective in preventing its progression. Transfer RNA (tRNA)-derived fragments (tRFs), which are small non-coding fragments derived from tRNA precursors or mature tRNAs, have a critical role in various human diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the expression profile and potential functions of tRFs in DN.

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Article Synopsis
  • Acute kidney disease (AKD) involves several harmful processes, particularly affecting the mitochondria in kidney cells.
  • *Maintaining mitochondrial health is essential for kidney function, as it regulates energy production, growth, and the recycling of damaged mitochondria.
  • *The review highlights how mitochondrial quality control is impaired in AKD and suggests that understanding these mechanisms could lead to new treatment options.
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Transfer RNA-derived fragments (tRFs), a novel class of small non-coding RNA produced by the cleavage of pre- and mature tRNAs, are involved in various diseases. Renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis is a common final pathway in diabetic nephropathy (DN) in which hyperglycemia-induced tubular extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation serves a vital role. The present study aimed to detect and investigate the role of tRFs in the accumulation of tubular ECM.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Treatment with Visomitin (SKQ1), a mitochondria-targeting antioxidant, significantly improved kidney health in various AKI models by reducing injury biomarkers and inflammation.
  • * SKQ1 was effective in inhibiting ferroptosis and decreasing lipid peroxide buildup in AKI-affected kidneys, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic approach for managing AKI.
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Objective: Our previous research showed that TCR+CD4-CD8-double-negative (DN) T cells protect renal epithelial cells from cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Therefore, this study is aimed at investigating the mechanism underlying the effect of DN T cells against Cis-induced AKI.

Methods: HK-2 cells cultured alone or with DN T cells were treated with or without Cis.

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: Cisplatin nephrotoxicity is an important cause of acute kidney injury (AKI), limiting cisplatin application in cancer therapy. Growing evidence has suggested that genome instability, telomeric dysfunction, and DNA damage were involved in the tubular epithelial cells (TECs) damage in cisplatin-induced AKI (cAKI). However, the exact mechanism is largely unknown.

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Objective: Primary hypomagnesemia with secondary hypocalcemia (HSH) is caused by loss-of-function mutations in the gene encoding the epithelial magnesium channel. It is characterized by hypomagnesemia and secondary hypocalcemia associated with neurological symptoms. Here, we aimed to investigate the genetic defects of the gene found in a girl from China.

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Background: Angiotensin II (Ang II) contributes to the progression of glomerulosclerosis, mainly by inducing podocyte injury. Convincing evidence indicates that the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin could play a fundamental role in protection against podocyte injury. Nestin, a major cytoskeletal protein, is stably expressed in podocytes and correlates with podocyte damage.

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Podocyte apoptosis is a key risk factor for the progression of kidney diseases. MicroRNA (miR)-199b-5p has been shown to be involved in cell apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanisms of miR-199b-5p in podocyte apoptosis remain uncertain.

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Background: Finger mobility plays a crucial role in everyday living and is a leading indicator during hand rehabilitation and assistance tasks. Depth-based hand pose estimation is a potentially low-cost solution for the clinical and home-based measurement of symptoms of limited human finger motion.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to achieve the contactless measurement of finger motion based on depth-based hand pose estimation using Azure Kinect depth cameras and transfer learning, and to evaluate the accuracy in comparison with a three-dimensional motion analysis (3DMA) system.

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Background: Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease caused by a variety of cytokines and signaling pathways closely related to immunoregulation. Corticosteroids are the most widely used drug in the asthma treatment. However, the use of corticosteroids could cause topical side effects.

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It is of great importance to effectively measure gait features and recognize the signature gait patterns for gait rehabilitation. In this work, we used a skeleton point detection to extract gait features and proposed an improved fuzzy decision to select the most significant features for classifying gait patterns. Thirteen gait recognition features were extracted from the obtained skeleton points data.

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Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus infection pneumonia in Wuhan City, China, in late 2019, such cases have been gradually reported in other parts of China and abroad. Children have become susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) because of their immature immune function. As the outbreak has progressed, more cases of novel coronavirus infection/pneumonia in children have been reported.

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Idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS) is a disease involving injury to podocytes in the glomerular filtration barrier, and its specific causes have not been elucidated. Transfer RNA-derived fragments (tRFs), products of precise tRNA cleavage, have been indicated to play critical roles in various diseases. Currently, there is no relevant research on the role of tRFs in INS.

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miR-155 was synthesized and loaded into exosomes in increased infiltration of macrophages in a uremic heart. The released exosomal fusion with the plasma membrane leads to the release of miR-155 into the cytosol and translational repression of forkhead transcription factors of the O class (FoxO3a) in cardiomyocytes. Finally, macrophage-derived miR-155-containing exosomes promoted cardiomyocyte pyroptosis and uremic cardiomyopathy changes (cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis) by directly targeting FoxO3a in uremic mice.

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Hyperproliferation of mesangial cells (MCs) is the central pathological feature observed in certain human renal diseases. Furthermore, the long non‑coding RNA uc.412 is regulated by transforming growth factor β1 in mesangial cells in vitro.

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