Publications by authors named "Y-C Chan"

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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Ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynecologic cancers. In the quest for effective anti-cancer agents, this study explores the effects of wogonin, a naturally occurring flavonoid, on the viability and migration of A2780 and Kuramochi ovarian cancer cells. A2780 and Kuramochi human ovarian cancer cell lines were utilized.

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Several international pharmacovigilance agencies have issued warnings regarding the potential risk of myasthenia gravis (MG) following statin therapy. Our study investigated this association using population-based electronic health records in Hong Kong. We conducted a sequence of target trial emulation (TTE) for interpersonal comparison and a self-controlled case series (SCCS) study for intrapersonal comparison.

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  • * In a sample of 382 Asian women planning to conceive, the research identifies a new liver fat cutoff of 2.07% for diagnosing MetS, with trends indicating worsened MetS traits and plasma metabolomic changes as liver fat increases.
  • * Results show that preconception liver fat levels significantly correlate with the risk of gestational diabetes, with moderate liver fat (2.07% to 5.56%) doubling and high liver fat (≥5.56%) increasing the risk seven
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Background: Tracking the emergence, introduction and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern are essential for informing public health strategies. In 2021, Cambodia faced two major epidemic waves of SARS-CoV-2 triggered by the successive rise of the Alpha and Delta variants.

Methods: Phylodynamic analysis of 1,163 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Cambodia, along with global sequences, were conducted between February and September 2021 to infer viral introductions, molecular epidemiology and population dynamics.

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Background: The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine collaborated with The Addis Clinic to create a global telemedicine elective for fourth-year medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The elective aimed to promote cross-cultural understanding by providing unique, hands-on telemedicine experience.

Aim: To assess the effectiveness of the telemedicine elective, four of five medical students and 11 of 12 Kenyan clinical officers completed one-on-one interviews and surveys.

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  • The study investigates the link between childhood abuse and the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly focusing on female health professionals.
  • Using data from the Nurses' Health Study II, researchers analyzed reports of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and confirmed IBD diagnoses through medical records.
  • Results indicate that women with a history of severe childhood abuse had a significantly higher risk of Crohn's disease, but no similar association was found for ulcerative colitis.
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Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease driven by endothelial cell inflammation and dysfunction, resulting in the pathological remodeling of the pulmonary vasculature. Innate immune activation has been linked to PAH development; however, the regulation, propagation, and reversibility of the induction of inflammation in PAH is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate a role for interferon inducible protein 16 (IFI16), an innate immune sensor, as a modulator of endothelial inflammation in pulmonary hypertension, utilizing human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs).

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  • - The study aimed to create and validate a prognostic model for assessing the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in noncirrhotic adults with chronic hepatitis B, focusing on those without significant alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation.
  • - Researchers analyzed data from over 13,000 patients across several cohorts in Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong, finding that baseline HBV DNA levels were key predictors of HCC risk, especially at moderate viral loads.
  • - The new model, called Revised REACH-B, showed strong predictive accuracy and was more beneficial compared to other strategies in predicting HCC risk, though its applicability to other racial groups remains a limitation.
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  • The study aims to project cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality trends and risk factors from 2025 to 2050 to aid healthcare planning.
  • Using historical data and Poisson regression, projections indicate a significant increase in CVD prevalence (90%), crude mortality (73.4%), and DALYs (54.7%), with ischaemic heart disease and high blood pressure as major contributors.
  • Despite a stable age-standardized CVD prevalence, the study underscores a concerning rise in crude mortality due to an aging population, prompting the need for effective healthcare strategies.
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A ganglion is the most common soft-tissue mass in the foot and can cause pain, paresthesia, or footwear problems. A ganglion can extend from the dorsum into the plantar compartment of the foot in the form of a horseshoe at the borders of the foot or in the form of an hourglass through the intermetatarsal space. Initial conservative management of a ganglion may entail observation and the use of padding for comfort, manual rupture, aspiration of the cyst contents, and steroid injection or sclerotherapy into the cyst.

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  • This study investigates how the cancer treatment drug abiraterone affects the liver transport proteins OATP1B1 and OATP1B3, focusing on the use of coproporphyrin I (CP-I) as a biomarker to measure these effects.
  • The results showed that abiraterone inhibits the uptake of CP-I through OATP1B3 but not OATP1B1, with in vitro tests revealing a moderate inhibition constant and clinical simulations indicating no significant drug interaction.
  • Overall, the findings suggest that the risk of interaction between abiraterone and other drugs that rely on OATP1B transporters is low, meaning that OATP1B3 does
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  • A study forecasts a 91.2% increase in crude cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in Asia from 2025 to 2050, despite a 23.0% decrease in the age-standardized mortality rate.
  • Ischaemic heart disease and stroke will remain the top causes of mortality, with Central Asia experiencing the highest mortality rates while high systolic blood pressure is identified as the leading risk factor across most of Asia.
  • The research highlights the need for targeted health interventions due to the significant variations in CVD burden across different regions in Asia.
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Background: Cardiocerebral infarction (CCI), which is concomitant with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and acute ischemic stroke (AIS), is a rare but severe presentation. However, there are few data on CCI, and the treatment options are uncertain. We investigated the characteristics and outcomes of CCI compared with AMI or AIS alone.

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Purpose To investigate whether infarct-to-remote myocardial contrast can be optimized by replacing generic fitting algorithms used to obtain native T1 maps with a data-driven machine learning pixel-wise approach in chronic reperfused infarct in a canine model. Materials and Methods A controlled large animal model (24 canines, equal male and female animals) of chronic myocardial infarction with histologic evidence of heterogeneous infarct tissue composition was studied. Unsupervised clustering techniques using self-organizing maps and -distributed stochastic neighbor embedding were used to analyze and visualize native T1-weighted pixel-intensity patterns.

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Introduction: It remains unclear how patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and clinicians perceive the level of patient-clinician communication and if there could be potential lapses. This cross-sectional study aims to compare perspectives between patients with AD and dermatologists regarding communication and treatment expectations in Asia.

Methods: Moderate-to-severe patients with AD and practicing dermatologists were recruited from eight Asia-Pacific territories, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.

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We previously reported that a combined -inositol, probiotics, and enriched micronutrient supplement (intervention) taken preconception and in pregnancy reduced postpartum blood loss (PBL) and major postpartum hemorrhage compared with a standard micronutrient supplement (control), as secondary outcomes of the NiPPeR trial. This study aimed to identify the intervention components that may contribute to this effect. Associations of plasma concentrations of -inositol and vitamins B2, B6, B12, and D at preconception (before and after supplementation), early (~7-weeks), and late pregnancy (~28-weeks) with PBL were assessed by multiple linear regression, adjusting for site, ethnicity, preconception BMI, parity, and previous cesarean section.

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Article Synopsis
  • - SARS-CoV-2 is continuously evolving, posing challenges to existing vaccines and treatments, which has led to the development of a new pipeline for creating effective VHH antibodies and bispecifics to neutralize various virus variants.
  • - High-affinity VHH antibodies were discovered through targeted phage library techniques, resulting in a bispecific construct that effectively combats multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants, showing enhanced resistance to antigenic escape.
  • - The new tetravalent bispecific platform enables speedy development and production of antibodies, providing flexible and potent responses to emerging variants, making it a promising method for ongoing viral management.
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RNA splicing is pivotal in post-transcriptional gene regulation, yet the exponential expansion of intron length in humans poses a challenge for accurate splicing. Here, we identify hnRNPM as an essential RNA-binding protein that suppresses cryptic splicing through binding to deep introns, maintaining human transcriptome integrity. Long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) in introns harbor numerous pseudo splice sites.

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Aims: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality, especially in developing countries. This study aimed to develop and validate a CVD risk prediction model, Personalized CARdiovascular DIsease risk Assessment for Chinese (P-CARDIAC), for recurrent cardiovascular events using machine learning technique.

Methods And Results: Three cohorts of Chinese patients with established CVD were included if they had used any of the public healthcare services provided by the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) since 2004 and categorized by their geographical locations.

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Background: Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are being developed for therapeutic use. However, they have poor pharmacokinetic profiles and their tissue distribution kinetics are not known.

Methods: A typical von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor (VHL)-PROTAC C-A947 (BRM degrader)-was synthesized and its tissue distribution kinetics was studied by quantitative whole-body autoradiography (QWBA) and tissue excision in rats following IV dosing.

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Evolutionary changes in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome could reflect its adaptation to host-induced selective pressure. Leveraging paired human exome and ultra-deep HBV genome-sequencing data from 567 affected individuals with chronic hepatitis B, we comprehensively searched for the signatures of this evolutionary process by conducting "genome-to-genome" association tests between all human genetic variants and viral mutations. We identified significant associations between an East Asian-specific missense variant in the gene encoding the HBV entry receptor NTCP (rs2296651, NTCP S267F) and mutations within the receptor-binding region of HBV preS1.

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Background: The administration of intravenous cangrelor at reperfusion achieves faster onset of platelet P2Y12 inhibition than oral ticagrelor and has been shown to reduce myocardial infarction (MI) size in the preclinical setting. We hypothesized that the administration of cangrelor at reperfusion will reduce MI size and prevent microvascular obstruction in patients with ST-segment-elevation MI undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Methods: This was a phase 2, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted between November 2017 to November 2021 in 6 cardiac centers in Singapore.

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Article Synopsis
  • Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has significantly advanced cancer treatment but is often complicated by immune-related adverse events like checkpoint inhibitor colitis (irColitis).
  • A study profiling around 300,000 cells from patients with irColitis uncovered key immune cell expansions and molecular changes in the colon mucosa and blood, highlighting the complexity of the condition.
  • Findings indicate that specific T cells and epithelial interactions are crucial for understanding irColitis and may lead to new therapeutic approaches for managing this side effect of ICI therapy.
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Perivascular collagen deposition by activated fibroblasts promotes vascular stiffening and drives cardiovascular diseases such as pulmonary hypertension (PH). Whether and how vascular fibroblasts rewire their metabolism to sustain collagen biosynthesis remains unknown. Here, we found that inflammation, hypoxia, and mechanical stress converge on activating the transcriptional coactivators YAP and TAZ (WWTR1) in pulmonary arterial adventitial fibroblasts (PAAFs).

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