Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 81 in total

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  1. Shimelis H, Mesman RLS, Von Nicolai C, Ehlen A, Guidugli L, Martin C, et al.
    Cancer Res, 2017 Jun 01;77(11):2789-2799.
    PMID: 28283652 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-16-2568
    Breast cancer risks conferred by many germline missense variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, often referred to as variants of uncertain significance (VUS), have not been established. In this study, associations between 19 BRCA1 and 33 BRCA2 missense substitution variants and breast cancer risk were investigated through a breast cancer case-control study using genotyping data from 38 studies of predominantly European ancestry (41,890 cases and 41,607 controls) and nine studies of Asian ancestry (6,269 cases and 6,624 controls). The BRCA2 c.9104A>C, p.Tyr3035Ser (OR = 2.52; P = 0.04), and BRCA1 c.5096G>A, p.Arg1699Gln (OR = 4.29; P = 0.009) variant were associated with moderately increased risks of breast cancer among Europeans, whereas BRCA2 c.7522G>A, p.Gly2508Ser (OR = 2.68; P = 0.004), and c.8187G>T, p.Lys2729Asn (OR = 1.4; P = 0.004) were associated with moderate and low risks of breast cancer among Asians. Functional characterization of the BRCA2 variants using four quantitative assays showed reduced BRCA2 activity for p.Tyr3035Ser compared with wild-type. Overall, our results show how BRCA2 missense variants that influence protein function can confer clinically relevant, moderately increased risks of breast cancer, with potential implications for risk management guidelines in women with these specific variants. Cancer Res; 77(11); 2789-99. ©2017 AACR.
  2. Searchfield GD, Zhang J, Biswas R, De Ridder D, Deutsch B, Hall DA, et al.
    PMID: 34291436 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2021_230
  3. Searchfield GD, Zhang J, Biswas R, De Ridder D, Deutsch B, Hall DA, et al.
    Curr Top Behav Neurosci, 2021;51:461-483.
    PMID: 33665781 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2020_217
    This volume has highlighted the many recent advances in tinnitus theory, models, diagnostics, therapies, and therapeutics. But tinnitus knowledge is far from complete. In this chapter, contributors to the Behavioral Neuroscience of Tinnitus consider emerging topics and areas of research needed in light of recent findings. New research avenues and methods to explore are discussed. Issues pertaining to current assessment, treatment, and research methods are outlined, along with recommendations on new avenues to explore with research.
  4. Cai Q, Zhang B, Sung H, Low SK, Kweon SS, Lu W, et al.
    Nat Genet, 2014 Aug;46(8):886-90.
    PMID: 25038754 DOI: 10.1038/ng.3041
    In a three-stage genome-wide association study among East Asian women including 22,780 cases and 24,181 controls, we identified 3 genetic loci newly associated with breast cancer risk, including rs4951011 at 1q32.1 (in intron 2 of the ZC3H11A gene; P=8.82×10(-9)), rs10474352 at 5q14.3 (near the ARRDC3 gene; P=1.67×10(-9)) and rs2290203 at 15q26.1 (in intron 14 of the PRC1 gene; P=4.25×10(-8)). We replicated these associations in 16,003 cases and 41,335 controls of European ancestry (P=0.030, 0.004 and 0.010, respectively). Data from the ENCODE Project suggest that variants rs4951011 and rs10474352 might be located in an enhancer region and transcription factor binding sites, respectively. This study provides additional insights into the genetics and biology of breast cancer.
  5. Jia G, Ping J, Shu X, Yang Y, Cai Q, Kweon SS, et al.
    Am J Hum Genet, 2022 Dec 01;109(12):2185-2195.
    PMID: 36356581 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.10.011
    By combining data from 160,500 individuals with breast cancer and 226,196 controls of Asian and European ancestry, we conducted genome- and transcriptome-wide association studies of breast cancer. We identified 222 genetic risk loci and 137 genes that were associated with breast cancer risk at a p 
  6. Shu X, Long J, Cai Q, Kweon SS, Choi JY, Kubo M, et al.
    Nat Commun, 2020 Mar 05;11(1):1217.
    PMID: 32139696 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15046-w
    Known risk variants explain only a small proportion of breast cancer heritability, particularly in Asian women. To search for additional genetic susceptibility loci for breast cancer, here we perform a meta-analysis of data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) conducted in Asians (24,206 cases and 24,775 controls) and European descendants (122,977 cases and 105,974 controls). We identified 31 potential novel loci with the lead variant showing an association with breast cancer risk at P 
  7. Wen W, Shu XO, Guo X, Cai Q, Long J, Bolla MK, et al.
    Breast Cancer Res, 2016 12 08;18(1):124.
    PMID: 27931260
    BACKGROUND: Approximately 100 common breast cancer susceptibility alleles have been identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The utility of these variants in breast cancer risk prediction models has not been evaluated adequately in women of Asian ancestry.

    METHODS: We evaluated 88 breast cancer risk variants that were identified previously by GWAS in 11,760 cases and 11,612 controls of Asian ancestry. SNPs confirmed to be associated with breast cancer risk in Asian women were used to construct a polygenic risk score (PRS). The relative and absolute risks of breast cancer by the PRS percentiles were estimated based on the PRS distribution, and were used to stratify women into different levels of breast cancer risk.

    RESULTS: We confirmed significant associations with breast cancer risk for SNPs in 44 of the 78 previously reported loci at P 

  8. Guo X, Long J, Zeng C, Michailidou K, Ghoussaini M, Bolla MK, et al.
    Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 2015 Nov;24(11):1680-91.
    PMID: 26354892 DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-15-0363
    BACKGROUND: A recent association study identified a common variant (rs9790517) at 4q24 to be associated with breast cancer risk. Independent association signals and potential functional variants in this locus have not been explored.

    METHODS: We conducted a fine-mapping analysis in 55,540 breast cancer cases and 51,168 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.

    RESULTS: Conditional analyses identified two independent association signals among women of European ancestry, represented by rs9790517 [conditional P = 2.51 × 10(-4); OR, 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02-1.07] and rs77928427 (P = 1.86 × 10(-4); OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02-1.07). Functional annotation using data from the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project revealed two putative functional variants, rs62331150 and rs73838678 in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs9790517 (r(2) ≥ 0.90) residing in the active promoter or enhancer, respectively, of the nearest gene, TET2. Both variants are located in DNase I hypersensitivity and transcription factor-binding sites. Using data from both The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC), we showed that rs62331150 was associated with level of expression of TET2 in breast normal and tumor tissue.

    CONCLUSION: Our study identified two independent association signals at 4q24 in relation to breast cancer risk and suggested that observed association in this locus may be mediated through the regulation of TET2.

    IMPACT: Fine-mapping study with large sample size warranted for identification of independent loci for breast cancer risk.

  9. Tang BH, Guan Z, Allegaert K, Wu YE, Manolis E, Leroux S, et al.
    Clin Pharmacokinet, 2021 11;60(11):1435-1448.
    PMID: 34041714 DOI: 10.1007/s40262-021-01033-x
    BACKGROUND: Population pharmacokinetic evaluations have been widely used in neonatal pharmacokinetic studies, while machine learning has become a popular approach to solving complex problems in the current era of big data.

    OBJECTIVE: The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to evaluate whether combining population pharmacokinetic and machine learning approaches could provide a more accurate prediction of the clearance of renally eliminated drugs in individual neonates.

    METHODS: Six drugs that are primarily eliminated by the kidneys were selected (vancomycin, latamoxef, cefepime, azlocillin, ceftazidime, and amoxicillin) as 'proof of concept' compounds. Individual estimates of clearance obtained from population pharmacokinetic models were used as reference clearances, and diverse machine learning methods and nested cross-validation were adopted and evaluated against these reference clearances. The predictive performance of these combined methods was compared with the performance of two other predictive methods: a covariate-based maturation model and a postmenstrual age and body weight scaling model. Relative error was used to evaluate the different methods.

    RESULTS: The extra tree regressor was selected as the best-fit machine learning method. Using the combined method, more than 95% of predictions for all six drugs had a relative error of < 50% and the mean relative error was reduced by an average of 44.3% and 71.3% compared with the other two predictive methods.

    CONCLUSION: A combined population pharmacokinetic and machine learning approach provided improved predictions of individual clearances of renally cleared drugs in neonates. For a new patient treated in clinical practice, individual clearance can be predicted a priori using our model code combined with demographic data.

  10. Tang BH, Zhang JY, Allegaert K, Hao GX, Yao BF, Leroux S, et al.
    Clin Pharmacokinet, 2023 Aug;62(8):1105-1116.
    PMID: 37300630 DOI: 10.1007/s40262-023-01265-z
    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: High variability in vancomycin exposure in neonates requires advanced individualized dosing regimens. Achieving steady-state trough concentration (C0) and steady-state area-under-curve (AUC0-24) targets is important to optimize treatment. The objective was to evaluate whether machine learning (ML) can be used to predict these treatment targets to calculate optimal individual dosing regimens under intermittent administration conditions.

    METHODS: C0 were retrieved from a large neonatal vancomycin dataset. Individual estimates of AUC0-24 were obtained from Bayesian post hoc estimation. Various ML algorithms were used for model building to C0 and AUC0-24. An external dataset was used for predictive performance evaluation.

    RESULTS: Before starting treatment, C0 can be predicted a priori using the Catboost-based C0-ML model combined with dosing regimen and nine covariates. External validation results showed a 42.5% improvement in prediction accuracy by using the ML model compared with the population pharmacokinetic model. The virtual trial showed that using the ML optimized dose; 80.3% of the virtual neonates achieved the pharmacodynamic target (C0 in the range of 10-20 mg/L), much higher than the international standard dose (37.7-61.5%). Once therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) measurements (C0) in patients have been obtained, AUC0-24 can be further predicted using the Catboost-based AUC-ML model combined with C0 and nine covariates. External validation results showed that the AUC-ML model can achieve an prediction accuracy of 80.3%.

    CONCLUSION: C0-based and AUC0-24-based ML models were developed accurately and precisely. These can be used for individual dose recommendations of vancomycin in neonates before treatment and dose revision after the first TDM result is obtained, respectively.

  11. Gan X, Gong T, Zheng Y, Gopinath SCB, Zhao K
    Biotechnol Appl Biochem, 2021 Apr;68(2):272-278.
    PMID: 32275089 DOI: 10.1002/bab.1921
    C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute phase reactant to be a marker of inflammation and has been correlated with the cardiac injury. An immunoassay was performed using anti-human CRP antibody on an InterDigitated electrode (IDE) sensor to determine and specify CRP concentration for diagnosing the condition of myocardial inflammation. To promote the detection, gold nanoparticle (GNP) was seeded on the aminated-IDE surface. Anti-CRP was hitched on the GNP-seeded surface and identified the abundance of CRP. The limit of quantification was found as 100 fM, and the higher current response was noticed by increasing CRP concentrations with the sensitivity at 1 pM. Furthermore, CRP-spiked human serum did not interfere the determination of CRP and increased the current response, indicating suitability for a real-life sample. Similarly, the control experiments with nonimmune antibody Troponin I are not showing the definite current responses, proving the selective identification of CRP. This method of diagnosing is needful to determine the cardiovascular injury at the right time.
  12. Hu T, Qiu W, He B, Zhang Y, Yu J, Liang X, et al.
    BMC Microbiol, 2014;14:293.
    PMID: 25433675 DOI: 10.1186/s12866-014-0293-4
    In recent years novel human respiratory disease agents have been described for Southeast Asia and Australia. The causative pathogens were classified as pteropine orthoreoviruses with a strong phylogenetic relationship to orthoreoviruses of bat origin.
  13. Hu T, Zheng Y, Zhang Y, Li G, Qiu W, Yu J, et al.
    BMC Microbiol, 2012;12:305.
    PMID: 23268691 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2180-12-305
    The identification of new virus strains is important for the study of infectious disease, but current (or existing) molecular biology methods are limited since the target sequence must be known to design genome-specific PCR primers. Thus, we developed a new method for the discovery of unknown viruses based on the cDNA--random amplified polymorphic DNA (cDNA-RAPD) technique. Getah virus, belonging to the family Togaviridae in the genus Alphavirus, is a mosquito-borne enveloped RNA virus that was identified using the Virus-Discovery-cDNA RAPD (VIDISCR) method.
  14. Wu J, Wang HL, Liu X, Ding C, Zhou Y, Fu X, et al.
    Liver Int, 2020 02;40(2):298-307.
    PMID: 31674705 DOI: 10.1111/liv.14289
    BACKGROUND & AIMS: Trends in long-term mortality rates for viral hepatitis in East and Southeast Asia have been rarely reported. The aim of our study was to explore the long-term trends in viral hepatitis mortality rates in East and Southeast Asian countries between 1987 and 2015 and provide predictions of mortality to 2030.

    METHODS: We obtained viral hepatitis mortality data from the WHO Mortality Database for six East and Southeast Asian countries between 1987 and 2015. We produced choropleth maps of viral hepatitis mortality rates in 1987 and 2015 in East and Southeast Asia to illustrate geographic variations. We made predictions of mortality rates for each included country until the year 2030 using a series of joinpoint models.

    RESULTS: Viral hepatitis mortality rates declined in China (the average annual percent change (AAPC) = -5.1%, 95% CI: -7.5, -2.6), Singapore (AAPC = -5.4%, 95% CI: -7.5, -3.2), and the Philippines (AAPC = -3.4%, 95% CI: -4.9, -1.8). In contrast, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Malaysia have experienced increasing trends in mortality rates, followed by decreasing trends. Our predictions indicate that all countries will experience slight to moderate downward trends until 2030.

    CONCLUSION: Favourable decreasing trends have been noted in East and Southeast Asian countries, which may not only inform the control and management of viral hepatitis in this region but also guide the prevention of viral hepatitis deaths in another region with a similar viral hepatitis epidemic.

  15. Hou Y, Ren H, Wang K, Cao S, Zheng Y, Wei Y, et al.
    J Food Sci Technol, 2022 Feb;59(2):552-561.
    PMID: 35185175 DOI: 10.1007/s13197-021-05039-y
    Effect of fresh-cut procedure on the accumulation of GABA in carrots via γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt and polyamines degradation pathway was investigated. Results showed that fresh-cut processing enhanced glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activity and expression levels of DcGAD1 and DcGAD2, while reduced GABA transaminase (GABA-T) activity and DcGABA-T1 expression level, which induced the more glutamate (Glu) conversion to GABA. Polyamines (PAs) in shredded carrots were significantly lower than the whole, due to the elevated activities of diamine oxidase (DAO), polyamine oxidase (PAO) and aminoaldehyde dehydrogenase (AMADH) and DcPAO expression level, which indicated that the polyamines degradation pathway was activated and more PAs were converted to GABA. These results suggested that fresh-cut procedure can induce the accumulation of GABA through activating GABA shunt and polyamines degradation pathway. Besides, fresh-cut processing treatment did not have much adverse effect on the organoleptic quality of carrots.

    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at (10.1007/s13197-021-05039-y).

  16. Zheng Y, Wang Q, Zhuang W, Lu X, Miron A, Chai TT, et al.
    Molecules, 2016 Nov 02;21(11).
    PMID: 27827862
    Lotus is an edible and medicinal plant, and the extracts from its different parts exhibit various bioactivities. In the present study, the hot water-soluble polysaccharides from lotus seeds (LSPS) were evaluated for their cancer cell cytotoxicity, immunomodulatory and antitumor activities. LSPS showed significant inhibitory effects on the mouse gastric cancer MFC cells, human liver cancer HuH-7 cells and mouse hepatocarcinoma H22 cells. The animal studies showed that LSPS inhibited tumor growth in H22 tumor-bearing mice with the highest inhibition rate of 45.36%, which is comparable to that induced by cyclophosphamide (30 mg/kg) treatment (50.79%). The concentrations of white blood cells were significantly reduced in cyclophosphamide-treated groups (p < 0.01), while LSPS showed much fewer side effects according to the hematology analysis. LSPS improved the immune response in H22 tumor-bearing mice by enhancing the spleen and thymus indexes, and increasing the levels of serum cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-2. Moreover, LSPS also showed in vivo antioxidant activity by increasing superoxide dismutase activity, thus reducing the malondialdehyde level in the liver tissue. These results suggested that LSPS can be used as an antitumor and immunomodulatory agent.
  17. Han C, Zheng Y, Wang L, Zhou C, Wang J, He J, et al.
    J Sci Food Agric, 2023 May;103(7):3334-3345.
    PMID: 36786016 DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.12499
    BACKGROUND: Extracted proteins of alternative animal origin tend to present strong off-flavor perception due to physicochemical interactions of coextracted off-flavor compounds with proteins. To investigate the relationship between absorption behaviors of volatile aromas and the processes-induced variations in protein microstructures and molecular conformations, duck liver protein isolate (DLp) was subjected to heating (65/100 °C, 15 min) and ultra-high pressure (UHP, 100-500 MPa/10 min, 28 °C) treatments to obtain differential unfolded protein states.

    RESULTS: Heat and UHP treatments induced the unfolding of DLp to varied degrees, as revealed by fluorescence spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible absorption, circular dichroism spectra and surface hydrophobicity measurements. Two types of heating-denatured states with varied unfolding degrees were obtained, while UHP at both levels of 100/500 MPa caused partial unfolding of DLp and the presence of a molten-globule state, which significantly enhanced the binding affinity between DLp and (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal. In particular, significantly modified secondary structures of DLp were observed in heating-denatured samples. Excessive denaturing and unfolding degrees resulted in no significant changes in the absorption behavior of the volatile ligand, as characterized by observations of fluorescence quenching and analysis of headspace concentrations.

    CONCLUSION: Defining process-induced conformational transition behavior of matrix proteins could be a promising strategy to regulate food flavor attributes and, particularly, to produce DLp coextracted with limited off-flavor components by modifying their interaction during extraction processes. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

  18. Yu H, Zheng Y, Zhou C, Liu L, Wang L, Cao J, et al.
    Carbohydr Polym, 2024 Feb 01;325:121583.
    PMID: 38008470 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121583
    The potential of ultrasonication-driven molecular self-assembly of whey protein isolate (WPI) with chitosan (CS)/chitooligosaccharide (COS) to stabilize Pickering emulsions was examined, based on CS/COS ligands-induced partial unfolding in remodeling the Pickering particles features. Multi-spectral analysis suggested obvious changes in conformational structures of WPI due to interaction with CS/COS, with significantly higher unfolding degrees of WPI induced by COS. Non-covalent interactions were identified as the major forces for WPI-CS/COS conjugates. Ultrasonication enhanced electrostatic interaction between CS's -NH3 groups and WPI's -COO- groups which improved emulsification activity and storability of WPI-COS stabilized Pickering emulsion. This was attributed to increased surface hydrophobicity and decreased particle size compared to WPI-CS associated with differential unfolding degrees induced by different saccharide ligands. CLSM and SEM consistently observed smaller emulsion droplets in WPI-COS complexes than WPI-CS/COS particles tightly adsorbed at the oil-water interface. The electrostatic self-assembly of WPI with CS/COS greatly enhanced the encapsulation efficiency of quercetin than those stabilized by WPI alone and ultrasound further improved encapsulation efficiency. This corresponded well with the quantitative affinity parameters between quercetin and WPI-CS/COS complexes. This investigation revealed the great potential of glycan ligands-induced conformational transitions of extrinsic physical disruption in tuning Pickering particle features.
  19. Han C, Zheng Y, Huang S, Xu L, Zhou C, Sun Y, et al.
    Int J Biol Macromol, 2024 Apr;263(Pt 1):130300.
    PMID: 38395276 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.130300
    This work employed the model protein β-lactoglobulin (BLG) to investigate the contribution of microstructural changes to regulating the interaction patterns between protein and flavor compounds through employing computer simulation and multi-spectroscopic techniques. The formation of molten globule (MG) state-like protein during the conformational evolution of BLG, in response to ultrasonic (UC) and heat (HT) treatments, was revealed through multi-spectroscopic characterization. Differential MG structures were distinguished by variations in surface hydrophobicity and the microenvironment of tryptophan residues. Fluorescence quenching measurements indicated that the formation of MG enhanced the binding affinity of heptanal to protein. LC-MS/MS and NMR revealed the covalent bonding between heptanal and BLG formed by Michael addition and Schiff-base reactions, and MG-like BLG exhibited fewer chemical shift residues. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation confirmed the synergistic involvement of hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds in shaping BLG-heptanal complexes thus promoting the stability of BLG structures. These findings indicated that the production of BLG-heptanal complexes was driven synergistically by non-covalent and covalent bonds, and their interaction processes were influenced by processes-induced formation of MG potentially tuning the release and retention behaviors of flavor compounds.
  20. Zhang X, Zheng Y, Zhou C, Cao J, Zhang Y, Wu Z, et al.
    Ultrason Sonochem, 2024 Mar 25;105:106857.
    PMID: 38552299 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2024.106857
    This work investigated the effects of the combined use of thermosonication-preconditioned lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with the addition of ultrasound-assisted pineapple peel extracts (UU group) on the post-acidification potential, physicochemical and functional qualities of yogurt products, aimed at achieving prolonged preservation and enhancing functional attributes. Accordingly, the physical-chemical features, adhesion properties, and sensory profiles, acidification kinetics, the contents of major organic acids, and antioxidant activities of the differentially processed yogurts during refrigeration were characterized. Following a 14-day chilled storage process, UU group exhibited acidity levels of 0.5-2 oT lower than the control group and a higher lactose content of 0.07 mg/ml as well as unmodified adhesion potential, indicating that the proposed combination method efficiently inhibited post-acidification and delayed lactose metabolism without leading to significant impairment of the probiotic properties. The results of physicochemical analysis showed no significant changes in viscosity, hardness, and color of yogurt. Furthermore, the total phenolic content of UU-treated samples was 98 μg/mL, 1.78 times higher than that of the control, corresponding with the significantly lower IC50 values of DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities of the UU group than those of the control group. Observations by fluorescence inverted microscopy demonstrated the obvious adhesion phenomenon with no significant difference found among differentially prepared yogurts. The results of targeted metabolomics indicated the proposed combination strategy significantly modified the microbial metabolism, leading to the delayed utilization of lactose and the inhibited conversion into glucose during post-fermentation, as well as the decreased lactic acid production and a notable shift towards the formation of relatively weak acids such as succinic acid and citric acid. This study confirmed the feasibility of thermosonication-preconditioned LAB inocula, in combination with the use of natural active components from fruit processing byproducts, to alleviate post-acidification in yogurt and to enhance its antioxidant activities as well as simultaneously maintaining sensory features.
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