Journal of Advanced Biotechnology and Experimental Therapeutics
Mutation profiles of oncogenes play essential roles in cancer therapy, but data on the prevalence... more Mutation profiles of oncogenes play essential roles in cancer therapy, but data on the prevalence of lung cancer oncogenic driver mutations in Vietnamese patients are limited. This study aims to evaluate the mutation status of EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET and MET and analyze the association of gene mutations with clinicopathological characteristics of lung adenocarcinoma. Of the 179 lung adenocarcinoma tissues, EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET and MET mutation frequencies were 44.6; 7.9; 3.0; 3.0 and 2.0 percent, respectively. EGFR, ALK, ROS1 and RET alterations tended to be higher in females. Moreover, rearrangements of ALK, ROS and RET were more prevalent in younger lung adenocarcinoma, but skipping at exon 14 MET was more frequent in male and older patients. Stages III and IV seem to accumulate more ALK, RET and MET abnormalities. These findings identified the variation of frequencies of Vietnamese lung adenocarcinoma with different clinicopathological characteristics and established the pioneer dat...
Journal of Science and Technology Issue on Information and Communications Technology
Alterations in the epidermal growth factor receptor were confirmed to take a significant role in ... more Alterations in the epidermal growth factor receptor were confirmed to take a significant role in targeted therapy for patients with lung cancer. Studied 299 non-small cell lung cancer patients to determine the distribution of EGFR mutation and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of patients. EGFR mutations were analysed by allele-specific PCR on the Cobas z480 system, and the association between EGFR mutations and patient characteristics was analysed by Pearson Chi-square test and Fisher extract test. The results showed that the frequency of EGFR mutation was 38.8%, in which, Ex19Del and L858R substitution were predominant among overall mutation, 45.4% and 29.1%, respectively. There was no difference between EGFR mutations with age, specimen type, tumour size and histopathological subtype. However, there was a strong correlation between EGFR mutation and gender and tumour status (p<0.05). In particularly, Ex19Del and L858R mutation were positively associated...
Background: Diabetes is a well-established risk factor for severe digital infection, and patients... more Background: Diabetes is a well-established risk factor for severe digital infection, and patients are more likely to require digital amputation for adequate source control. This study aims to identify factors predictive of digital amputation compared with preservation in patients with diabetes who present with surgically treated finger infections. Methods: Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and International Classification of Diseases Versions 9 and 10 (ICD-9/10) databases from a single academic medical center were queried to identify patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus who underwent surgical treatment in the operating room for treatment of a digital infection from 2010 to 2020. Electronic medical records were reviewed to obtain historical and acute clinical variables at the time of hospital presentation. Bivariate and multivariable regression were used to identify factors associated with amputation. Results: In total, 145 patients (61 digital amputation, 84 digital p...
Long-term durability of weight loss is a prerequisite for a greater acceptance of bariatric surge... more Long-term durability of weight loss is a prerequisite for a greater acceptance of bariatric surgery. To examine long-term weight trajectory in patients undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and determine factors predicting long-term follow-up and weight outcomes. University hospital. A retrospective cohort of adults who underwent RYGB during 1997-2010 were identified and followed until 2017. Predictors for attendance at periodic follow-up visits, reduction in body mass index (BMI), and percent excess BMI lost were determined using multivariable logistic regression and linear mixed-effects models. The latter was used to predict long-term weight outcomes for a typical patient. The study included 1104 patients with a mean age of 45.5 (standard deviation [SD] 9.9) years and a preoperative BMI of 54.7 (SD 10.9) kg/m2. Follow-up data were available for 92.8% of the patients after 1 year, 50.0% after 5 years, and 35.2% after 10 years post-surgery. Black patients, compared with White patients, were less likely to attend follow-up visits. Attendance at follow-up visits at least every other year was not associated with larger weight loss, but higher preoperative BMI, being White (versus Black), and female sex were. Predicted BMI reduction for a typical patient, a 45-year-old White female with a preoperative BMI of 54.7 kg/m2 and private health insurance, undergoing laparoscopic RYGB in 2004, was 18.3 (standard error [SE] .36) kg/m2 at year 5 and 17.6 (SE .49) kg/m2 at year 10. RYGB results in clinically significant and durable weight loss. Attendance at periodic follow-up visits does not appear to be associated with long-term weight loss outcomes. Future work should focus on strategies to remove barriers to post-operative care.
In the 21 century, China faces the challenge of balancing the housing needs of its rapidly growin... more In the 21 century, China faces the challenge of balancing the housing needs of its rapidly growing rural population and energy efficiency. Coal is the primary energy source for residential heating in rural and urban areas. Conventional buildings have very low capacities for insulation so heating from coal burning inefficiently escapes the walls of the house (Trexler 2002). Straw Bale Construction has considerably better heat preservation and has been shown to be a promising building alternative that meets housing needs and energy efficient goals of rural north of China. Straw bale has high adaptability and is malleable enough to be use in rural residential development in the southern parts of China. However, personal and institutional barriers hinder the use of Straw Bale Construction from being incorporated into rural design. I interviewed principal parties involved in the straw bale projects in Northern China (not all data has been completely collected and analyzed at the time pap...
Date of presentation Degree programme in Business Information Technology Author or authors Vuong ... more Date of presentation Degree programme in Business Information Technology Author or authors Vuong Viet Linh Group or year of entry 2013 Title of report Enhancing smartphone’s usability for elderly in Finland Number of report pages and attachment pages 120 +28 Teacher(s) or supervisor(s) Juha Pispa By the end of 2007, 16.5 percent of Finnish population are older than 65, and this percentage was predicted to be double in next 30 years. However, only a small amount of smartphones were able to be accepted by elderly, mostly because these devices are too hard to use. Application developers are usually in lack of interest in this special group of users. Even if developers want to create applocations for this group, the lack of guidelines theoretical foundations leave their applications nearly unusable by elderly. The purpose of this research is to discover what are elderly’s needs and capabilities when using mobilephones. In order to carry out the research, three methods of usability testi...
Cellular proliferation and differentiation are critical events in normal development and cancer. ... more Cellular proliferation and differentiation are critical events in normal development and cancer. Despite decades of research, much remains to be learned about how cells transition between the two states. To decipher one aspect of this switch, we focused on the transcription factor, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor (HNF) 4 alpha. HNF4a is a nuclear receptor that is important in development and in maintaining the homoeostasis of the adult liver and colon. There are multiple isoforms of the HNF4a that are generated by alterative promoter (P1 and P2) usage and 3' splicing events in different tissues. Both P1 and P2-HNF4a isoforms are expressed in the adult colon, while the P1-HNF4a is expressed in the adult liver. Others have shown that P1-HNF4a is downregulated in cancer, whereas P2-HNF4a is upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal cancer. This would suggest that P1-HNF4a is tumor suppressive, while P2-HNF4a may act as an oncogene although a mechanism has not been elucidated...
Post‐mastectomy free‐flap breast reconstruction is becoming increasingly common in the United Sta... more Post‐mastectomy free‐flap breast reconstruction is becoming increasingly common in the United States. However, predicting which patients may suffer complications remains challenging. We sought to apply the validated modified frailty index (mFI) to free‐flap breast reconstruction in breast cancer patients and determine its utility in predicting negative outcomes.
The purpose of this study was to quantify the stigma associated with digital amputation and exami... more The purpose of this study was to quantify the stigma associated with digital amputation and examine factors associated with it. One hundred and sixty-four digital amputees completed the Neurological Quality of Life-Stigma questionnaire and a battery of Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System instruments. Multivariable analysis examined factors associated with stigma experience. The mean observed stigma score of 47 (SD 8, range 36–64) was similar to the mean value of the normal population. Younger age, a worker’s compensation claim and depression were each independently associated with a more severe experience of stigma after digital amputation. Socioeconomic variables, anatomical details and mechanism of injury were not independently associated with stigma. Digital amputation is not highly stigmatizing overall. Surgeons should consider referring at-risk patients to a mental health provider for support during the coping and adjustment process after amputation. Level o...
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are exquisitely sensitive to WNT ligands that rapidly cause di... more Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are exquisitely sensitive to WNT ligands that rapidly cause differentiation. Therefore, hESC self-renewal requires robust mechanisms to keep the cells in a WNT-inactive, but-responsive state. How they achieve this is largely unknown. We explored the role of transcriptional regulators of WNT signaling, the TCF/LEFs. As in mouse ESCs, TCF7L1 is the predominant family member in hESCs. Genome-wide, it binds a gene cohort involved in primitive streak formation at gastrulation including NODAL, BMP4 and WNT3 Comparing TCF7L1-bound sites with those bound by the WNT signaling effector, β-CATENIN, indicates that TCF7L1 acts largely on the WNT signaling pathway and not other processes. TCF7L1 overlaps less with the pluripotency regulators OCT4 and NANOG than in mouse ESCs. Gain- and loss-of-function studies indicate that TCF7L1 suppresses gene cohorts expressed in the primitive streak. Interestingly, we also find that BMP4, another driver of hESC differentiat...
Notch signaling at the dorsoventral (DV) boundary is essential for patterning and growth of wings... more Notch signaling at the dorsoventral (DV) boundary is essential for patterning and growth of wings in Drosophila The WD40 domain protein Ebi has been implicated in the regulation of Notch signaling at the DV boundary. Here we show that Ebi regulates wing growth by antagonizing the function of the transmembrane protein Crumbs (Crb). Ebi physically binds to the extracellular domain of Crb (Crb(ext)), and this interaction is specifically mediated by WD40 repeats 7-8 of Ebi and a laminin G domain of Crb(ext) Wing notching resulting from reduced levels of Ebi is suppressed by decreasing the Crb function. Consistent with this antagonistic genetic relationship, Ebi knockdown in the DV boundary elevates the Crb protein level. Furthermore, we show that Ebi is required for downregulation of Crb by ubiquitylation. Taken together, we propose that the interplay of Crb expression in the DV boundary and ubiquitin-dependent Crb downregulation by Ebi provides a mechanism for the maintenance of Notch ...
The nuclear receptor hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) is tumor suppressive in the liver but a... more The nuclear receptor hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) is tumor suppressive in the liver but amplified in colon cancer, suggesting that it also might be oncogenic. To investigate whether this discrepancy is due to different HNF4α isoforms derived from its two promoters (P1 and P2), we generated Tet-On-inducible human colon cancer (HCT116) cell lines that express either the P1-driven (HNF4α2) or P2-driven (HNF4α8) isoform and analyzed them for tumor growth and global changes in gene expression (transcriptome sequencing [RNA-seq] and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing [ChIP-seq]). The results show that while HNF4α2 acts as a tumor suppressor in the HCT116 tumor xenograft model, HNF4α8 does not. Each isoform regulates the expression of distinct sets of genes and recruits, colocalizes, and competes in a distinct fashion with the Wnt/β-catenin mediator T-cell factor 4 (TCF4) at CTTTG motifs as well as at AP-1 motifs (TGAXTCA). Protein binding microarrays (PBMs) show that HNF4α a...
The Journal of investigative dermatology, Jan 10, 2015
Acne vulgaris is a nearly universal cutaneous inflammatory disease. Excess sebum production is an... more Acne vulgaris is a nearly universal cutaneous inflammatory disease. Excess sebum production is an integral part of disease pathogenesis. Medical therapies that reduce sebum excretion result in clinical improvement of acne. Given the preferential susceptibility of lipid containing cells to cold, we investigated the hypothesis that controlled local skin cooling causes preferential injury to sebaceous glands, in murine and swine models using a range of temperatures as low as -10°C, and then on the backs of human subjects. In mouse ears, peak histologic damage occurred 72 hours after treatment; eosinophilic necrotic plugs formed within sebaceous glands, and the number of glands was significantly reduced up to 1 week post-treatment. Cooling disrupted sebocyte cell membranes, alkaline phosphatase activity, and significantly reduced sebocyte lipid content. In human volunteers, cooling damaged sebaceous glands and reduced sebum output for 2 weeks, with minimal injury to surrounding tissues....
Journal of Advanced Biotechnology and Experimental Therapeutics
Mutation profiles of oncogenes play essential roles in cancer therapy, but data on the prevalence... more Mutation profiles of oncogenes play essential roles in cancer therapy, but data on the prevalence of lung cancer oncogenic driver mutations in Vietnamese patients are limited. This study aims to evaluate the mutation status of EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET and MET and analyze the association of gene mutations with clinicopathological characteristics of lung adenocarcinoma. Of the 179 lung adenocarcinoma tissues, EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET and MET mutation frequencies were 44.6; 7.9; 3.0; 3.0 and 2.0 percent, respectively. EGFR, ALK, ROS1 and RET alterations tended to be higher in females. Moreover, rearrangements of ALK, ROS and RET were more prevalent in younger lung adenocarcinoma, but skipping at exon 14 MET was more frequent in male and older patients. Stages III and IV seem to accumulate more ALK, RET and MET abnormalities. These findings identified the variation of frequencies of Vietnamese lung adenocarcinoma with different clinicopathological characteristics and established the pioneer dat...
Journal of Science and Technology Issue on Information and Communications Technology
Alterations in the epidermal growth factor receptor were confirmed to take a significant role in ... more Alterations in the epidermal growth factor receptor were confirmed to take a significant role in targeted therapy for patients with lung cancer. Studied 299 non-small cell lung cancer patients to determine the distribution of EGFR mutation and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of patients. EGFR mutations were analysed by allele-specific PCR on the Cobas z480 system, and the association between EGFR mutations and patient characteristics was analysed by Pearson Chi-square test and Fisher extract test. The results showed that the frequency of EGFR mutation was 38.8%, in which, Ex19Del and L858R substitution were predominant among overall mutation, 45.4% and 29.1%, respectively. There was no difference between EGFR mutations with age, specimen type, tumour size and histopathological subtype. However, there was a strong correlation between EGFR mutation and gender and tumour status (p<0.05). In particularly, Ex19Del and L858R mutation were positively associated...
Background: Diabetes is a well-established risk factor for severe digital infection, and patients... more Background: Diabetes is a well-established risk factor for severe digital infection, and patients are more likely to require digital amputation for adequate source control. This study aims to identify factors predictive of digital amputation compared with preservation in patients with diabetes who present with surgically treated finger infections. Methods: Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and International Classification of Diseases Versions 9 and 10 (ICD-9/10) databases from a single academic medical center were queried to identify patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus who underwent surgical treatment in the operating room for treatment of a digital infection from 2010 to 2020. Electronic medical records were reviewed to obtain historical and acute clinical variables at the time of hospital presentation. Bivariate and multivariable regression were used to identify factors associated with amputation. Results: In total, 145 patients (61 digital amputation, 84 digital p...
Long-term durability of weight loss is a prerequisite for a greater acceptance of bariatric surge... more Long-term durability of weight loss is a prerequisite for a greater acceptance of bariatric surgery. To examine long-term weight trajectory in patients undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and determine factors predicting long-term follow-up and weight outcomes. University hospital. A retrospective cohort of adults who underwent RYGB during 1997-2010 were identified and followed until 2017. Predictors for attendance at periodic follow-up visits, reduction in body mass index (BMI), and percent excess BMI lost were determined using multivariable logistic regression and linear mixed-effects models. The latter was used to predict long-term weight outcomes for a typical patient. The study included 1104 patients with a mean age of 45.5 (standard deviation [SD] 9.9) years and a preoperative BMI of 54.7 (SD 10.9) kg/m2. Follow-up data were available for 92.8% of the patients after 1 year, 50.0% after 5 years, and 35.2% after 10 years post-surgery. Black patients, compared with White patients, were less likely to attend follow-up visits. Attendance at follow-up visits at least every other year was not associated with larger weight loss, but higher preoperative BMI, being White (versus Black), and female sex were. Predicted BMI reduction for a typical patient, a 45-year-old White female with a preoperative BMI of 54.7 kg/m2 and private health insurance, undergoing laparoscopic RYGB in 2004, was 18.3 (standard error [SE] .36) kg/m2 at year 5 and 17.6 (SE .49) kg/m2 at year 10. RYGB results in clinically significant and durable weight loss. Attendance at periodic follow-up visits does not appear to be associated with long-term weight loss outcomes. Future work should focus on strategies to remove barriers to post-operative care.
In the 21 century, China faces the challenge of balancing the housing needs of its rapidly growin... more In the 21 century, China faces the challenge of balancing the housing needs of its rapidly growing rural population and energy efficiency. Coal is the primary energy source for residential heating in rural and urban areas. Conventional buildings have very low capacities for insulation so heating from coal burning inefficiently escapes the walls of the house (Trexler 2002). Straw Bale Construction has considerably better heat preservation and has been shown to be a promising building alternative that meets housing needs and energy efficient goals of rural north of China. Straw bale has high adaptability and is malleable enough to be use in rural residential development in the southern parts of China. However, personal and institutional barriers hinder the use of Straw Bale Construction from being incorporated into rural design. I interviewed principal parties involved in the straw bale projects in Northern China (not all data has been completely collected and analyzed at the time pap...
Date of presentation Degree programme in Business Information Technology Author or authors Vuong ... more Date of presentation Degree programme in Business Information Technology Author or authors Vuong Viet Linh Group or year of entry 2013 Title of report Enhancing smartphone’s usability for elderly in Finland Number of report pages and attachment pages 120 +28 Teacher(s) or supervisor(s) Juha Pispa By the end of 2007, 16.5 percent of Finnish population are older than 65, and this percentage was predicted to be double in next 30 years. However, only a small amount of smartphones were able to be accepted by elderly, mostly because these devices are too hard to use. Application developers are usually in lack of interest in this special group of users. Even if developers want to create applocations for this group, the lack of guidelines theoretical foundations leave their applications nearly unusable by elderly. The purpose of this research is to discover what are elderly’s needs and capabilities when using mobilephones. In order to carry out the research, three methods of usability testi...
Cellular proliferation and differentiation are critical events in normal development and cancer. ... more Cellular proliferation and differentiation are critical events in normal development and cancer. Despite decades of research, much remains to be learned about how cells transition between the two states. To decipher one aspect of this switch, we focused on the transcription factor, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor (HNF) 4 alpha. HNF4a is a nuclear receptor that is important in development and in maintaining the homoeostasis of the adult liver and colon. There are multiple isoforms of the HNF4a that are generated by alterative promoter (P1 and P2) usage and 3' splicing events in different tissues. Both P1 and P2-HNF4a isoforms are expressed in the adult colon, while the P1-HNF4a is expressed in the adult liver. Others have shown that P1-HNF4a is downregulated in cancer, whereas P2-HNF4a is upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal cancer. This would suggest that P1-HNF4a is tumor suppressive, while P2-HNF4a may act as an oncogene although a mechanism has not been elucidated...
Post‐mastectomy free‐flap breast reconstruction is becoming increasingly common in the United Sta... more Post‐mastectomy free‐flap breast reconstruction is becoming increasingly common in the United States. However, predicting which patients may suffer complications remains challenging. We sought to apply the validated modified frailty index (mFI) to free‐flap breast reconstruction in breast cancer patients and determine its utility in predicting negative outcomes.
The purpose of this study was to quantify the stigma associated with digital amputation and exami... more The purpose of this study was to quantify the stigma associated with digital amputation and examine factors associated with it. One hundred and sixty-four digital amputees completed the Neurological Quality of Life-Stigma questionnaire and a battery of Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System instruments. Multivariable analysis examined factors associated with stigma experience. The mean observed stigma score of 47 (SD 8, range 36–64) was similar to the mean value of the normal population. Younger age, a worker’s compensation claim and depression were each independently associated with a more severe experience of stigma after digital amputation. Socioeconomic variables, anatomical details and mechanism of injury were not independently associated with stigma. Digital amputation is not highly stigmatizing overall. Surgeons should consider referring at-risk patients to a mental health provider for support during the coping and adjustment process after amputation. Level o...
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are exquisitely sensitive to WNT ligands that rapidly cause di... more Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are exquisitely sensitive to WNT ligands that rapidly cause differentiation. Therefore, hESC self-renewal requires robust mechanisms to keep the cells in a WNT-inactive, but-responsive state. How they achieve this is largely unknown. We explored the role of transcriptional regulators of WNT signaling, the TCF/LEFs. As in mouse ESCs, TCF7L1 is the predominant family member in hESCs. Genome-wide, it binds a gene cohort involved in primitive streak formation at gastrulation including NODAL, BMP4 and WNT3 Comparing TCF7L1-bound sites with those bound by the WNT signaling effector, β-CATENIN, indicates that TCF7L1 acts largely on the WNT signaling pathway and not other processes. TCF7L1 overlaps less with the pluripotency regulators OCT4 and NANOG than in mouse ESCs. Gain- and loss-of-function studies indicate that TCF7L1 suppresses gene cohorts expressed in the primitive streak. Interestingly, we also find that BMP4, another driver of hESC differentiat...
Notch signaling at the dorsoventral (DV) boundary is essential for patterning and growth of wings... more Notch signaling at the dorsoventral (DV) boundary is essential for patterning and growth of wings in Drosophila The WD40 domain protein Ebi has been implicated in the regulation of Notch signaling at the DV boundary. Here we show that Ebi regulates wing growth by antagonizing the function of the transmembrane protein Crumbs (Crb). Ebi physically binds to the extracellular domain of Crb (Crb(ext)), and this interaction is specifically mediated by WD40 repeats 7-8 of Ebi and a laminin G domain of Crb(ext) Wing notching resulting from reduced levels of Ebi is suppressed by decreasing the Crb function. Consistent with this antagonistic genetic relationship, Ebi knockdown in the DV boundary elevates the Crb protein level. Furthermore, we show that Ebi is required for downregulation of Crb by ubiquitylation. Taken together, we propose that the interplay of Crb expression in the DV boundary and ubiquitin-dependent Crb downregulation by Ebi provides a mechanism for the maintenance of Notch ...
The nuclear receptor hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) is tumor suppressive in the liver but a... more The nuclear receptor hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) is tumor suppressive in the liver but amplified in colon cancer, suggesting that it also might be oncogenic. To investigate whether this discrepancy is due to different HNF4α isoforms derived from its two promoters (P1 and P2), we generated Tet-On-inducible human colon cancer (HCT116) cell lines that express either the P1-driven (HNF4α2) or P2-driven (HNF4α8) isoform and analyzed them for tumor growth and global changes in gene expression (transcriptome sequencing [RNA-seq] and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing [ChIP-seq]). The results show that while HNF4α2 acts as a tumor suppressor in the HCT116 tumor xenograft model, HNF4α8 does not. Each isoform regulates the expression of distinct sets of genes and recruits, colocalizes, and competes in a distinct fashion with the Wnt/β-catenin mediator T-cell factor 4 (TCF4) at CTTTG motifs as well as at AP-1 motifs (TGAXTCA). Protein binding microarrays (PBMs) show that HNF4α a...
The Journal of investigative dermatology, Jan 10, 2015
Acne vulgaris is a nearly universal cutaneous inflammatory disease. Excess sebum production is an... more Acne vulgaris is a nearly universal cutaneous inflammatory disease. Excess sebum production is an integral part of disease pathogenesis. Medical therapies that reduce sebum excretion result in clinical improvement of acne. Given the preferential susceptibility of lipid containing cells to cold, we investigated the hypothesis that controlled local skin cooling causes preferential injury to sebaceous glands, in murine and swine models using a range of temperatures as low as -10°C, and then on the backs of human subjects. In mouse ears, peak histologic damage occurred 72 hours after treatment; eosinophilic necrotic plugs formed within sebaceous glands, and the number of glands was significantly reduced up to 1 week post-treatment. Cooling disrupted sebocyte cell membranes, alkaline phosphatase activity, and significantly reduced sebocyte lipid content. In human volunteers, cooling damaged sebaceous glands and reduced sebum output for 2 weeks, with minimal injury to surrounding tissues....
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