Journal of the American Heart Association, Jan 25, 2018
The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recomme... more The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recommend high-intensity statins for patients after myocardial infarction (MI) rather than treating to a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal, as the previous ATP III (Adult Treatment Panel third report) guidelines had advised. To evaluate the frequency of postdischarge lipid testing and high-intensity statin use among MI patients discharged on a statin during the ATP III guidelines era, we linked ACTION (Acute Coronary Treatment and Intervention Outcomes Network) Registry data to Medicare claims for 11 046 MI patients aged ≥65 years who were discharged alive on a statin from 347 hospitals (2007-2009). Multivariable regression was used to evaluate the association between lipid testing and 1-year high-intensity statin use. Only 21% of MI patients were discharged on a high-intensity statin. By 90 days after MI, 44% of patients discharged on a statin underwent lipid testing (43% on low- or mod...
Objective. Studies have shown that meniscal repairs have better outcomes over both partial and to... more Objective. Studies have shown that meniscal repairs have better outcomes over both partial and total meniscectomies. Tissue engineering strategies to repair meniscus tears have been explored using cell sources that involve a donor as well as a period of in vitro cell expansion before use. This study explored cell sources that could be easily harvested and rapidly isolated by enzymatic digestion and cannulated delivery. Methods. Bovine menisci were used to create a bucket handle tear. Cell lines were established from meniscus, synovium, and adipose tissue and fluorescently labeled. At passages P2, P4, and P8, cells were added to the defect from the following experimental groups: cells alone, collagen gel, collagen scaffold, or hyaluronic acid. Menisci constructs were xenografted subcutaneously onto the dorsum of athymic rats and incubated for 3, 6, and 9 weeks, at which time they were retrieved and processed for histology. Results. Meniscal cells were able to repair defects faster an...
Infectious microbial diseases can easily be transferred from person to person in the air or via h... more Infectious microbial diseases can easily be transferred from person to person in the air or via high contact surfaces. As a result, researchers must aspire to create materials that can be implemented in surface contact applications to disrupt pathogen growth and transmission. Silver (Ag) is known to possess antimicrobial activity and has been used in the past in various pharmaceutical applications. Herein, we examine the antimicrobial properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers coated with different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was homogenized with varied weight concentrations of silver nitrate (AgNO3) in N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) solution, a common organic solvent that serves as both an electrospinning solvent and as a reducing agent that forms AgNPs. The subsequent colloids were electrospun into nanofibers, which were then characterized via various analysis techniques, including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Elec...
Bacteria induced diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are easily transmitted throu... more Bacteria induced diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are easily transmitted through respiratory droplets expelled from a person’s nose or mouth. It has become increasingly important for researchers to discover materials that can be implemented in in vitro surface contact settings which disrupt bacterial growth and transmission. Copper (Cu) is known to have antibacterial properties and have been used in medical applications. This study investigates the antibacterial properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based nanofibers coated with different concentrations of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs). Different concentrations of copper sulfate (CuSO4) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were mixed with dimethylformamide (DMF) solution, an electrospinning solvent that also acts as a reducing agent for CuSO4, which forms CuNPs and Cu ions. The resulting colloidal solutions were electrospun into nanofibers, which were then characterized using various analysis techniques. Methicillin-Resistan...
Mechanoreciprocity in cell migration is an emerging concept describing the dynamic, bi-directiona... more Mechanoreciprocity in cell migration is an emerging concept describing the dynamic, bi-directional interactions between migrating cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) they negotiate. Migrating cells not only sense and adapt to biochemical and biophysical ECM cues, but also, exert forces, deposit matrix, and secrete chemokines, matrix metalloproteinases, and matrix crosslinking enzymes that dynamically alter the same ECM properties known to regulate cell migration. Due to limitations in standard cell migration assays, how matrix properties influence cell migration and in turn, how cells influence matrix properties, has previously been studied as separate processes. However, observations from development, wound healing, and a variety of disease processes highlight the interdependency and iterative relationship between cell migration and ECM. An improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms that orchestrate the coevolution of migrating cells and ECM will aid in ti...
Purchasing a property entails making rankings, comparisons, and trade-offs among various housing ... more Purchasing a property entails making rankings, comparisons, and trade-offs among various housing characteristics. When trying to sell a house, real estate brokers take on an important role as a middle-person between the seller and buyer. Thus, this research sets up a dynamic price recommendation method for housing purchases and applies the fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (FMCDM) technique, so as to realize housing quality and evaluation. We utilize this method based on the prospect theory of the loss aversion effect, in order to aid real estate brokers’ job of coordinating between the seller and buyer. The method helps us to provide an objective view of the evaluation matrix. From the pricing strategy, the results are able to match price versus quality and improve brokers’ intermediation effects. The brokers can subsequently make recommendations regarding a suitable price, decisions on negotiation strategies to reach an agreement, and settle upon an acceptable price.
Although epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) volume is associated with increased incidence of coronar... more Although epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) volume is associated with increased incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), its role in myocardial systolic dysfunction is unclear. The present study aimed to identify independent determinants of EAT volume in patients without obstructive CAD, and to evaluate the association between EAT volume (vs other measures of obesity) and myocardial systolic strain analysis. We prospectively recruited 130 patients without obstructive CAD on contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography imaging and normal left ventricular ejection fraction on 3-dimensional (3D) echocardiography. EAT volume was quantified from cardiac computed tomography imaging, and 3D multidirectional (longitudinal, circumferential, radial, and area) strain were measured. The mean EAT volume was 97.5 ± 43.7 cm(3). In multivariable analysis, measures of obesity (body mass index [P = 0.007] and waist/hip ratio [P = 0.001]) were independently associated with larger EAT volume. EAT volu...
Anti-cancer agents in medicinal chemistry, Jan 22, 2016
Angiogenesis is a fundamental process in the progression, invasion, and metastasis of tumors. The... more Angiogenesis is a fundamental process in the progression, invasion, and metastasis of tumors. Therapeutic drugs such as bevacizumab and ranibuzumab have thus been developed to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEFG)-promoted angiogenesis. While these anti-angiogenic drugs have been commonly used in the treatment of cancer, patients often develop significant resistance that limits the efficacy of anti-VEGF therapies to a short period of time. This is in part due to the fact that an independent pathway of angiogenesis exists, which is mediated by 2-(ω-carboxyethyl)pyrrole (CEP) in a TLR2 receptor-dependent manner that can compensate for inhibition of the VEGF-mediated pathway. In this work, we evaluated a CEP antibody as a new tumor growth inhibitor that blocks CEP-induced angiogenesis. We first evaluated the effectiveness of a CEP antibody as a monotherapy to impede tumor growth in two human tumor xenograft models. We then determined the synergistic effects of bevacizumab a...
Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2016
Very high gravity (VHG) fermentation is the mainstream technology in ethanol industry, which requ... more Very high gravity (VHG) fermentation is the mainstream technology in ethanol industry, which requires the strains be resistant to multiple stresses such as high glucose concentration, high ethanol concentration, high temperature and harsh acidic conditions. To our knowledge, it was not reported previously that any ethanol-producing microbe showed a high performance in VHG fermentations without amino acid and vitamin. Here we demonstrate the engineering of a xylose utilizing recombinant Zymomonas mobilis for VHG ethanol fermentations. The recombinant strain can produce ethanol up to 136 g/L without amino acid and vitamin with a theoretical yield of 90 %, which is significantly superior to that produced by all the reported ethanol-producing strains. The intracellular fatty acids of the bacterial were about 16 % of the bacterial dry biomass, with the ratio of ethanol:fatty acids was about 273:1 (g/g). The recombinant strain was achieved by a multivariate-modular strategy tackles with t...
Over the past decade, more men than women have shown improved outcomes from antithrombotic therap... more Over the past decade, more men than women have shown improved outcomes from antithrombotic therapies after acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which raises the question of whether there are sex-specific differences in treatment patterns and response to therapy. Differences in presenting clinical characteristics, pathophysiologic profile, and disparities in treatment may contribute to this outcomes discrepancy. Analyses of large trials and registry data suggest that male and female ACS patients experience similar benefits from antithrombotic therapy without significant difference in treatment utilization rates, yet women are consistently at higher risk of bleeding than men. Bleeding may result in antithrombotic treatment disruption, which increases the risk of long-term thrombotic events. Additionally, female ACS patients are more likely to receive suboptimal medication dosing and have lower rates of long-term medication adherence. These differences have significant clinical implications ...
To investigate how cells sense stiffness in settings structurally similar to native extracellular... more To investigate how cells sense stiffness in settings structurally similar to native extracellular matrices, we designed a synthetic fibrous material with tunable mechanics and user-defined architecture. In contrast to flat hydrogel surfaces, these fibrous materials recapitulated cell-matrix interactions observed with collagen matrices including stellate cell morphologies, cell-mediated realignment of fibres, and bulk contraction of the material. Increasing the stiffness of flat hydrogel surfaces induced mesenchymal stem cell spreading and proliferation; however, increasing fibre stiffness instead suppressed spreading and proliferation for certain network architectures. Lower fibre stiffness permitted active cellular forces to recruit nearby fibres, dynamically increasing ligand density at the cell surface and promoting the formation of focal adhesions and related signalling. These studies demonstrate a departure from the well-described relationship between material stiffness and spr...
Downregulation of Rpd3, a homologue of mammalian Histone Deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), extends lifespan ... more Downregulation of Rpd3, a homologue of mammalian Histone Deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), extends lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster. Once revealed that long-lived fruit flies exhibit limited cardiac decline, we investigated whether Rpd3 downregulation would improve stress resistance and/or lifespan when targeted in the heart. Contested against three different stressors (oxidation, starvation and heat), heart-specific Rpd3 downregulation significantly enhanced stress resistance in flies. However, these higher levels of resistance were not observed when Rpd3 downregulation was targeted in other tissues or when other long-lived flies were tested in the heart-specific manner. Interestingly, the expressions of anti-aging genes such as sod2, foxo and Thor, were systemically increased as a consequence of heart-specific Rpd3 downregulation. Showing higher resistance to oxidative stress, the heart-specific Rpd3 downregulation concurrently exhibited improved cardiac functions, demonstrating an increa...
Lung disease is the major cause of death and hospitalization worldwide. Transcription factors suc... more Lung disease is the major cause of death and hospitalization worldwide. Transcription factors such as transcription factor 7 (TCF7) are involved in the pathogenesis of lung diseases. TCF7 is important for T cell development and differentiation, embryonic development, or tumorogenesis. Multiple TCF7 isoforms can be characterized by the full-length isoform (FL-TCF7) as a transcription activator, or dominant negative isoform (dn-TCF7) as a transcription repressor. TCF7 interacts with multiple proteins or target genes and participates in several signal pathways critical for lung diseases. TCF7 is involved in pulmonary infection, allergy or asthma through promoting T cells differentiating to Th2 or memory T cells. TCF7 also works in tissue repair and remodeling after acute lung injury. The dual roles of TCF7 in lung cancers were discussed and it is associated with the cellular proliferation, invasion or metastasis. Thus, TCF7 plays critical roles in lung diseases and should be considered...
Journal of the American Heart Association, Jan 25, 2018
The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recomme... more The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recommend high-intensity statins for patients after myocardial infarction (MI) rather than treating to a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal, as the previous ATP III (Adult Treatment Panel third report) guidelines had advised. To evaluate the frequency of postdischarge lipid testing and high-intensity statin use among MI patients discharged on a statin during the ATP III guidelines era, we linked ACTION (Acute Coronary Treatment and Intervention Outcomes Network) Registry data to Medicare claims for 11 046 MI patients aged ≥65 years who were discharged alive on a statin from 347 hospitals (2007-2009). Multivariable regression was used to evaluate the association between lipid testing and 1-year high-intensity statin use. Only 21% of MI patients were discharged on a high-intensity statin. By 90 days after MI, 44% of patients discharged on a statin underwent lipid testing (43% on low- or mod...
Objective. Studies have shown that meniscal repairs have better outcomes over both partial and to... more Objective. Studies have shown that meniscal repairs have better outcomes over both partial and total meniscectomies. Tissue engineering strategies to repair meniscus tears have been explored using cell sources that involve a donor as well as a period of in vitro cell expansion before use. This study explored cell sources that could be easily harvested and rapidly isolated by enzymatic digestion and cannulated delivery. Methods. Bovine menisci were used to create a bucket handle tear. Cell lines were established from meniscus, synovium, and adipose tissue and fluorescently labeled. At passages P2, P4, and P8, cells were added to the defect from the following experimental groups: cells alone, collagen gel, collagen scaffold, or hyaluronic acid. Menisci constructs were xenografted subcutaneously onto the dorsum of athymic rats and incubated for 3, 6, and 9 weeks, at which time they were retrieved and processed for histology. Results. Meniscal cells were able to repair defects faster an...
Infectious microbial diseases can easily be transferred from person to person in the air or via h... more Infectious microbial diseases can easily be transferred from person to person in the air or via high contact surfaces. As a result, researchers must aspire to create materials that can be implemented in surface contact applications to disrupt pathogen growth and transmission. Silver (Ag) is known to possess antimicrobial activity and has been used in the past in various pharmaceutical applications. Herein, we examine the antimicrobial properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers coated with different concentrations of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was homogenized with varied weight concentrations of silver nitrate (AgNO3) in N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) solution, a common organic solvent that serves as both an electrospinning solvent and as a reducing agent that forms AgNPs. The subsequent colloids were electrospun into nanofibers, which were then characterized via various analysis techniques, including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Elec...
Bacteria induced diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are easily transmitted throu... more Bacteria induced diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are easily transmitted through respiratory droplets expelled from a person’s nose or mouth. It has become increasingly important for researchers to discover materials that can be implemented in in vitro surface contact settings which disrupt bacterial growth and transmission. Copper (Cu) is known to have antibacterial properties and have been used in medical applications. This study investigates the antibacterial properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based nanofibers coated with different concentrations of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs). Different concentrations of copper sulfate (CuSO4) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were mixed with dimethylformamide (DMF) solution, an electrospinning solvent that also acts as a reducing agent for CuSO4, which forms CuNPs and Cu ions. The resulting colloidal solutions were electrospun into nanofibers, which were then characterized using various analysis techniques. Methicillin-Resistan...
Mechanoreciprocity in cell migration is an emerging concept describing the dynamic, bi-directiona... more Mechanoreciprocity in cell migration is an emerging concept describing the dynamic, bi-directional interactions between migrating cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) they negotiate. Migrating cells not only sense and adapt to biochemical and biophysical ECM cues, but also, exert forces, deposit matrix, and secrete chemokines, matrix metalloproteinases, and matrix crosslinking enzymes that dynamically alter the same ECM properties known to regulate cell migration. Due to limitations in standard cell migration assays, how matrix properties influence cell migration and in turn, how cells influence matrix properties, has previously been studied as separate processes. However, observations from development, wound healing, and a variety of disease processes highlight the interdependency and iterative relationship between cell migration and ECM. An improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms that orchestrate the coevolution of migrating cells and ECM will aid in ti...
Purchasing a property entails making rankings, comparisons, and trade-offs among various housing ... more Purchasing a property entails making rankings, comparisons, and trade-offs among various housing characteristics. When trying to sell a house, real estate brokers take on an important role as a middle-person between the seller and buyer. Thus, this research sets up a dynamic price recommendation method for housing purchases and applies the fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (FMCDM) technique, so as to realize housing quality and evaluation. We utilize this method based on the prospect theory of the loss aversion effect, in order to aid real estate brokers’ job of coordinating between the seller and buyer. The method helps us to provide an objective view of the evaluation matrix. From the pricing strategy, the results are able to match price versus quality and improve brokers’ intermediation effects. The brokers can subsequently make recommendations regarding a suitable price, decisions on negotiation strategies to reach an agreement, and settle upon an acceptable price.
Although epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) volume is associated with increased incidence of coronar... more Although epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) volume is associated with increased incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD), its role in myocardial systolic dysfunction is unclear. The present study aimed to identify independent determinants of EAT volume in patients without obstructive CAD, and to evaluate the association between EAT volume (vs other measures of obesity) and myocardial systolic strain analysis. We prospectively recruited 130 patients without obstructive CAD on contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography imaging and normal left ventricular ejection fraction on 3-dimensional (3D) echocardiography. EAT volume was quantified from cardiac computed tomography imaging, and 3D multidirectional (longitudinal, circumferential, radial, and area) strain were measured. The mean EAT volume was 97.5 ± 43.7 cm(3). In multivariable analysis, measures of obesity (body mass index [P = 0.007] and waist/hip ratio [P = 0.001]) were independently associated with larger EAT volume. EAT volu...
Anti-cancer agents in medicinal chemistry, Jan 22, 2016
Angiogenesis is a fundamental process in the progression, invasion, and metastasis of tumors. The... more Angiogenesis is a fundamental process in the progression, invasion, and metastasis of tumors. Therapeutic drugs such as bevacizumab and ranibuzumab have thus been developed to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEFG)-promoted angiogenesis. While these anti-angiogenic drugs have been commonly used in the treatment of cancer, patients often develop significant resistance that limits the efficacy of anti-VEGF therapies to a short period of time. This is in part due to the fact that an independent pathway of angiogenesis exists, which is mediated by 2-(ω-carboxyethyl)pyrrole (CEP) in a TLR2 receptor-dependent manner that can compensate for inhibition of the VEGF-mediated pathway. In this work, we evaluated a CEP antibody as a new tumor growth inhibitor that blocks CEP-induced angiogenesis. We first evaluated the effectiveness of a CEP antibody as a monotherapy to impede tumor growth in two human tumor xenograft models. We then determined the synergistic effects of bevacizumab a...
Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2016
Very high gravity (VHG) fermentation is the mainstream technology in ethanol industry, which requ... more Very high gravity (VHG) fermentation is the mainstream technology in ethanol industry, which requires the strains be resistant to multiple stresses such as high glucose concentration, high ethanol concentration, high temperature and harsh acidic conditions. To our knowledge, it was not reported previously that any ethanol-producing microbe showed a high performance in VHG fermentations without amino acid and vitamin. Here we demonstrate the engineering of a xylose utilizing recombinant Zymomonas mobilis for VHG ethanol fermentations. The recombinant strain can produce ethanol up to 136 g/L without amino acid and vitamin with a theoretical yield of 90 %, which is significantly superior to that produced by all the reported ethanol-producing strains. The intracellular fatty acids of the bacterial were about 16 % of the bacterial dry biomass, with the ratio of ethanol:fatty acids was about 273:1 (g/g). The recombinant strain was achieved by a multivariate-modular strategy tackles with t...
Over the past decade, more men than women have shown improved outcomes from antithrombotic therap... more Over the past decade, more men than women have shown improved outcomes from antithrombotic therapies after acute coronary syndrome (ACS), which raises the question of whether there are sex-specific differences in treatment patterns and response to therapy. Differences in presenting clinical characteristics, pathophysiologic profile, and disparities in treatment may contribute to this outcomes discrepancy. Analyses of large trials and registry data suggest that male and female ACS patients experience similar benefits from antithrombotic therapy without significant difference in treatment utilization rates, yet women are consistently at higher risk of bleeding than men. Bleeding may result in antithrombotic treatment disruption, which increases the risk of long-term thrombotic events. Additionally, female ACS patients are more likely to receive suboptimal medication dosing and have lower rates of long-term medication adherence. These differences have significant clinical implications ...
To investigate how cells sense stiffness in settings structurally similar to native extracellular... more To investigate how cells sense stiffness in settings structurally similar to native extracellular matrices, we designed a synthetic fibrous material with tunable mechanics and user-defined architecture. In contrast to flat hydrogel surfaces, these fibrous materials recapitulated cell-matrix interactions observed with collagen matrices including stellate cell morphologies, cell-mediated realignment of fibres, and bulk contraction of the material. Increasing the stiffness of flat hydrogel surfaces induced mesenchymal stem cell spreading and proliferation; however, increasing fibre stiffness instead suppressed spreading and proliferation for certain network architectures. Lower fibre stiffness permitted active cellular forces to recruit nearby fibres, dynamically increasing ligand density at the cell surface and promoting the formation of focal adhesions and related signalling. These studies demonstrate a departure from the well-described relationship between material stiffness and spr...
Downregulation of Rpd3, a homologue of mammalian Histone Deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), extends lifespan ... more Downregulation of Rpd3, a homologue of mammalian Histone Deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), extends lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster. Once revealed that long-lived fruit flies exhibit limited cardiac decline, we investigated whether Rpd3 downregulation would improve stress resistance and/or lifespan when targeted in the heart. Contested against three different stressors (oxidation, starvation and heat), heart-specific Rpd3 downregulation significantly enhanced stress resistance in flies. However, these higher levels of resistance were not observed when Rpd3 downregulation was targeted in other tissues or when other long-lived flies were tested in the heart-specific manner. Interestingly, the expressions of anti-aging genes such as sod2, foxo and Thor, were systemically increased as a consequence of heart-specific Rpd3 downregulation. Showing higher resistance to oxidative stress, the heart-specific Rpd3 downregulation concurrently exhibited improved cardiac functions, demonstrating an increa...
Lung disease is the major cause of death and hospitalization worldwide. Transcription factors suc... more Lung disease is the major cause of death and hospitalization worldwide. Transcription factors such as transcription factor 7 (TCF7) are involved in the pathogenesis of lung diseases. TCF7 is important for T cell development and differentiation, embryonic development, or tumorogenesis. Multiple TCF7 isoforms can be characterized by the full-length isoform (FL-TCF7) as a transcription activator, or dominant negative isoform (dn-TCF7) as a transcription repressor. TCF7 interacts with multiple proteins or target genes and participates in several signal pathways critical for lung diseases. TCF7 is involved in pulmonary infection, allergy or asthma through promoting T cells differentiating to Th2 or memory T cells. TCF7 also works in tissue repair and remodeling after acute lung injury. The dual roles of TCF7 in lung cancers were discussed and it is associated with the cellular proliferation, invasion or metastasis. Thus, TCF7 plays critical roles in lung diseases and should be considered...
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