Articles

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy: PAK1 is a broad-spectrum anti-SARS-CoV-2 target

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy: PAK1 is a broad-spectrum anti-SARS-CoV-2 target

Yuxia Zhang
22 October 2023

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has had a significant impact on healthcare systems and economies worldwide. The emergence of new viral strains represents a major challenge in the development of effective antiviral agents. The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 interacts with ACE2 on the cell surface, facilitating ...read more

Nature Cardiovascular Research: MCM8-mediated mitophagy protects vascular health in response to nitric oxide signaling

Nature Cardiovascular Research: MCM8-mediated mitophagy protects vascular health in response to nitric oxide signaling

Yuxia Zhang
03 September 2023

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis mainly affects children under 5 years of age. If untreated, sudden death may occur due to coronary artery aneurysms. KD incidences vary among different populations, being highest among East Asian and lowest among Caucasian ethnic groups. But the underlying genetic mechanism is not fully understood. Dr. Meng Lin et.al ...read more

Pathological Jaundice

Pathological Jaundice

Yuxia Zhang
09 October 2021

Jaundice is caused by too much bilirubin, a breakdown product of red blood cells. After being processed in the liver, bilirubin is passed out of body in poo. Newborn babies have a high number of red blood cells that are broken down and replaced frequently. Their livers are less effective in removing it from the blood. Jaundice therefore occurs ...read more

Biliary Atresia

Biliary Atresia

Yuxia Zhang
12 September 2021

Biliary Atresia (BA) affects one in every 5,000-18,000 newborns. Perinatal infection is a significant trigger, which can cause obstruction of the extrahepatic bile duct and rapid liver failure. Surgical removal of the duct remnants followed by hepatoportoenterostomy (Kasai’s procedure) is required after diagnosis. If left untreated, Biliary Atresia progression to end-stage cirrhosis usually occurs within one year. Following the ...read more

Hirschsprung's Disease

Hirschsprung

Yuxia Zhang
12 August 2021

Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR) is a developmental disorder caused by the failure of enteric neural crest-derived cells (ENCC) to colonize the entire gut, leading to absence of neurons from variable lengths of the colon. Hirschsprung disease usually start in very young children, but may also occur later. The symptoms involve constipation, vomiting, abdominal pain or swelling, diarrhea, poor ...read more

Food Allergy, Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Food Allergy, Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Yuxia Zhang
29 July 2021

Food allergy, colitis and IBD are developmentally related gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases affecting one in every 10 children. It is generally accepted that genetic and environmental factors are both involved. Our scientific partners studied cohorts of children with food allergy, colitis and IBD by incorporating single-cell RNA sequencing, whole genome-wide association study (GWAS) and immunological profiling. They discovered that hyper-inflammation ...read more

Cell: Pediatric Onset Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Cell: Pediatric Onset Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Yuxia Zhang
28 June 2021

Pediatric onset colitis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) represent significant challenges to many infants, children and their guardians. Disease etiopathogenesis remains incompletely understood, and up to 50% children do not respond effectively to conventional therapy (JAMA Pediatr. 2015 Nov;169(11):1053-60. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1982.).In collaboration with Prof. Fan Bai from Peking University, we performed scRNA sequencing and immune profiling ...read more

Risk Genetic Variants in Children With Immune-Related Illness

Risk Genetic Variants in Children With Immune-Related Illness

Yuxia Zhang
28 June 2021

The relatively naïve and immature immune system from infants and children face numerous challenges in everyday life. The suspicion or diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency (PID), autoinflammatory disease (AID), Chrohn's disease (CD), Ulcerative colitis (UC), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) can be devastating to the families. Many of these pediatric-onset illness have significant underlying genetic contributions. Identification of ...read more

Biliary Atresia: A Forgotten Killer Affecting 1 in 5000 Infants

Biliary Atresia: A Forgotten Killer Affecting 1 in 5000 Infants

Yuxia Zhang
28 June 2021

Jaundice is common in newborns. However, for up to one in every 5000 newborns, Jaundice may never go away and children develop Biliary Atresia (BA) (Hartley et al., 2009). The cause of Biliary Atresia is not entirely clear, both developmental defects or perinatal infections can cause obstructions of the extrahepatic bile ducts and result in rapid ...read more

Liver Cirrhosis, Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Cholangiocarcinoma

Liver Cirrhosis, Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Cholangiocarcinoma

Ming Liu
08 June 2021

Cirrhosis is a late-stage liver disease in which healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue and the liver is permanently damaged. Many types of liver diseases and conditions injure healthy liver cells, causing cell death and inflammation. It is widely accepted that long-term inflammation will eventually induce liver cancer, of which HCC is the most common ...read more