February 2023 Member Publications

  1. Amraotkar AR, Keith RJ, Palmer KE, Bhatnagar A. Using SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Testing in COVID-19 Research. Am J Med. 2023 Feb 11:S0002-9343(23)00080-3. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.02.001. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36780969; PMCID: PMC9922202.
    Impact Statement: We have investigated the association between physical activity and COVID-19 severity risks by identifying prior severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection as either self-reported or by presence of antibodies. There is a fundamental vulnerability in utilizing antibodies to determine proof of prior infection, especially in secondary data analysis from large registries. We would like to provide critical yet constructive insight on SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in COVID-19 research, that could augment characterization of prior COVID-19 infection or future scientific works.
  2.  El-Kersh K, Hopkins CD, Wu X, Rai SN, Cave MC, Smith MR, Go YM, Jones DP, Cai L, Huang J. Metallomics in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients. Pulm Circ. 2023 Feb 21;13(1):e12202. doi: 10.1002/pul2.12202. PMID: 36824690; PMCID: PMC9941844.
    Impact Statement: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) prevalence is increasing worldwide, and the prognosis is poor with 5-year survival < 50% in high risk patients. We found significant differences between PAH and control groups in terms of metal concentrations. Silver and chromium levels are correlated with clinical indicators of PAH severities.
  3. McGraw KE, Konkle SL, Riggs DW, Rai SN, DeJarnett N, Xie Z, Keith RJ, Oshunbade A, Hall ME, Shimbo D, Bhatnagar A. Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds Is Associated with Hypertension in Black Adults: The Jackson Heart Study. Environ Res. 2023 Apr 15;223:115384. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115384. Epub 2023 Feb 14. PMID: 36796615.
    Impact Statement: The prevalence of hypertension is higher among Black adults than among White and Hispanic adults. Nevertheless, reasons underlying the higher rates of hypertension in the Black population remain unclear but may relate to exposure to environmental chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We found hypertension in Black individuals may be attributed, in part, to VOC exposure from the environment or tobacco smoke.
  4. Xie Z, Morris JD, Mattingly SJ, Sutaria SR, Huang J, Nantz MH, Fu XA. Analysis of a Broad Range of Carbonyl Metabolites in Exhaled Breath by UHPLC-MS. Anal Chem. 2023 Feb 23. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.2c04604. Epub ahead of print.
    Impact Statement: Analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath (EB) has shown great potential for disease detection including lung cancer, infectious respiratory diseases, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This work reports a method of ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) for the analysis of a broad range of carbonyl metabolites in exhaled breath. A total of six subgroups consisting of saturated aldehydes and ketones, hydroxy-aldehydes, and hydroxy-ketones, unsaturated 2-alkenals, and 4-hydroxy-2-alkenals were identified in exhaled breath.
  5. Yu H, Zuo Y, Xu Z, Zhao D, Yue J, Liu L, Guo Y, Huang J, Deng X, Liang P. Comparison effects of two muscle relaxant strategies on postoperative pulmonary complications in transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a propensity score-matched analysis. J Cardiothorac Surg. 2023 Feb 1;18(1):50. doi: 10.1186/s13019-023-02166-9. PMID: 36721168.
    Impact Statement:The rocuronium/sugammadex muscle relaxant strategy decreases the incidence of Postoperative Pulmonary Complications in patients undergoing transapical TAVR when compared to cisatracurium/neostigmine strategy.
  6. Redding A, Samanapally H, Udoh MO, Huang J, Slaughter MS, Pahwa S. Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting complicated by post-operative coronavirus infection - two similar presentations with dissimilar outcomes. Arch Clin Cases. 2023 Feb 20;10(1):7-10. doi: 10.22551/2023.38.1001.10230. PMID: 36814673; PMCID: PMC9940284.
    Impact Statement:Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection undergoing surgical procedures have been reported to have increased post-operative complications and mortality. This case series describes the clinical course following a CABG procedure in two patients that went on to develop COVID-19 infection post-operatively.
  7. Liu T, Huang J, Wang X, Tu J, Wang Y, Xie C. Effect of recruitment manoeuvres under lung ultrasound-guidance and positive end-expiratory pressure on postoperative atelectasis and hypoxemia in major open upper abdominal surgery: A randomized controlled trial. Heliyon. 2023 Jan 30;9(2):e13348. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13348. PMID: 36755592; PMCID: PMC9900369.
    Impact Statement: In patients undergoing major open upper abdominal surgery, an intraoperative mechanical ventilation strategy without PEEP or with PEEP alone did not reduce postop pulmonary complications. However, PEEP of 5 cmH2O combined with lung #ultrasound-guided recruitment maneuvers proved feasible and beneficial to decrease the occurrence of postoperative atelectasis and hypoxemia in major open upper abdominal surgeries.
  8. Pahwa S, Kertai MD, Abrams B, Huang J. Length of Hospital Stay as a Performance Metric-Is That a Fair Assessment? Semin Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2023 Mar;27(1):5-7. doi: 10.1177/10892532231159723. Epub 2023 Feb 14. PMID: 36786418.
    Impact Statement:The quality improvement programs have taken center stage discussions in hospital boardrooms. The potential avenues to predict and hopefully reduce hospital LOS in both liver transplant recipients and multiple subsets of cardiac surgery patients are critical.
  9. Sriwastva MK, Teng Y, Mu J, Xu F, Kumar A, Sundaram K, Malhotra RK, Xu Q, Hood JL, Zhang L, Yan J, Merchant ML, Park JW, Dryden GW, Egilmez NK, Zhang HG. An extracellular vesicular mutant KRAS-associated protein complex promotes lung inflammation and tumor growth. J Extracell Vesicles. 2023 Feb;12(2):e12307. doi: 10.1002/jev2.12307. PMID: 36754903; PMCID: PMC9908562.
    Impact Statement:Extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain more than 100 proteins. Whether there are EVs proteins that act as an 'organiser' of protein networks to generate a new or different biological effect from that identified in EV-producing cells has never been demonstrated. Here, as a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate that EV-G12D-mutant KRAS serves as a leader that forms a protein complex and promotes lung inflammation and tumour growth via the Fn1/IL-17A/FGF21 axis.
  10. Li J, Sato T, Hernández-Tejero M, Beier JI, Sayed K, Benos PV, Wilkey DW, Humar A, Merchant ML, Duarte-Rojo A, Arteel GE. The plasma degradome reflects later development of NASH fibrosis after liver transplant. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Feb 1:2023.01.30.526241. doi: 10.1101/2023.01.30.526241. PMID: 36778394; PMCID: PMC9915514.
    Impact Statement: Although liver transplantation (LT) is an effective therapy for cirrhosis, the risk of post-LT NASH is alarmingly high and is associated with accelerated progression to fibrosis/cirrhosis, cardiovascular disease, and decreased survival. Lack of risk stratification strategies hamper liver undergoes significant remodeling during inflammatory injury. During such remodeling, degraded peptide fragments (i.e., 'degradome') of the ECM and other proteins increase in plasma, making it a useful diagnostic/prognostic tool in chronic liver disease. To investigate whether inflammatory liver injury caused by post-LT NASH would yield a unique degradome profile, predictive of severe post-LT NASH fibrosis, we performed a retrospective analysis of 22 biobanked samples from the Starzl Transplantation Institute (12 with post-LT NASH after 5 years and 10 without).
  11. Sayed M, Park JW. miRinGO: Prediction of Biological Processes Indirectly Targeted by Human microRNAs. Noncoding RNA. 2023 Jan 22;9(1):11. doi: 10.3390/ncrna9010011. PMID: 36827544; PMCID: PMC9962180.
    Impact Statement:We introduce a method to predict gene ontology (GO) annotations indirectly targeted by microRNAs. The proposed method can uncover potential biological pathways affected by indirect targets of human miRNAs especially ones related to cell differentiation and development.
  12. Rose SR, Wassner AJ, Wintergerst KA, Yayah-Jones NH, Hopkin RJ, Chuang J, Smith JR, Abell K, LaFranchi SH; SECTION ON ENDOCRINOLOGY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE; COUNCIL ON GENETICS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Congenital Hypothyroidism: Screening and Management. Pediatrics. 2023 Jan 1;151(1):e2022060420. doi: 10.1542/peds.2022-060420. PMID: 36827521.
    Impact Statement: Newborn screening alone is not sufficient to prevent adverse outcomes from congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in a pediatric population. In addition to newborn screening (NBS) , the management of CH requires timely confirmation of the diagnosis, accurate interpretation of thyroid function testing, effective treatment, and consistent follow-up. Physicians need to consider hypothyroidism in the face of clinical symptoms, even if NBS thyroid test results are normal. When clinical symptoms and signs of hypothyroidism are present (such as large posterior fontanelle, large tongue, umbilical hernia, prolonged jaundice, constipation, lethargy, and/or hypothermia), measurement of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine is indicated, regardless of NBS results.