Publications by authors named "Chun-Hong Chen"

Background: Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that remains a global public health threat, particularly in tropical regions where it is endemic. Accurate and timely diagnosis is critical for optimal patient care and effective outbreak containment. While reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) remains the gold standard for dengue diagnosis, nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) offer a more accessible alternative.

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Background: Dengue fever is transmitted to humans through bites of Aedes mosquito vectors. Therefore, controlling the Aedes population can decrease the incidence and block transmission of dengue fever and other diseases transmitted by these mosquito species. In many countries, gravitraps are used to monitor mosquito vector densities, but this approach usually underestimates the population of Aedes mosquitoes.

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Overexpression of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is implicated in tumorigenesis, invasion, migration, survival, apoptosis, and growth of various malignancies, making it a promising target for cancer treatment. Building on our previous work, we report a novel series of tetrahydro-β-carboline-piperazinedione derivatives as HDAC6 inhibitors. Structural modifications were introduced at the 6-aryl group, with the -bromophenyl derivative (9c) emerging as the most potent HDAC6 inhibitor, exhibiting an IC of 7 nM.

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Altered histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) expression and function have been linked to cancer progression, positioning it as a promising therapeutic target for cancer treatment. Herein, we introduce HDAC6 inhibitors based on the tetrahydro-β-carboline scaffold, with compound 18d exhibiting the strongest HDAC6 inhibitory potency, achieving an IC of 1.3 nM.

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After the previous major dengue fever (DF) outbreaks in 2014 and 2015 in Taiwan, the second-largest DF outbreak re-emerged in 2023. A total of 178 patients with laboratory-confirmed dengue virus (DENV) infection, including 92 DENV-1 and 86 DENV-2 cases, were enrolled in this study conducted during the 2023 dengue outbreak in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. This study aimed to analyze epidemiological characteristics, clinical severity, and risk factors for severe dengue (SD), as well as the diagnostic implications of the non-structural protein 1 (NS1) antigen rapid test.

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The Asian tiger mosquito, , is currently the most widespread invasive mosquito species in the world. It poses a significant threat to human health, as it is a vector for several arboviruses. We used a SNP chip to genotype 748 mosquitoes from 41 localities across Europe, 28 localities in the native range in Asia, and 4 in the Americas.

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The 40S ribosomal subunit recycling pathway is an integral link in the cellular quality control network, occurring after translational errors have been corrected by the ribosome-associated quality control (RQC) machinery. Despite our understanding of its role, the impact of translation quality control on cellular metabolism remains poorly understood. Here, we reveal a conserved role of the 40S ribosomal subunit recycling (USP10-G3BP1) complex in regulating mitochondrial dynamics and function.

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Metabolic and neurological disorders commonly display dysfunctional branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism, though it is poorly understood how this leads to neurological damage. We investigated this by generating Drosophila mutants lacking BCAA-catabolic activity, resulting in elevated BCAA levels and neurological dysfunction, mimicking disease-relevant symptoms. Our findings reveal a reduction in neuronal AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity, which disrupts autophagy in mutant brain tissues, linking BCAA imbalance to brain dysfunction.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Omicron, a variant of SARS-CoV-2, was first detected in Taiwan at the end of 2021, leading the government to end its strict "zero-COVID" policy in March 2022, after which COVID-19 outbreaks began.
  • - Researchers conducted a study using nasopharyngeal swabs and medical records from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital to track Omicron subvariant replacements and identify factors affecting hospitalization risk.
  • - Findings indicated that older age, comorbidities, and male sex heightened the risk of hospitalization and mortality, while COVID-19-related cases and deaths generally decreased over time from August 2022 to October 2023.
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Background: Neutrophilic inflammation, characterized by dysregulated neutrophil activation, triggers a variety of inflammatory responses such as chemotactic infiltration, oxidative bursts, degranulation, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation, and delayed turnover. This type of inflammation is pivotal in the pathogenesis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and psoriasis. Despite current treatments, managing neutrophil-associated inflammatory symptoms remains a significant challenge.

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The mosquito is a prominent vector for arboviruses, but the breadth of mosquito viruses that infects this specie is not fully understood. In the broadest global survey to date of over 200 small RNA samples, we detected viral small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and Piwi interacting RNAs (piRNAs) arising from mosquito viruses. We confirmed that most academic laboratory colonies of lack persisting viruses, yet two commercial strains were infected by a novel tombus-like virus.

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Unlabelled: Vector competence defines the ability of a vector to acquire, host, and transmit a pathogen. Understanding the molecular determinants of the mosquitos' competence to host dengue virus (DENV) holds promise to prevent its transmission. To this end, we employed RNA-seq to profile mRNA transcripts of the female mosquitos feeding on naïve vs viremic mouse.

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C-type lectins (CTLs) are a family of carbohydrate-binding proteins and an important component of mosquito saliva. Although CTLs play key roles in immune activation and viral pathogenesis, little is known about their role in regulating dengue virus (DENV) infection and transmission. In this study, we established a homozygous knockout mutant line using CRISPR/Cas9 to study the interaction between and viruses in mosquito vectors.

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Background: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an immune-mediated hepatic disease associated with intense complications. AIH is more common in females and needs effective drugs to treat. Guizhi Fuling Wan (GZFLW) is a traditional Chinese herbal formula for treating various gynecologic diseases.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied how a medicine called ribociclib, usually used for cancer, might help with a serious lung condition called ARDS that is caused by too many active immune cells.
  • They tested ribociclib on human immune cells and in mice to see how it works to reduce harmful inflammation and stress in the lungs.
  • The results showed that ribociclib helped lower inflammation and lung damage, suggesting it could be a new way to treat ARDS and similar problems.
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Background: Although whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is the preferred genotyping method for most genomic analyses, limitations are often experienced when studying genomes characterized by a high percentage of repetitive elements, high linkage, and recombination deserts. The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), for example, has a genome comprising up to 72% repetitive elements, and therefore we set out to develop a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip to be more cost-effective. Aedes albopictus is an invasive species originating from Southeast Asia that has recently spread around the world and is a vector for many human diseases.

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Purpose: PAFAH1B1, also known as LIS1, is associated with type I lissencephaly in humans, which is a severe developmental brain disorder believed to result from abnormal neuronal migration. Our objective was to characterize the genotypes and phenotypes of PAFAH1B1-related epilepsy.

Methods: We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the medical histories, magnetic resonance imaging findings, and video-electroencephalogram recordings of 11 patients with PAFAH1B1 variants at the Neurology Department of Beijing Children's Hospital from June 2017 to November 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • Mitochondrial dysfunction and toxic protein aggregates are crucial in the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, where proteins like Parkin and PINK1 play key roles in mitochondrial quality control.
  • *Research using Drosophila and human cell models showed that the accumulation of the CISD proteins in Pink1 and parkin mutants leads to neuronal toxicity, impairing autophagy and blocking mitophagy.
  • *Reducing CISD levels improved mitophagy and alleviated symptoms in mutant flies, suggesting that targeting CISD could be a promising therapeutic strategy for Parkinson's disease.
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Alzheimer's disease (AD), an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disorder, exhibits reduced cognitive function with no cure to date. One of the reasons for AD is the accumulation of Amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) plaque(s) that trigger aberrant gene expression and signaling, which results in neuronal cell death by an unknown mechanism(s). Misexpression of human Aβ42 in the developing retina of Drosophila exhibits AD-like neuropathology.

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Dengue is one of the world's most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral diseases. As it is found mostly in urban and semi-urban areas, urbanization and associated human activities that affect the environment and larval habitats could become risk factors (e.g.

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Background: Dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV-2) was the major serotype in the 2015 dengue outbreak in Taiwan, while DENV-1 and DENV-3 were dominant between 2005 and 2014. We aimed to investigate whether DENV-2 contributed to disease severity and mortality in the outbreak in Kaohsiung city, Taiwan.

Methods: We collected serum samples from dengue patients to detect the presence of DENV and determine the serotypes by using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, noticed first in October 2021, had many mutations and led to a significant COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan between January and September 2022, primarily driven by the BA.2.3.7 subvariant.
  • This subvariant, detected in March 2022, showed increased severity and was correlated with higher risks for older patients and those with comorbidities during the outbreak.
  • Despite the outbreaks, Taiwan’s case fatality rate (CFR) dropped to 0.16% during this period, lower than the global average, thanks to improved public health measures, vaccination drives, and effective antiviral treatments.
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Objectives: To investigate the electroencephalogram (EEG) characteristics and progression of febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES) in children, aiming to enhance diagnosis and treatment approaches.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 26 children with FIRES between May 2017 and December 2021.

Results: All 26 children (100%) presented with fever at the onset, followed by frequent convulsions that rapidly progressed into convulsive status.

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