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Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Immunology and Infectious Disease

Immunometabolic Dysregulation At The Intersection Of Obesity And Covid-19, Collins N. Khwatenge, Marquette Pate, Laura C. Miller, Yongming Sang Oct 2021

Immunometabolic Dysregulation At The Intersection Of Obesity And Covid-19, Collins N. Khwatenge, Marquette Pate, Laura C. Miller, Yongming Sang

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Obesity prevails worldwide to an increasing effect. For example, up to 42% of American adults are considered obese. Obese individuals are prone to a variety of complications of metabolic disorders including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease. Recent meta-analyses of clinical studies in patient cohorts in the ongoing coronavirus-disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic indicate that the presence of obesity and relevant disorders is linked to a more severe prognosis of COVID-19. Given the significance of obesity in COVID-19 progression, we provide a review of host metabolic and immune responses in the immunometabolic dysregulation exaggerated by obesity and the …


Epigenetic Evolution Of Ace2 And Il-6 Genes: Non-Canonical Interferon-Stimulated Genes Correlate To Covid-19 Susceptibility In Vertebrates, Eric R. Sang, Yun Tian, Laura C. Miller, Yongming Sang Jan 2021

Epigenetic Evolution Of Ace2 And Il-6 Genes: Non-Canonical Interferon-Stimulated Genes Correlate To Covid-19 Susceptibility In Vertebrates, Eric R. Sang, Yun Tian, Laura C. Miller, Yongming Sang

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

The current novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread globally within a matter of months. The virus establishes a success in balancing its deadliness and contagiousness, and causes substantial differences in susceptibility and disease progression in people of different ages, genders and pre-existing comorbidities. These host factors are subjected to epigenetic regulation; therefore, relevant analyses on some key genes underlying COVID-19 pathogenesis were performed to longitudinally decipher their epigenetic correlation to COVID-19 susceptibility. The genes of host angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2, as the major virus receptor) and interleukin (IL)-6 (a key immuno-pathological factor triggering cytokine storm) were shown to evince active …


Dysregulated Interferon Response Underlying Severe Covid-19, Leann Lopez, Peter C. Sang, Yun Tian, Yongming Sang Dec 2020

Dysregulated Interferon Response Underlying Severe Covid-19, Leann Lopez, Peter C. Sang, Yun Tian, Yongming Sang

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Innate immune interferons (IFNs), including type I and III IFNs, constitute critical antiviral mechanisms. Recent studies reveal that IFN dysregulation is key to determine COVID-19 pathogenesis. Effective IFN stimulation or prophylactic administration of IFNs at the early stage prior to severe COVID-19 may elicit an autonomous antiviral state, restrict the virus infection, and prevent COVID-19 progression. Inborn genetic flaws and autoreactive antibodies that block IFN response have been significantly associated with about 14% of patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia. In most severe COVID-19 patients without genetic errors in IFN-relevant gene loci, IFN dysregulation is progressively worsened and associated with the …


Immunogenetic Association Underlying Severe Covid-19, Kendall Mccoy, Autumn Peterson, Yun Tian, Yongming Sang Nov 2020

Immunogenetic Association Underlying Severe Covid-19, Kendall Mccoy, Autumn Peterson, Yun Tian, Yongming Sang

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

SARS-CoV2 has caused the current pandemic of new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide. Clinical outcomes of COVID-19 illness range broadly from asymptotic and mild to a life-threatening situation. This casts uncertainties for defining host determinants underlying the disease severity. Recent genetic analyses based on extensive clinical sample cohorts using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and high throughput sequencing curation revealed genetic errors and gene loci associated with about 20% of life-threatening COVID-19 cases. Significantly, most of these critical genetic loci are enriched in two immune signaling pathways, i.e., interferon-mediated antiviral signaling and chemokine-mediated/inflammatory signaling. In line with these genetic profiling studies, …


Integrate Structural Analysis, Isoform Diversity, And Interferon-Inductive Propensity Of Ace2 To Predict Sars-Cov2 Susceptibility In Vertebrates, Eric R. Sang, Yun Tian, Yuanying Gong, Laura C. Miller, Yongming Sang Aug 2020

Integrate Structural Analysis, Isoform Diversity, And Interferon-Inductive Propensity Of Ace2 To Predict Sars-Cov2 Susceptibility In Vertebrates, Eric R. Sang, Yun Tian, Yuanying Gong, Laura C. Miller, Yongming Sang

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

The current new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused globally over 0.4/6 million confirmed deaths/infected cases across more than 200 countries. As the etiological coronavirus (a.k.a. SARS-CoV2) may putatively have a bat origin, our understanding about its intermediate reservoir between bats and humans, especially its tropism in wild and domestic animals are mostly unknown. This constitutes major concerns in public health for the current pandemics and potential zoonosis. Previous reports using structural analysis of the viral spike protein (S) binding its cell receptor of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), indicate a broad potential of SARS-CoV2 susceptibility in wild and particularly domestic animals. …