Browsing by Author "Zhang, Dongfang"

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    Human Endogenous Retrovirus, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV Promote PAH via Inflammation and Growth Stimulation
    (MDPI, 2023-04-18) Wang, Desheng; Gomes, Marta T.; Mo, Yanfei; Prohaska, Clare C.; Zhang, Lu; Chelvanambi, Sarvesh; Clauss, Matthias A.; Zhang, Dongfang; Machado, Roberto F.; Gao, Mingqi; Bai, Yang; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a pulmonary vascular disease characterized by the progressive elevation of pulmonary arterial pressures. It is becoming increasingly apparent that inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis and progression of PAH. Several viruses are known to cause PAH, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), human endogenous retrovirus K(HERV-K), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), in part due to acute and chronic inflammation. In this review, we discuss the connections between HERV-K, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, and PAH, to stimulate research regarding new therapeutic options and provide new targets for the treatment of the disease.
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    Immune Response Is Key to Genetic Mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 Infection With Psychiatric Disorders Based on Differential Gene Expression Pattern Analysis
    (Frontiers Media, 2022-02-04) Xia, Jing; Chen, Shuhan; Li, Hua; Gan, Minghong; Wu, Jiashuo; Prohaska, Clare Colette; Bai, Yang; Gao, Lu; Gu, Li; Zhang, Dongfang; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Existing evidence demonstrates that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) leads to psychiatric illness, despite its main clinical manifestations affecting the respiratory system. People with mental disorders are more susceptible to COVID-19 than individuals without coexisting mental health disorders, with significantly higher rates of severe illness and mortality in this population. The incidence of new psychiatric diagnoses after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is also remarkably high. SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to use angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) as a receptor for infecting susceptible cells and is expressed in various tissues, including brain tissue. Thus, there is an urgent need to investigate the mechanism linking psychiatric disorders to COVID-19. Using a data set of peripheral blood cells from patients with COVID-19, we compared this to data sets of whole blood collected from patients with psychiatric disorders and used bioinformatics and systems biology approaches to identify genetic links. We found a large number of overlapping immune-related genes between patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and differentially expressed genes of bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenia (SZ), and late-onset major depressive disorder (LOD). Many pathways closely related to inflammatory responses, such as MAPK, PPAR, and TGF-β signaling pathways, were observed by enrichment analysis of common differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We also performed a comprehensive analysis of protein–protein interaction network and gene regulation networks. Chemical–protein interaction networks and drug prediction were used to screen potential pharmacologic therapies. We hope that by elucidating the relationship between the pathogenetic processes and genetic mechanisms of infection with SARS-CoV-2 with psychiatric disorders, it will lead to innovative strategies for future research and treatment of psychiatric disorders linked to COVID-19.