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Yu-Kwan Tong

Publications and source records attributed to Yu-Kwan Tong.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Serum proteomic fingerprints of adult patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus strain, SARS-CoV. Specific proteomic patterns might be present in serum in response to the infection and could be useful for early detection of the disease. METHODS: Using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI) ProteinChip technology, we profiled and compared serum proteins of 39 patients with early-stage SARS infection and 39 non-SARS patients who were suspected cases during the SARS outbreak period. Proteomic patterns associated with SARS were identified by bioinformatic and biostatistical analyses. Features of interest were then purified and identified by tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Twenty proteomic features were significantly different between the 2 groups. Fifteen were increased in the SARS group, and 5 were decreased. Their concentrations were correlated with 2 or more clinical and/or biochemical variables. Two were correlated with the SARS-CoV viral load. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed that a majority of the SARS patients (95%) had similar serum proteomic profiles and identified 2 subgroups with poor prognosis. ROC curve analysis identified individual features as potential biomarkers for SARS diagnosis (areas under ROC curves, 0.733-0.995). ROC curve areas were largest for an N-terminal fragment of complement C3c alpha chain (m/z 28 119) and an internal fragment of fibrinogen alpha-E chain (m/z 5908). Immunoglobulin kappa light chain (m/z 24 505) positively correlated with viral load. CONCLUSIONS: Specific proteomic fingerprints in the sera of adult SARS patients could be used to identify SARS cases early during onset with high specificity and sensitivity.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Diagnostic developments involving cell-free (circulating) nucleic acids.

BACKGROUND: The detection of circulating nucleic acids has long been explored for the non-invasive diagnosis of a variety of clinical conditions. In earlier studies, detection of circulating DNA has been investigated for the detection of various forms of cancer. Metastasis and recurrence in certain cancer types have been associated with the presence of high levels of tumor-derived DNA in the circulation. In the case of pregnancies, detection of fetal DNA in maternal plasma is a useful tool for detecting and monitoring certain fetal diseases and pregnancy-associated complications. Similarly, levels of circulating DNA have been reported to be elevated in acute medical emergencies, including trauma and stroke, and have been explored as indicators of clinical severity. Apart from circulating DNA, much attention and effort have been put into the study of circulating RNA over the last few years. This area started from the detection of tumor-derived RNA in the plasma of cancer patients. Soon after that, detection of circulating fetal RNA in maternal plasma was described. Plasma RNA detection appears to be a promising approach for the development of gender- and polymorphism-independent fetal markers for prenatal diagnosis and monitoring. This development also opens up the possibility of non-invasive prenatal gene expression profiling by maternal blood analysis. Besides circulating DNA and RNA in plasma and serum, cell-free DNA in other body fluids, such as urine, has been detected in patients with different clinical conditions. Regardless of the sources of cell-free DNA for clinical use, the amount is frequently scarce. METHODS: Technical advancements in detecting free DNA have been made over the years. CONCLUSIONS: It is likely that further developments in the field of circulating nucleic acids will provide us with new diagnostic and monitoring possibilities over the next few years.

DNA↗