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Donald Y M Leung: Influence Statistics

OBJECTIVE: In a prospective study of children with a family history of asthma, asthma onset by 3 years of age was found previously to be positively associated with variables from the first year of life, including elevated total immunoglobulin E (IgE), frequent respiratory infections, and parenting difficulties. We followed this cohort of genetically at-risk children to investigate the relationship between factors assessed in infancy and asthma, allergy, and psychological status at school ...

Allergen exposure can confound the management of asthma. To understand the potential mechanisms by which allergens increase the steroid requirements in atopic asthmatics, we examined the effects of allergens on glucocorticoid receptor (GCR) binding affinity and glucocorticoid (GC) responsiveness of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from atopic asthmatics. A significant reduction (p < 0.001) in the GCR binding affinity (Kd) was observed in ragweed-allergic asthmatics during ...

Eotaxin is an eosinophil-specific chemokine associated with the recruitment of eosinophils to the site of allergic inflammation. The aims of this study were to determine the expression of eotaxin in nasal biopsies from allergic and nonallergic individuals with chronic severe sinusitis, and to examine whether the expression of this chemokine is upregulated following allergen challenge in the nasal mucosa of patients with allergic rhinitis. We also undertook to phenotype of inflammatory ...

BACKGROUND: Immune features of infants with food allergy have not been delineated.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to explore the basic mechanisms responsible for food allergy and identify biomarkers, such as skin prick test (SPT) responses, food-specific IgE levels, and mononuclear cell responses, in a cohort of infants with likely milk/egg allergy at increased risk of peanut allergy.

METHODS: Infants aged 3 to 15 months were enrolled with a positive SPT response to milk or egg and either a ...

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D is known for its anti-inflammatory effects.

OBJECTIVE: Vitamin D regulation of responses in patients with steroid-resistant (SR) versus steroid-sensitive (SS) asthma has not been studied.

METHODS: Peripheral blood cells from 11 patients with SR asthma and 8 patients with SS asthma were preincubated with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25[OH]2D [VitD]), followed by dexamethasone (DEX) treatment and LPS stimulation. LPS-induced phosphorylated p38 mitogen-activated protein ...

BACKGROUND: The innate immune system of human skin contains antimicrobial peptides known as cathelicidins (LL-37) and beta-defensins. In normal skin these peptides are negligible, but they accumulate in skin affected by inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis. We compared the levels of expression of LL-37 and human beta-defensin 2 (HBD-2) in inflamed skin from patients with atopic dermatitis and from those with psoriasis.

METHODS: The expression of LL-37 and HBD-2 protein in skin-biopsy ...

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus colonizes the skin lesions of more than 90% of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). The mechanism for increased S aureus colonization in AD is unknown. However, the initial event in colonization requires adherence of S aureus to the skin.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the roles of various bacterial adhesins on S aureus binding to AD skin.

METHODS: In an attempt to delineate the mechanism behind this adherence process, an in vitro ...

Kawasaki syndrome (KS) is characterized by diffuse vasculitis and marked T cell and B cell activation. In this study, sera from 16 patients with acute KS, 15 patients in the convalescent phase of KS, and 19 age-matched controls were assessed for complement dependent cytotoxic activity against 111In-labeled human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVE) cells, Neither sera from patients with KS nor sera from controls had cytotoxic effects on HUVE cells cultivated under standard conditions. Since ...

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to characterize the relationship between tissue cytokine expression and the cellular infiltrate present in chronic hyperplastic sinusitis with nasal polyposis (CHS/NP) and to compare the immunopathology and cytokine profile of patients with allergy versus patients without allergy.

METHODS: Nasal polyp tissue samples from 12 patients with CHS/NP and nasal turbinate biopsy specimens from 10 normal control patients were examined for the expression ...

BACKGROUND: Corticosteroid insensitivity in asthmatics is associated with an increased expression of glucocorticoid receptor-beta (GR-beta) in many cell types. T-helper type 17 (Th17) cytokine (IL-17A and F) expressions increase in mild and in difficult-to-treat asthma. We hypothesize that IL-17A and F cytokines alone or in combination, induce the expression of GR-beta in bronchial epithelial cells.

OBJECTIVES: To confirm the expression of the GR-beta and IL-17 cytokines in the airways ...

Atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis are the two most common chronic skin diseases. However patients with AD, but not psoriasis, suffer from frequent skin infections. To understand the molecular basis for this phenomenon, skin biopsies from AD and psoriasis patients were analyzed using GeneChip microarrays. The expression of innate immune response genes, human beta defensin (HBD)-2, IL-8, and inducible NO synthetase (iNOS) was found to be decreased in AD, as compared with psoriasis, skin ...

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis is characterized by immunologic abnormalities including evidence for reduced interferon gamma production. Therapeutic options for treatment of atopic dermatitis are limited and unsatisfactory. Previous open trials have suggested efficacy for recombinant interferon-gamma (rIFN-gamma) in treatment of severe atopic dermatitis. We describe the results of treatment with rIFN-gamma, assessing clinical, immunologic, and laboratory safety parameters in 83 patients ...

Kawasaki syndrome (KS) is an acute febrile illness of early childhood characterized by diffuse vasculitis and marked immune activation. The present study was undertaken to determine whether the acute phase of KS is associated with circulating cytotoxic antibodies directed to target antigens induced on vascular endothelium by the monokines, IL-1, or tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Sera from 20 patients with acute KS, 11 patients in the convalescent phase of KS, and 17 age-matched controls ...

Genome sequences are available for many bacterial strains, but there has been little progress in using these data to understand the molecular basis of pathogen emergence and differences in strain virulence. Serotype M3 strains of group A Streptococcus (GAS) are a common cause of severe invasive infections with unusually high rates of morbidity and mortality. To gain insight into the molecular basis of this high-virulence phenotype, we sequenced the genome of strain MGAS315, an organism ...