Chi-Li Chung

• MD, PhD
• Professor at Taipei Medical University

Background Particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) is a significant air pollutant known to adversely affect respiratory health and increase the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Furthermore, climate change exacerbates these impacts, as extreme temperatures and relative humidity (RH) levels c...

Introduction Predicting acute exacerbations (AEs) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is crucial. This study aimed to identify blood biomarkers for predicting COPD exacerbations by inflammatory phenotypes. Materials and methods We analyzed blood cell counts and clinical outcomes in 340 COPD patients aged 20–90 years. Patients were cate...

The impact of short-term exposure to environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity (RH), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains unclear. The objective of this study is to investigate PM2.5 as a mediator in the relationship between short-term variations in RH and temperature and COP...

Stress-induced hyperglycemia (SIH) is associated with poor functional recovery and high mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, intensive controlling blood glucose by using insulin was not beneficial in patients with AIS and acute hyperglycemia. This study investigated the therapeutic effects of the overexpression of glyoxa...

Background: Hemodialysis patients are at an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and are excluded from preauthorization COVID-19 vaccine trials; therefore, their immunogenicity is uncertain. Methods: To compare the antibody responses to homologous ChAdOx1 and mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in hemodialysis patients, 103 age- and sex-matched h...

Simple Summary Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a typical inflammation-associated cancer and epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) mutations are the most common driver mutations of NSCLC. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impacts of the proinflammatory cytokine, interleukin (IL)-17A, on EGFR-mediated progression of NSCLC. In NSC...

Senolytic treatment has potential therapeutic efficacy for acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, the systemic treatment of senolytics may produce off-target side effects and a toxic profile, which affect analysis of the role of acute senescence of neuronal cells in pathogenesis of AIS. We constructed a novel lenti-INK-ATTAC viral vector to introduc...

Toll-like receptor (TLR) is essential for the immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. However, the mechanism whereby TLR mediates the MTB-induced pleural mesothelial hyperpermeability in tuberculous pleural effusion (TBPE) remains unclear. Pleural effusion size and pleural fluid levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (V...

Renocardiac syndromes are a critical concern among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). High level of indoxyl sulfate (IS), a protein-bound uremic toxin, in plasma is known to promote the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases by impairing endothelial function. However, the therapeutic effects of the adsorbent of indole, a precursor of IS,...

Platelets are crucial for hemostasis and arterial thrombosis, which may lead to severe cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Thus, therapeutic agents must be developed to prevent pathological platelet activation. Glabridin, a major bioalkaloid extracted from licorice root, improves metabolic abnormalities (i.e., obesity and diabetes) and protects against...

Background and purpose: Although cytotoxic platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy (pACT) has been recommended for patients with completely resected early-stage (ES) non-small-cell lung cancer (ES-NSCLC), therapeutic regimens for NSCLC have evolved in the past two decades. The study was aimed to examine the effectiveness of postoperative pACT for res...

Background: The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine has been widely administered against SARS-CoV-2 infection; however, data regarding its immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and potential differences in responses among Asian populations remain scarce. Methods: 270 participants without prior COVID-19 were enrolled to receive ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination with a p...

Platelets play a critical role in arterial thrombosis. Rutaecarpine (RUT) was purified from Tetradium ruticarpum, a well-known Chinese medicine. This study examined the relative activity of RUT with NF-κB inhibitors in human platelets. BAY11-7082 (an inhibitor of IκB kinase [IKK]), Ro106-9920 (an inhibitor of proteasomes), and RUT concentration-dep...

Purpose: Metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma (LADC) is a crucial factor determining patient survival. Repurposing of the antipsychotic agent penfluridol has been found to be effective in the inhibition of growth of various cancers. As yet, however, the anti-metastatic effect of penfluridol on LADC has rarely been investigated. Herein, we addressed t...

Lipoteichoic acid (LTA) stimulates pleural mesothelial cell (PMC) to overproduce plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), and thus may promote pleural fibrosis in Gram-positive bacteria (GPB) parapneumonic effusion (PPE). Histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) was found to possess anti-fibrotic properties. However, the effects of HDACi on pleural...

Pterostilbene (PTE), a natural stilbenoid occurring in grapes and berries, is recognized as a dimethylated analogue of resveratrol. This compound shows numerous notable pharmacological activities, including antiaging, anticancer, antidiabetes, antioxidant, and neuroprotection. This study investigates the anti-inflammatory properties of PTE in macro...

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) represents one of the most aggressive malignancies among cancer types. Not only tumor sample availability is limited, but also the ability for tumor cells to rapidly acquire drug resistance are the rate-limiting bottlenecks for overall survival in current clinical settings. A liquid biopsy capable of capturing and enri...

Platelets are major players in the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases. Auraptene is the most abundant coumarin derivative from plants, and it has been demonstrated to possess a potent capacity to inhibit platelet activation. Although platelets are anucleated cells, they also express the transcription factor, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), that may e...

The activation of capsaicin-sensitive lung vagal (CSLV) afferents can elicit airway reflexes. Hypersensitivity of these afferents is known to contribute to the airway hypersensitivity during airway inflammation. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been suggested as a potential therapeutic agent for airway hypersensitivity diseases, such as asthma, because o...

Thrombin is an essential procoagulant and profibrotic mediator. However, its implication in tuberculous pleural effusion (TBPE) remains unknown. The effusion thrombin and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) levels were measured among transudative pleural effusion (TPE, n = 22) and TBPE (n = 24) patients. Pleural fibrosis, identified as radiol...

Background and Purpose Recent development in drug discovery have shown benzimidazole to be an important pharmacophore,. Benzimidazole derivatives exhibit broad‐spectrum pharmacological properties including anti‐microbial, anti‐diabetic and anti‐tumour activity. However, whether benzimidazole derivatives are effective in suppressing angiogenesis and...

Anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs mainly trigger apoptosis induction to eliminate malignant cells. However, many cancer cells are chemoresistant because of defective apoptosis induction. Targeting the autophagic pathway is currently regarded as an alternative strategy for cancer drug discovery. Penfluridol, an antipsychotic drug, has been reported...

Endothelin (ET)-1 is involved in various fibrotic diseases. However, its implication in pleural fibrosis remains unknown. We aimed to study the profibrotic role of ET-1 in tuberculous pleural effusion (TBPE). The pleural effusion ET-1 levels were measured among 68 patients including transudative pleural effusion (TPE, n = 12), parapneumonic pleural...

Several studies have compared molecular components between red and white skeletal muscles in mammals. However, mammalian skeletal muscles are composed of mixed types of muscle fibers. In the current study, we analyzed and compared the distributions of titin, lipid, phosphate ions, and fatty acid levels in red and white muscles using a fish model (...

Phospholipase D (PLD) is involved in many biological processes. PLD1 plays a crucial role in regulating the platelet activity of mice; however, the role of PLD in the platelet activation of humans remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether PLD is involved in the platelet activation of humans. Our data revealed that inhibition of PLD1 or PL...

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy is a clinical option for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring activating EGFR mutations or for cancer with wild-type (WT) EGFR when chemotherapy has failed. MET receptor activation or MET gene amplification was reported to be a major mechanism o...

Background: The relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and perioperative outcomes remains incompletely understood. Our purpose is to evaluate the features of postoperative adverse outcomes for geriatric surgical patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) receiving non-thoracic surgeries. Methods and proc...

Morin hydrate, a bioactive flavonoid, has been proven to prevent inflammation and apoptosis of cells. Flavonoids can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, in which platelet activation plays a major role. This study investigated the effect of morin hydrate on platelet activation in vitro and in vivo. Morin hydrate markedly inhibited platelet a...

Background Acupuncture treatment is common among stroke patients, but there is limited information available on whether acupuncture effectively prevents post-stroke pneumonia. The aim of this study was to analyze the differential risk of pneumonia after stroke between patients who did and did not receive acupuncture after discharge. Methods We use...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide and leads to persistent cognitive, sensory, motor dysfunction, and emotional disorders. TBI-caused primary injury results in structural damage to brain tissues. Following the primary injury, secondary injuries which are accompanied by neuroinflammation, microglial acti...

The regulation of platelet function by pharmacological agents that modulate platelet signaling has proven to be a positive approach to the prevention of thrombosis. Ruthenium complexes are fascinating for the development of new drugs, as they possess numerous chemical and biological properties. The present study aims to evaluate the structure-activ...

Lupus pneumonitis carries high mortality and is a rare manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, it is difficult to diagnose and is often mistaken as pneumonia, alveolar haemorrhage, or organizing pneumonia. Previous studies demonstrated that serum anti-Ro antibodies are elevated more frequently in SLE patients with pneumonitis...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) had been known to influence many signaling events through oxidative modification of proteins. The oxidation of protein phosphatases including protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) and Ser/Thr protein phosphatases (PPases) is particularly important in redox signaling, because the inactivation of protein phosphatases can...

Background: Limited information is available on the association between a influenza vaccination and postoperative outcomes. Methods: Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database reimbursement claims data from 2008 to 2013, we conducted a matched cohort study of 16,903 patients over age 66 who received influenza vaccinations and lat...

We conducted an international study of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) diagnosis among a large group of physicians and compared their diagnostic performance to a panel of IPF experts.A total of 1141 respiratory physicians and 34 IPF experts participated. Participants evaluated 60 cases of interstitial lung disease (ILD) without interdisciplinar...

Objective The relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes remains incompletely understood. This study evaluated diabetes risk and post-diabetes outcomes in COPD patients with and without exacerbations. Methods We identified 4671 adults newly diagnosed with COPD exacerbations and 9342 adults newly diagnosed with C...

Background and objective: Parapneumonic effusion (PPE) is commonly caused by Gram-positive bacteria (GPB) and often presents with pleural loculation, which is characterized by overproduction of plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1. Lipoteichoic acid (LTA), a surface adhesion molecule of GPB, binds to the pleural mesothelium and triggers inflamm...

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients tend to develop brain metastases (BM), but the link between BM occurrence and driver mutations in NSCLC is not very clear. We explored whether activating mutations of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs) in exon 19 deletion or L858R predict BM in NSCLC. A retrospective multivariable logistic regressi...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133064.].

Background The risk and outcomes of stroke in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations (COPDe) remain unclear. We examined whether patients with COPDe faced increased risk of stroke or post-stroke outcomes. Methods Using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database, we identified 1918 adults with COPDe and selected...

Background Thrombus formation, a phenomenon primarily related to increased platelet activation, plays a key role in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Although the established antiplatelet agents, such as aspirin and clopidogrel, have been shown to be beneficial in treating thromboembolic diseases, they have considerable limitations. Henc...

Nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer with a high mortality rate and still remains a therapeutic challenge. A strategy for targeting NSCLC is to identify agents that are effective against NSCLC cells while sparing normal cells. Dihydromyricetin (DHM) is the major flavonoid component derived from Ampelopsis grossed...

Outcome after surgery in patients with asthma remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to investigate postoperative major complications and mortality in surgical patients with asthma. Using reimbursement claims from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, the authors identified 24,109 surgical patients with preoperative asthma...

Background Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are elevated in pleural fluids of tuberculous pleuritis (TBP) where pleural mesothelial cells (PMCs) conduct the first-line defense against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). However, the clinical implication of TNF-α and MMPs in TBP and the response of PMCs to MTB infecti...

Autoimmune diseases are a group of chronic inflammatory diseases that arise from inappropriate inflammatory responses. Hinokitiol, isolated from the wood of Chamaecyparis taiwanensis , engages in multiple biological activities. Although hinokitiol has been reported to inhibit inflammation, its immunological regulation in lymphocytes remains incompl...

The association between pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and postoperative outcomes remains unknown. This study investigated outcomes following non-chest surgeries in patients with previous pulmonary TB. Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database, we analyzed 6911 patients (aged ≥ 20 years) with preoperative diagnosis of pulmonary TB and...

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at higher risk of stroke than those without COPD. This study aims to explore the impact of inhaled pharmacotherapy on stroke risk in COPD patients during a three-year follow-up, using a nationwide, population-based study and a matched cohort design. The study cohort comprised 10,413 pat...

Objective: To investigate the relationship among angiogenic cytokines, inflammatory markers, and fibrinolytic activity in tuberculous pleural effusion (TBPE) and their clinical importance. Methods: Forty-two patients diagnosed with TBPE were studied. Based on chest ultrasonography, there were 26 loculated and 16 nonloculated TBPE patients. The e...

The fungus-derived compound cephalochromin, isolated from the fermented broth of Cosmospora vilior YMJ89051501, shows growth-inhibitory and apoptotic activity against human lung cancer A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner with an IC50 value of 2.8 μM at 48 h. Cephalochromin induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase through down-regulat...

Mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) commonly occur in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients characterized by female gender, never-smoker status and adenocarcinoma histology. The aim of this study was to determine whether gender is a confounding factor for EGFR mutations in NSCLC. To elucidate the confounding effect, Pearson's...

Tumor necrosis factor-(TNF-)-α upregulates plasminogen activator inhibitor-(PAI-) 1 expression in pleural mesothelial cells (PMCs), contributing to fibrin deposition and pleural fibrosis. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been found implicated in fibrogenesis. However, the roles of TNF-α or HDAC in the regulation of PAI-1 expression have not been w...

Treatment with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has been associated with favorable progression free survival (PFS) in patients with non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) harboring EGFR mutations. However, a subset of this population doesn't respond to EGFR-TKI treatment. Therefore, the present study aimed to e...

Andrographolide, a novel nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) inhibitor, is isolated from the leaves of Andrographis paniculata. Platelet activation is relevant to a variety of coronary heart diseases. Our recent studies revealed that andrographolide possesses potent antiplatelet activity by inhibition of the p38 MAPK/(●) HO-NF-κB-ERK2 cascade. Although plate...

Pleural EffusionsSESSION TYPE: Original Investigation SlidePRESENTED ON: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 02:45 PM - 04:15 PMPURPOSE: Endothelin (ET)-1 can induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and has been shown implicated in tissue fibrosis and cancer metastases. However, the role of ET-1 in inflammatory and malignant pleural effusions has n...

Purpose: Brain metastases (BM), a common occurrence in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), usually lead to a poor prognosis. Recently, the selection of treatment modalities for BM has modestly improved patient survival and quality of life. Treatment choice is largely based on the number of BM, the presence of BM-related symptoms, and performance s...

Recent advances in the treatment of NSCLC highlight the importance of distinguishing NSCLC subtypes and genotypes. We aimed to determine whether histological specimens obtained from computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy are suitable for specific subtyping and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) analyses of NSCLC. The clinicohistological data o...

Brain metastases (BM) commonly occur in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and usually lead to a poor prognosis and quality of life despite of radiotherapy. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations have been widely demonstrated to be a predictive and prognostic factor for lung adenocarcinoma, however, its impact on BM from lung adenocarcino...

e19029 Background: Patients with non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) harboring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations dramatically respond to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) with approximately 70% response rate. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) has been suggested to be associated with tumor recurrence, treatment efficacy and prognos...

e19030 Background: Brain metastases (BM) commonly occur in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and usually lead to a poor prognosis. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation is a predictive and prognostic factor for EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment for lung adenocarcinoma. The present study aimed to elucidate the predictive role...

Background Brazilin, isolated from the heartwood of Caesalpinia sappan L., has been shown to possess multiple pharmacological properties. Methods In this study, platelet aggregation, flow cytometry, immunoblotting analysis, and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry were used to investigate the effects of brazilin on platelet activation ex viv...

To investigate the relationship among angiogenic cytokines, fibrinolytic activity and effusion size in parapneumonic effusion (PPE) and their clinical importance. From January 2008 through December 2010, 26 uncomplicated (UPPE) and 38 complicated (CPPE) PPE were studied. Based on chest ultrasonography, there were non-loculated in 30, uni-loculated...

Demographic and Clinical Data of the Patients Studied. (DOCX)

Comparisons of the Data on Discharge and at 6-month Follow-up* between the Patients with UPPE and CPPE. (DOCX)

CXR scoring and validation. (DOCX)

Criteria and validation for loculated and non-loculated effusions. (DOCX)

Outcome measures for CPPE (complicated parapneumonic effusion) patients. (DOCX)

Hypoxia, a reduction of normal oxygen levels in cells or tissues, creates a variety of changes in cell metabolism, eliciting a set of genes involved in tissue development and cancer progression. Though Oct4, a homebox transcription factor, is essential for self-renewal of embryonic stem cells, little is known about the functional role of Oct4 in tu...

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), primarily up-regulated by transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, is essential in the development of fibrosis. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) was shown to modulate gene expression and fibrogenesis in various tissues. However, the implications of HDAC in terms of PAI-1 expression and pleural fibrosis remain unclear...

Hypertonic stress enhances tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α expression in activated monocytes. However, the underlying mechanism is unknown. The produced TNF-α is primarily cleaved and released by TNF-α-converting enzyme (TACE), and the surface expression of TACE is down-regulated by endocytosis. As hypertonicity inhibits endocytosis, we evaluated the...

Background Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), primarily up-regulated by transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, is essential for development of fibrosis. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been shown to modulate gene expression and fibrogenesis in various tissues. However, the implications of HDAC in PAI-1 expression and pleural fibrosis remain...

Therapeutic thoracentesis (TT) is required in patients with refractory pleural effusions and impaired oxygenation. In this study, the relationship between pleural space elastance (PE) and changes in oxygenation after TT was investigated in ventilated patients with heart failure and transudative pleural effusions. Twenty-six mechanically ventilated...

Aberrant remodeling of the extracellular matrix occurs in many pathological processes, and its breakdown is mainly accomplished by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which participate in the course of inflammation and tumor invasion. Nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB), a key transcription factor for the production of MMP-9, can be activated by variou...

This study investigated the correlation between fluoroquinolone (ciprofloxacin or levofloxacin) use and rates of fluoroquinolone resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from patients with nosocomial infection at a medical centre in Taiwan. Antibiotic utilisation data were extracted on a monthly basis from the inpatient pharmacy computer syste...