Zhu Y

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

OpenAlex Profile
2
Publications
38
h-index
(4,357 citations, 279 total works)

Research Topics

Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact (44)Air Quality and Health Impacts (26)Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals (25)Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts (17)Water resources management and optimization (15)

Alpha-gal Syndrome Publications

[Mediation effect of inflammatory biomarkers on the association between blood lead levels and blood pressure changes in Chinese adults].

Qu YL, Zhao F, Ji SS, Hu XJ, Li Z, et al.
Zhonghua yu fang yi xue za zhi [Chinese journal of preventive medicine] •

To investigate the role of inflammatory biomarkers in the relationship between blood lead levels and blood pressure changes. A total of 9 910 people aged 18-79 years who participated in the China National Human Biomonitoring in 2017-2018 were included in this study. A self-made questionnaire was used to collect demographic characteristics, lifestyle and other information, and the data including height, weight and blood pressure were determined through physical examination. Blood and urinary samples were collected for the detection of blood lead and cadmium levels, urinary arsenic levels, white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). Weighted linear regression models were used to evaluate the associations between blood lead, inflammatory biomarkers and blood pressure. Mediation analysis was performed to investigate the role of inflammation in the relationship between blood lead levels and blood pressure changes. The median (, ) age of all participants was 45.4 (33.8, 58.4)years, including 4 984 males accounting for 50.3%. Multivariate logistic regression model analysis showed that after adjusting for age, gender, residence area, BMI, education level, smoking and drinking status, family history of hypertension, consumption frequency of rice, vegetables, and red meat, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, blood cadmium and urinary arsenic levels, there was a positive association between blood lead levels, inflammatory biomarkers and blood pressure (<0.05). Each 2.71 μg/L (log-transformed) increase of the lead was associated with a 2.05 (95%: 0.58, 3.53) mmHg elevation in systolic blood pressure (SBP), 2.24 (95%: 1.34, 3.14) mmHg elevation in diastolic blood pressure (DBP), 0.25 (95%: 0.05, 0.46) mg/L elevation in hs-CRP, 0.16 (95%: 0.03, 0.29)×10/L elevation in white blood cells, and 0.11 (95%: 0.02, 0.21)×10/L elevation in lymphocytes, respectively. Mediation analysis showed that the levels of hs-CRP significantly mediated the association of blood lead with SBP, with a proportion about 3.88% (95%: 0.45%, 7.32%). The analysis also found that the levels of hs-CRP and neutrophils significantly mediated the association of blood lead with SBP, with a proportion about 4.10% (95%: 1.11%, 7.10%) and 2.42% (95%: 0.07%, 4.76%), respectively. This study suggests that inflammatory biomarkers could significantly mediate the association of blood lead levels and blood pressure changes.

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Engineering an Enhanced EGFR Engager: Humanization of Cetuximab for Improved Developability.

Goulet DR, Chatterjee S, Lee WP, Waight AB, Zhu Y, et al.
Antibodies (Basel, Switzerland) •

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a receptor tyrosine kinase whose proliferative effects can contribute to the development of many types of solid tumors when overexpressed. For this reason, EGFR inhibitors such as cetuximab can play an important role in treating cancers such as colorectal cancer and head and neck cancer. Cetuximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody containing mouse variable regions that bind to EGFR and prevent it from signaling. Although cetuximab has been used clinically since 2004 to successfully control solid tumors, advances in protein engineering have created the opportunity to address some of its shortcomings. In particular, the presence of mouse sequences could contribute to immunogenicity in the form of anti-cetuximab antibodies, and an occupied glycosylation site in FR3 can contribute to hypersensitivity reactions and product heterogeneity. Using simple framework graft or sequence-/structure-guided approaches, cetuximab was humanized onto 11 new frameworks. In addition to increasing humanness and removing the VH glycosylation site, dynamic light scattering revealed increases in stability, and bio-layer interferometry confirmed minimal changes in binding affinity, with patterns emerging across the humanization method. This work demonstrates the potential to improve the biophysical and clinical properties of first-generation protein therapeutics and highlights the advantages of computationally guided engineering.

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