Proteomic analysis reveals platelet factor 4 and beta-thromboglobulin as prognostic markers in severe acute respiratory syndrome

Previously, we reported that proteomic fingerprints were present in sera of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and could separate patients into subgroups with different prognoses. In the present study, we examined the prognostic values of the SARS-associated proteomic features by biostatistical analysis, and deciphered the identities of those with prognostic values. Data of 20 SARS-associated serum proteomic features and ten serological variables from 38 SARS adult patients before treatment were subjected to multivariate logistic regression. Proteomic features of m/z 6634, m/z 7769, m/z 8635, and m/z 8865 were identified as independent prognostic markers. After purification by cation-exchange chromatography and gel electrophoresis, proteomic features of m/z 7769 and m/z 8865 were found to be platelet factor 4 (PF4) and beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) by tandem mass spectrometry, respectively. The associations of decreased serum PF4 and increased serum beta-TG levels with poor prognosis were confirmed by Western blot. Previous studies suggest that PF4 and beta-TG are involved in the pathogenesis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in a negative and positive way, respectively. Our results suggest that PF4 and beta-TG may also play similar roles in the development of ARDS in SARS patients.     

Algebraic dimension of twistor spaces

The author is partially supported by a grant of the National Science Foundation     

Equivariant connected sums of compact self-dual manifolds

Partially supported by NSF grant #DMS-9306950 and UC Riverside grant #5-510000-07427-5     

Oligo(fluorenyleneethynylenegermylene)s and their metallopolymers

Oligo(fluorenyleneethynylenegermylene)s and their polyplatinynes are synthesized and photophysically characterized; inclusion of heavy germylene bridges greatly boosts the phosphorescence decay rate in metallopolymers.     

Hyper-Kähler metrics and a generalization of the Bogomolny equations

We generalize the Bogomolny equations to field equations on ^{3 n} and describe a twistor correspondence. We consider a general hyper-Kähler metric in dimension 4n with an action of the torusT ⁿ compatible with the hyper-Kähler structure. We prove that such a metric can be described in terms of theT ⁿ -solution of the field equations coming from the twistor space of the metric.