About the Authors

Guoping Hu

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Yumin Zhou

Affiliation Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, State Key Lab of Respiratory Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Yankui Wu

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Disease of People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, P R China

Yan Yu

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Weiqiang Liang

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Pixin Ran

pxran@gzhmc.edu.cn

Affiliation Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, State Key Lab of Respiratory Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GH PR. Performed the experiments: GH YY WL. Analyzed the data: YZ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GH YZ. Wrote the paper: GH YZ YW YY PR.