About the Authors

Paola Bargagna-Mohan

Affiliation From the Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America

Ling Lei

Affiliation From the Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America

Alexis Thompson

Affiliation From the Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America

Camille Shaw

Affiliation From the Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America

Kousuke Kasahara

Affiliation Division of Biochemistry, Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute, Nagoya, Japan

Masaki Inagaki

Affiliation Division of Biochemistry, Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute, Nagoya, Japan

Royce Mohan

mohan@uchc.edu

Affiliation From the Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut, United States of America

Competing Interests

PBM and RM are inventors on Patents. US Patent # 8,283,323 (Title: WITHANOLIDE COMPOUNDS AS INHIBITORS OF FIBROSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF MOLECULAR TARGETS FOR ANTI-FIBROTIC DRUG DEVELOPMENT) and US Patent # 8,735,178 (Title: WITHANOLIDES, PROBES AND BINDING TARGETS AND METHODS OF USE THEREOF). This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PBM LL RM. Performed the experiments: PBM LL AT CS RM. Analyzed the data: PBM LL AT CS KK MI RM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PBM KK MI RM. Wrote the paper: PBM RM.