About the Authors

Wei Gao

Affiliations Medical School and the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Clinical School of Medicine of Nanjing University, Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command, Nanjing, China

Wenkui Sun

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Second Military Medical University, Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command, Nanjing, China

Bingqian Qu

Affiliation Medical School and the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Carol J. Cardona

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States of America

Kira Powell

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States of America

Marta Wegner

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States of America

Yi Shi

Affiliation Department of Respiratory Medicine, Clinical School of Medicine of Nanjing University, Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command, Nanjing, China

Zheng Xing

zxing@umn.edu

Affiliations Medical School and the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ZX CJC. Performed the experiments: WG WS BQ KP MW. Analyzed the data: WG YS ZX. Wrote the paper: ZX CJC.