About the Authors

Paul M. Schroder

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Toledo College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, United States of America

Mithun Khattar

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Toledo College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, United States of America

Ronghai Deng

Affiliations Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Toledo College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, United States of America, Organ Transplantation Center, 1st Affiliated Hospital, Sun-Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, China

Aini Xie

Affiliations Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Wenhao Chen

wenhaoc@bcm.edu (WC); Stanislaw.Stepkowski@utoledo.edu (SMS)

Affiliations Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Toledo College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, United States of America, Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America

Stanislaw M. Stepkowski

wenhaoc@bcm.edu (WC); Stanislaw.Stepkowski@utoledo.edu (SMS)

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Toledo College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PMS MK WC SMS. Performed the experiments: PMS MK RD AX. Analyzed the data: PMS MK RD AX. Wrote the paper: PMS WC SMS.