About the Authors

Yong-hua Gao

Contributed equally to this work with: Yong-hua Gao, Hua-si Zhao

Affiliation Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

Hua-si Zhao

Contributed equally to this work with: Yong-hua Gao, Hua-si Zhao

Affiliation Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

Fu-rui Zhang

Affiliation Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

Yang Gao

Affiliation State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Pamela Shen

Affiliation Medical Sciences Graduate Program, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Rong-chang Chen

zhanggj1966@sina.com (GJZ); chenrc@vip.163.com (RCC)

Affiliation State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Guo-jun Zhang

zhanggj1966@sina.com (GJZ); chenrc@vip.163.com (RCC)

Affiliation Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GJZ RCC YHG HSZ. Performed the experiments: YHG HSZ FRZ YG. Analyzed the data: YHG HSZ FRZ YG. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YHG HSZ FRZ YG. Wrote the paper: YHG HSZ PS. Guarantor of the manuscript and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis: GJZ RCC. Copyedit of the manuscript thoroughly for language usage, spelling, and grammar, and interpretation of data: PS.