Genome-wide association study reveals ethnicity-specific SNPs associated with ankylosing spondylitis in the Taiwanese population.

BACKGROUND: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an autoimmune disease affecting mainly spine and sacroiliac joints and adjacent soft tissues. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are used to evaluate genetic associations and to predict genetic risk factors that determine the biological basis of disease susceptibility. We aimed to explore the race-specific SNP susceptibility of AS in Taiwanese individuals and to investigate the association between HLA-B27 and AS susceptibility SNPs in Taiwan. METHODS: Genotyping data were collected from a medical center participating in the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative (TPMI) in the northern district of Taiwan. We designed a case-control study to identify AS susceptibility SNPs through GWAS. We searched the genome browser to find the corresponding susceptibility genes and used the GTEx database to confirm the regulation of gene expression. A polygenic risk score approach was also applied to evaluate the genetic variants in the prediction of developing AS. RESULTS: The results showed that the SNPs located on the sixth chromosome were related to higher susceptibility in the AS group. There was no overlap between our results and the susceptibility SNPs found in other races. The 12 tag SNPs located in the MHC region that were found through the linkage disequilibrium method had higher gene expression. Furthermore, Taiwanese people with HLA-B27 positivity had a higher proportion of minor alleles. This might be the reason that the AS prevalence is higher in Taiwan than in other countries. We developed AS polygenic risk score models with six different methods in which those with the top 10% polygenic risk had a fivefold increased risk of developing AS compared to the remaining group with low risk. CONCLUSION: A total of 147 SNPs in the Taiwanese population were found to be statistically significantly associated with AS on the sixth pair of chromosomes and did not overlap with previously published sites in the GWAS Catalog. Whether those genes mapped by AS-associated SNPs are involved in AS and what the pathogenic mechanism of the mapped genes is remain to be further studied.

Carrier modulation layer-enhanced organic light-emitting diodes.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-based display products have already emerged in the market and their efficiencies and lifetimes are sound at the comparatively low required luminance. To realize OLED for lighting application sooner, higher light quality and better power efficiency at elevated luminance are still demanded. This review reveals the advantages of incorporating a nano-scale carrier modulation layer (CML), also known as a spacer, carrier-regulating layer, or interlayer, among other terms, to tune the chromaticity and color temperature as well as to markedly improve the device efficiency and color rendering index (CRI) for numerous OLED devices. The functions of the CML can be enhanced as multiple layers and blend structures are employed. At proper thickness, the employment of CML enables the device to balance the distribution of carriers in the two emissive zones and achieve high device efficiencies and long operational lifetime while maintaining very high CRI. Moreover, we have also reviewed the effect of using CML on the most significant characteristics of OLEDs, namely: efficiency, luminance, life-time, CRI, SRI, chromaticity, and the color temperature, and see how the thickness tuning and selection of proper CML are crucial to effectively control the OLED device performance.

A versatile thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitter for both highly efficient doped and non-doped organic light emitting devices.

A thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitter (DMAC-TRZ) was reported either as the emitting dopant in a host or as the non-doped (neat) emitting layer to achieve high EL EQEs of up to 26.5% and 20% in OLEDs, respectively.

Efficient green coumarin dopants for organic light-emitting devices.

We have synthesized a new green fluorescent dopant C-545P having incorporated five strategically placed "methyl" steric spacers on the julolidyl ring system. C-545P has good thermal properties and photostability, and when fabricated as a dopant in an Alq(3)-hosted OLED device, it shows notable improvement in luminance efficiency and is more resistant to concentration quenching than C-545T, particularly in the doping concentration range between 1 and 2% v/v, while achieving comparable device stability. [structure: see text]