Biology subjects

Yeung, H. W.

Publications and source records attributed to Yeung, H. W..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

General cognitive function and the brain's structural connectome

General cognitive function ( g) reflects a broad capacity for flexible information processing, yet how brain-wide structural connectivity supports it remains unclear. In 38,824 individuals (26-84 years) across three cohorts, we show that g is supported by a widely distributed white matter network. Across streamline count, fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD), meta-analytic associations with g were widespread at global, nodal and edge levels, spanning all cerebral lobes and key subcortical structures and dependent on both inter- and intra-hemispheric connectivity, particularly ipsilateral long-range inter-lobar connections. White matter node-g associations spatially mirrored independent cortical morphometry-g associations, indicating convergence of grey and white matter contributions. Effect sizes increased with age: MD associations became more negative and FA more positive, especially in frontal regions. Edge-level findings replicated across cohorts and predicted g in a hold-out sample. These findings suggest g reflects a distributed structural communication backbone which becomes increasingly important with age.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Relative strength variability measures for brain structural connectomes and their relationship with cognitive functioning

In this work, we propose a new class of graph measures for weighted connectivity information in the human brain based on node relative strengths: relative strength variability (RSV), measuring susceptibility to targeted attacks, and hierarchical RSV (hRSV), a first weighted statistical complexity measure for networks. Using six different network weights for structural connectomes from the UK Biobank, we conduct comprehensive analyses to explore relationships between the RSV and hRSV, and (i) other known network measures, (ii) general cognitive function ( g). Both measures exhibit low correlations with other graph measures across all connectivity weightings indicating that they capture new information of the brain connectome. We found higher g was associated with lower RSV and lower hRSV. That is, higher g was associated with higher resistance to targeted attack and lower statistical complexity. Moreover, the proposed measures had consistently stronger associations with g than other widely used graph measures including clustering coefficient and global efficiency and were incrementally significant for predicting g above other measures for five of the six network weights. Overall, we present a new class of weighted network measures based on variations of relative node strengths which significantly improved prediction of general cognition from traditional weighted structural connectomes.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Mutation nsp6 L232F associated with MERS-CoV zoonotic transmission confers higher viral replication in human respiratory tract cultures ex-vivo

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes zoonotic disease. Dromedary camels are the source of zoonotic infection. We identified a mutation of amino acid leucine to phenylalanine in the codon 232 position of the non-structural protein 6 (nsp6) (nsp6 L232F) that is repeatedly associated with zoonotic transmission. We generated a pair of isogenic recombinant MERS-CoV with nsp6 232L and 232F residues, respectively, and showed that the nsp6 L232F mutation confers higher replication competence in ex-vivo culture of human nasal and bronchial tissues and in lungs of mice experimentally infected in-vivo. Mechanistically, the nsp6 L232F mutation appeared to modulate autophagy and was associated with higher exocytic virus egress, while innate immune responses and zippering activity of the endoplasmic reticulum remained unaffected. Our study suggests that MERS-CoV nsp6 may contribute to viral adaptation to humans. This highlights the importance of continued surveillance of MERS-CoV in both camels and humans. ImportanceViral host adaptation plays an important role in zoonotic transmission of coronaviruses. For MERS-CoV that widely circulates in dromedary camels from Arabian Peninsula, camel-to human transmissions are ongoing, raising the possibility of human adaptive evolution for MERS-CoV. Here, we analysed MERS-CoV sequences and identified an amino acid mutation L232F in nsp6 to occur repeatedly in human MERS-CoV over the years since the first outbreak in 2012. We found the nsp6 L232F confers increase viral replication in-vitro, in ex-vivo upper human respiratory tract cultures and in mice, using a reverse genetics approach. Our results showed the nsp6 L232F may be advantageous for MERS-CoV to replicate in humans. This study highlighted a human adaptation of MERS-CoV and a need for continued surveillance of MERS-CoV to identify any further adaptations in humans, which may be relevant to the pandemic potential of MERS-CoV.

microbiology↗