Gene expression signatures in primary immunodeficiencies: the experience from human disease and mouse models

Extensive research on molecular genetics in recent decades has provided a wealth of information regarding the underlying mechanisms of primary immunodeficiency diseases. The microarray technology has made its entry into the molecular biology research area and hereby enabled signature expression profiling of whole species genomes. Perhaps no other methodological approach has transformed molecular biology more in recent years than the use of microarrays. Microarray technology has led the way from studies of the individual biological functions of a few related genes, proteins or, at best, pathways towards more global investigations of cellular activity. The development of this technology immediately yielded new and interesting information, and has produced more data than can be currently dealt with. It has also helped to realize that even a 'horizontally exhaustive' molecular analysis is insufficient. Applications of this tool in primary immunodeficiency studies have generated new information, which has led to a better understanding of the underlying basic biology of the diseases. Also, the technology has been used as an exploratory tool to disease genes in immunodeficiency diseases of unknown cause as in the case of the CD3Delta-chain and the MAPBPIP deficiency. For X-linked agammaglobulinemia, the technique has provided better understanding of the genes influenced by Btk. There is considerable hope that the microarray technology will lead to a better understanding of disease processes and the molecular phenotypes obtained from microarray experiments may represent a new tool for diagnosis of the disease.     

New approach for glyco- and lipidomics--molecular scanning of human brain gangliosides by TLC-Blot and MALDI-QIT-TOF MS

We have developed a TLC-Blot system that makes possible the direct analysis of blotted glycosphingolipids on a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane from a high-performance TLC plate by immunological staining, chemical staining, enzymatic treatment and mass spectrometric (MS) analysis. An ion trap type matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-quadrupole ion trap-time of flight (MALDI-QIT-TOF) MS apparatus improved not only the molecular identification but also the analysis of molecular species of lipids on the polyvinylidene difluoride membrane. A new approach for glyco- and lipidomics, molecular scanning technology by a combination of TLC-Blot and MALDI-QIT-TOF MS, was developed and applied to human brain gangliosides separated from the tissues of patients with neural diseases and control patients. The results clearly showed a change of ganglioside composition, in addition to identifying individual ganglioside molecular species, in the hippocampus gray matter of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The results strongly suggested that metabolic changes of gangliosides played an important role in the progression of this disease. The present technology with molecular imaging should provide valuable information for elucidating the significance of molecular species in neuronal functions such as neural transmission, memory, and learning.     

Peptide aptamers: tools for biology and drug discovery.

Peptide aptamer technology is relatively youthful. It has the advantage over existing techniques that the reagents identified are designed for expression in eukaryotic cells. This allows the construction of molecular tools that allow the logic of genetics, from knockouts to extragenic suppressors, to be applied to studies of proteins in tissue culture cells. Until recently, the available tools have limited our understanding of cell biology. The same limitation restricts out ability to validate the numerous candidate drug targets emerging from genome-wide approaches to cellular biology. Peptide aptamers represent a stride forwards in the evolution of a modular, molecular tool kit for cell biology and for drug target validation. The authors predict that they will also play a role in the transition from genomic to proteomic microarray technology.     

分子生态学技术及其在环境微生物研究中的应用

分子生态学作为一门新兴的学科已经成为国内外科学家关注和研究的热点。目前的分子生态学技术主要有核酸杂交分析技术、特异性PCR扩增技术、DNA序列分析、基因芯片技术等。这些技术在环境微生物研究中的应用主要包括对微生物多样性的研究、种群结构和动力学的研究、代谢活性的研究以及在全球气候变化中对微生物影响的研究。最后,对环境微生物的分子生态学研究进行了展望。     

水稻分子育种技术专利分析

通过Thomson Innovation（TI）专利平台数据库中相关专利的检索,利用专利计量学的方法,从专利申请数量、受理国家、申请机构、技术生命周期以及研发热点等方面对水稻分子育种技术国际发展态势进行分析。结果表明,水稻分子育种技术目前整体呈快速发展趋势,并已趋于成熟。其中,美国的申请量最多,是全球最受重视的技术市场。大型跨国公司不仅是全球最主要的专利申请主体,而且在我国的专利申请活动也较为活跃。我国在水稻分子育种技术领域专利数量较多,并且具有一定优势,相关专利申请主体为科研机构和大学。对专利文献内容的深入分析表明,重要农艺性状的基因挖掘和转基因技术是分子育种技术领域当前的研发热点。     

Multiplexed and microparticle-based analyses: quantitative tools for the large-scale analysis of biological systems.

While the term flow cytometry refers to the measurement of cells, the approach of making sensitive multiparameter optical measurements in a flowing sample stream is a very general analytical approach. The past few years have seen an explosion in the application of flow cytometry technology for molecular analysis and measurements using microparticles as solid supports. While microsphere-based molecular analyses using flow cytometry date back three decades, the need for highly parallel quantitative molecular measurements that has arisen from various genomic and proteomic advances has driven the development in particle encoding technology to enable highly multiplexed assays. Multiplexed particle-based immunoassays are now common place, and new assays to study genes, protein function, and molecular assembly. Numerous efforts are underway to extend the multiplexing capabilities of microparticle-based assays through new approaches to particle encoding and analyte reporting. The impact of these developments will be seen in the basic research and clinical laboratories, as well as in drug development.     

Bioremediation: A perspective

In this opinion paper, we offer our perspective on our bioremediation research along with the methods to assess its effectiveness as a safe and beneficial technology to remediate selected soil sites. The isolation and characterization of bacterial isolates from chemically contaminated soils, their survival and catabolic activity in contaminated soil, toxicity testing in chemically contaminated soils, molecular‐based methods of detection such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA probing are discussed. By using numerous conventional microbiological, chemical techniques, and molecular based methods, bioremediation can be studied in a comprehensive manner and the technology transferred to the commercial sector.     

多组学分析在昆虫滞育中的应用

组学技术将生物的相关问题分别展现在基因、蛋白质和代谢物等不同层次水平上,已成为解读生命过程的重要工具。本文分别从转录组学、蛋白质组学、代谢组学以及组学间的联合应用等方面概括总结了组学技术在昆虫滞育研究中的应用情况,阐述了以转录组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学为代表的多组学技术在昆虫滞育调控分子机制中取得的重要成果,并针对当前研究现状,对昆虫滞育中组学技术应用的前景和局限性进行了总结和展望,以期为昆虫滞育调控分子机制的研究提供参考依据。     

AFLP分子标记技术在中药研究中的应用进展

AFLP(扩增片段长度多态性)分子标记技术是一种结合了RFLP和PCR技术的新型分子标记技术,在药物研究领域的应用日趋广泛。简述了AFLP分子标记技术的基本原理、技术特点与优势,重点阐明其在中药研究中的应用进展,并对其前景进行了讨论与展望。     

激光捕获显微切割在肿瘤多组学研究中的应用进展

当今社会,肿瘤因其高发病率和高死亡率成为威胁人类健康的重要疾病,研究者们对其发病机制及治疗手段的研究和探索也在不断深入。随着单细胞多组学测序技术的发展,肿瘤组织的异质性问题逐渐被研究人员所认识。为了解决这一问题,激光捕获显微切割（laser capture microdissection,LCM）技术应运而生。LCM技术是一种在显微镜直视下从器官或组织中准确获取某种特定的细胞群或单个细胞的样本收集技术。LCM技术结合多种分子生物学手段可以对异质性组织进行多组学研究,丰富了现有的肿瘤蛋白质组学、基因组学以及转录组学图谱,因此,LCM技术成为研究特异性表达及分子机制的有力工具,在肿瘤学领域得到广泛应用。基于此,对LCM的原理、优势及其在肿瘤多组学研究中的应用进行了综述,并对其未来可能的发展方向进行了展望,以期为肿瘤的研究和治疗提供新的思路。     

Post-transcriptional gene silencing in neurons

The techniques evolving from the rapidly developing field of small RNAs promise accessible approaches to dissecting cellular and molecular mechanisms of higher brain function. Here, a current overview of the technology is presented, along with an outline of how these approaches might help neuroscientists to more rapidly uncover the cellular and molecular bases of behavior.     

反义技术在抗HBV感染中的应用

反义技术是近些年来随着现代分子生物学技术的发展而产生的新的生物医学治疗技术。它采用反义核酸分子抑制、封闭或破坏靶基因组的技术手段,包括反义寡核苷酸、核酶及RNA干扰等。反义分子通过与靶基因异性互补配对结合,阻断靶基因的复制、转录或翻译过程,从而发挥抗病毒作用。针对乙型肝炎病毒的反义技术也有了广泛而深入的研究。根据反义技术在分子、细胞以及动物水平上的研究表明：反义技术能够高效、特异地抑制HBV的复制与表达。     

左右半结肠癌多组学分子特征差异的研究进展

结肠癌(colon cancer,CC)是一种常见的恶性肿瘤,其发病率和死亡率均占癌症前列.根据解剖学位置,CC可分为左半结肠癌(left-sided colon cancer,LCC)和右半结肠癌(right-sided colon cancer,RCC),两者在临床特征上表现出较大的差异.近些年来,随着生物学技术和...     

超声分子成像的研究进展

超声成像无创、无放射性、低成本、实时成像的优点,使其成为目前世界上应用最广的成像手段之一。特别是超声造影剂引入之后,超声成像的图像分辨率和灵敏度得到了大大提高,使超声成像在临床上得到了进一步应用。近年来,随着分子生物学和超声成像技术的不断发展,人们提出了＂超声分子成像＂的概念。它是一项结合了分子靶向造影剂和超声影像技术的能在分子水平下观察病理变化的新兴技术,目前这一技术还处于研究初期阶段。但大量临床前的研究成果已表明超声分子成像在诊断血管生成、炎症和血栓三种疾病具有很大应用前景。本文主要综述了目前常用超声造影剂的种类以及超声分子成像技术的研究现状,并对该技术进行了讨论和展望。     

Cancer diagnosis and microarrays

Microarray technology allows the investigation of the cell status on a molecular, genome-wide scale and has been shown to identify a given cell species by its gene expression profile. This may be highly valuable in future cancer diagnosis, because traditional clinical and pathological assessments of the tumour status cannot distinguish between morphologically similar but molecularly different tumours. These molecular differences, however are crucial in determining the clinical course of the disease. Despite this, in the majority of cases it has remained impossible to reliably characterise molecular phenotype and predict the response to therapy and the ultimate outcome for the patient. Microarray technology holds the potential to revolutionise the diagnosis and therapy of cancer. Recent developments in microarray technology and data analysis are discussed as well as examples of their application to define molecular phenotype.     

The role of technology in the delineation of the anabolic action of testosterone

The author describes the role of different technologies in his studies of the discovery of the anabolic action of testosterone and the subsequent studies to delineate the phenomenon from events in the whole animal to those at the molecular level, pointing to testosterone action at the DNA level and the involvement of soluble factors. The advances required the use of established technology, the modification of existing technology, and the adaption of timely introduced new tools. In some instances, the available technology was not equal to the challenge and the investigation had to be interrupted for several years until a suitable technology became available.     

DNA芯片技术研究进展及其在分子营养上的应用

DNA芯片技术是近年发展起来的又一新分子生物学研究工具,可使研究者得以自动化、快速、平行地对大量的生物信息加以分析,在基因组水平上研究基因表达。这种技术为从基因组水平研究基因表达水平与生理反应及生理状况的改变之间的关系提供了强有力的手段。通过比较不同营养水平或不同环境条件下的组织细胞基因达到表达谱差异,可以从基因组水平阐明各种营养成分或环境因素对动物机体的基因表达的影响,从而进一步揭示营养生理的机制和环境对动物影响的机理。DNA芯片技术为分子营养的研究开辟了一条崭新的道路,在从DNA芯片的原理、种类、实验设计、统计方法及在分子营养上的应用作一综述。     

超声分子成像的研究进展

超声成像无创、无放射性、低成本、实时成像的优点,使其成为目前世界上应用最广的成像手段之一。特别是超声造影剂引入之后,超声成像的图像分辨率和灵敏度得到了大大提高,使超声成像在临床上得到了进一步应用。近年来,随着分子生物学和超声成像技术的不断发展,人们提出了"超声分子成像"的概念。它是一项结合了分子靶向造影剂和超声影像技术的能在分子水平下观察病理变化的新兴技术,目前这一技术还处于研究初期阶段。但大量临床前的研究成果已表明超声分子成像在诊断血管生成、炎症和血栓三种疾病具有很大应用前景。本文主要综述了目前常用超声造影剂的种类以及超声分子成像技术的研究现状,并对该技术进行了讨论和展望。     

Osteopontin identified as colon cancer tumor progression marker

Identifying molecular markers for colon cancer is a top priority. Using a pooled sample approach with Affymetrix GeneChip technology, we assayed colon cancers derived from a series of clinical stages to identify molecular markers of potential prognostic value. Of 12000 genes assessed, osteopontin emerged as the leading candidate tumor progression marker. Osteopontin is a secreted glycoprotein known to bind integrins and CD44. Its actual molecular function remains elusive but its increased expression correlates strongly with tumor progression.     

鼻咽癌组织的显微切割及其 RNA 线性扩增

从微小体积鼻咽癌活检标本中获取纯净癌细胞一直是鼻咽癌分子生物学研究中的难题 . 为了寻找一种能从鼻咽癌活检组织中获得高纯度、高质量 RNA 来完成 cDNA 微阵列 (cDNA Microarray) 实验的简便实用方法,采用 RNAlater 技术保存鼻咽癌活检组织,显微切割技术来获得高纯度鼻咽癌细胞,利用 RNA 线性扩增技术得到 cDNA 微阵列实验所需 RNA. 结果表明：利用 RNAlater 技术可以很好地保持组织 RNA 的稳定,通过优化显微切割和 RNA 线性扩增的条件获得了 cDNA 微阵列实验所需的高纯度、高质量 RNA.