Mode of antiviral action of silver nanoparticles against HIV-1

Background  

Silver nanoparticles have proven to exert antiviral activity against HIV-1 at non-cytotoxic concentrations, but the mechanism underlying their HIV-inhibitory activity has not been not fully elucidated. In this study, silver nanoparticles are evaluated to elucidate their mode of antiviral action against HIV-1 using a panel of different in vitro assays.     

A eukaryotic initiation factor 5C is upregulated during metamorphosis in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera

Background  

The orthologs of eukaryotic initiation factor 5C (eIF5C) are essential to the initiation of protein translation, and their regulation during development is not well known.     

A comparative study of protein synthesis in <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> systems: from the prokaryotic reconstituted to the eukaryotic extract-based

Background  

Cell-free protein synthesis is not only a rapid and high throughput technology to obtain proteins from their genes, but also provides an in vitro platform to study protein translation and folding. A detailed comparison of in vitro protein synthesis in different cell-free systems may provide insights to their biological differences and guidelines for their applications.     

GOPET: A tool for automated predictions of Gene Ontology terms

Background  

Vast progress in sequencing projects has called for annotation on a large scale. A Number of methods have been developed to address this challenging task. These methods, however, either apply to specific subsets, or their predictions are not formalised, or they do not provide precise confidence values for their predictions.     

Extension of the COG and arCOG databases by amino acid and nucleotide sequences

Background  

The current versions of the COG and arCOG databases, both excellent frameworks for studies in comparative and functional genomics, do not contain the nucleotide sequences corresponding to their protein or protein domain entries.     

Chromosomal patterns of gene expression from microarray data: methodology, validation and clinical relevance in gliomas

Background  

Expression microarrays represent a powerful technique for the simultaneous investigation of thousands of genes. The evidence that genes are not randomly distributed in the genome and that their coordinated expression depends on their position on chromosomes has highlighted the need for mathematical approaches to exploit this dependency for the analysis of expression data-sets.     

A longitudinal study of the association between dietary factors, serum lipids, and bone marrow lesions of the knee

Introduction  

Bone marrow lesions (BMLs) play an important role in knee osteoarthritis, but their etiology is not well understood. The aim of this longitudinal study was to describe the association between dietary factors, serum lipids, and BMLs.     

Function of nuclear transport factor 2 and Ran in the 20E signal transduction pathway in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera

Background  

Nuclear transport factor 2 and small GTPase Ran participate in the nucleo-cytoplasm transport of macromolecules, but their function in the 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) signal transduction pathway are not well known.     

A phylogenomic profile of hemerythrins,the nonheme diiron binding respiratory proteins

Background  

Hemerythrins, are the non-heme, diiron binding respiratory proteins of brachiopods, priapulids and sipunculans; they are also found in annelids and bacteria, where their functions have not been fully elucidated.     

Validity of clinical associations of biomarkers in translational research studies: the case of systemic autoimmune diseases

Introduction  

Validity of biomarkers may be affected if studies do not include certain features in their design. We evaluated whether translational research studies of potential biomarkers incorporated design features important for valid clinical associations.     

Missing value imputation for microarray gene expression data using histone acetylation information

Background  

It is an important pre-processing step to accurately estimate missing values in microarray data, because complete datasets are required in numerous expression profile analysis in bioinformatics. Although several methods have been suggested, their performances are not satisfactory for datasets with high missing percentages.     

Identifying essential genes in bacterial metabolic networks with machine learning methods

Background  

Identifying essential genes in bacteria supports to identify potential drug targets and an understanding of minimal requirements for a synthetic cell. However, experimentally assaying the essentiality of their coding genes is resource intensive and not feasible for all bacterial organisms, in particular if they are infective.     

Transformation of Anaplasma phagocytophilum

Background  

Tick-borne pathogens cause emerging zoonoses, and include fastidious organisms such as Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Because of their obligate intracellular nature, methods for mutagenesis and transformation have not been available.     

Primary care physicians' perspectives towards managing rheumatoid arthritis: room for improvement

Introduction  

Many people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) do not receive care from a rheumatologist. We surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) to better understand their attitudes, knowledge, and practices regarding the optimal treatment of RA.     

Characterization of bovine miRNAs by sequencing and bioinformatics analysis

Background  

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of ~22 nucleotide small RNA molecules which regulate gene expression by fully or partially binding to their complementary sequences in mRNAs or promoters. A large number of miRNAs and their expression patterns have been reported in human, mouse and rat. However, miRNAs and their expression patterns in live stock species such as beef cattle are not well studied.     

Domain analysis of the tubulin cofactor system: a model for tubulin folding and dimerization

Background  

The correct folding and dimerization of tubulins, before their addition to the microtubular structure, needs a group of conserved proteins called cofactors A to E. The biochemical analysis of cofactors gave an insight to their general functions, however not much is known about the domain structure and detailed, molecular function of these proteins.     

Reliable detection of Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis and Yersinia pestis by using multiplex qPCR including internal controls for nucleic acid extraction and amplification

Background  

Several pathogens could seriously affect public health if not recognized timely. To reduce the impact of such highly pathogenic micro-organisms, rapid and accurate diagnostic tools are needed for their detection in various samples, including environmental samples.