The problem of age estimation: a study using rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Accurate estimation of chronological age for animals of unknown birth date is important in a variety of circumstances. This is particularly true for non-human primates and especially true for rhesus monkeys. Data, useful for this purpose, have been organized in a variety of ways. The purpose of this paper is to duplicate some of these methods and to check their accuracy. In general, three methods of organizing data were used. The parameters for each method were estimated from one group of rhesus monkeys. Accuracy of age estimation was determined from a closely related, second group which had been raised under approximately the same conditions and from a third group of unrelated monkeys raised under different conditions. Some methods provided better estimations than others, but none was absolutely accurate. The analyses indicate that the degree of inaccuracy of a method should be determined on a sample which is independent of the one from which the parameters were estimated.     

Land cover associated with hantavirus presence in Paraguay

Aims  Hantaviruses are zoonotic, aetiological agents maintained by rodents of the family Muridae. The occurrence of hantavirus in rodent hosts has been correlated to a number of climatic and environmental factors, including landscape structure. To date, most of these correlative studies have been conducted at moderate to fine spatial resolution. Our aim is to determine whether land cover classes defined at a mapping resolution of 1 km² are associated with rodents with antibodies to hantavirus in Paraguay.
Location  The Republic of Paraguay.
Methods  A total of 362 rodents from 10 species known to host hantaviruses were tested for the presence of hantavirus antibodies, resulting in 27 seropositive individuals. This data base was then combined with a map of six land cover types derived from coarse resolution remote sensing data to create a series of contingency tables, which were used to relate serostatus to land cover type using nonparametric tests of proportions and qualitative comparison of observed and expected values.
Results  There was a significant difference in habitat association between seropositive and seronegative rodents when species were pooled. Seropositive rodents were found with disproportionately high frequency in areas where human disturbance in the form of intensive and mosaic agricultural landscapes was present.
Main conclusions  Human-disturbed land cover classes have a detectable relationship to the hantavirus serostatus of host population rodents when observed at coarse spatial resolutions. Although coarse-grained analysis does not lead to any conclusions as to why agricultural land cover is more likely to harbour seropositive rodents, the relationship between them could form the basis for a monitoring system designed to relate land cover change to potential viral outbreaks in rodents and humans.     

Stereochemical quality of protein structure coordinates.

Methods have been developed to assess the stereochemical quality of any protein structure both globally and locally using various criteria. Several parameters can be derived from the coordinates of a given structure. Global parameters include the distribution of phi, psi and chi 1 torsion angles, and hydrogen bond energies. There are clear correlations between these parameters and resolution; as the resolution improves, the distribution of the parameters becomes more clustered. These features show a broad distribution about ideal values derived from high-resolution structures. Some structures have tightly clustered distributions even at relatively low resolutions, while others show abnormal scatter though the data go to high resolution. Additional indicators of local irregularity include proline phi angles, peptide bond planarities, disulfide bond lengths, and their chi 3 torsion angles. These stereochemical parameters have been used to generate measures of stereochemical quality which provide a simple guide as to the reliability of a structure, in addition to the most important measures, resolution and R-factor. The parameters used in this evaluation are not novel, and are easily calculated from structure coordinates. A program suite is currently being developed which will quickly check a given structure, highlighting unusual stereochemistry and possible errors.     

Discovery and optimization of a biphenylacetic acid series of prostaglandin D2 receptor DP2 antagonists with efficacy in a murine model of allergic rhinitis

Biphenylacetic acid (5) was identified through a library screen as an inhibitor of the prostaglandin D(2) receptor DP2 (CRTH2). Optimization for potency and pharmacokinetic properties led to a series of selective CRTH2 antagonists. Compounds demonstrated potency in a human DP2 binding assay and a human whole blood eosinophil shape change assay, as well as good oral bioavailability in rat and dog, and efficacy in a mouse model of allergic rhinitis following oral dosing.     

以HIV-1 5＇LTR为靶点的药物筛选细胞模型的构建

构建以人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV-1）5＇LTR为靶点的药物筛选细胞模型,用于体外筛选潜在的对HIV-1启动子具有抑制作用的药物,或用于筛选与HIV-1复制相关的宿主因子。通过PCR扩增HIV-1 5＇LTR片段和胸苷激酶基因（thymidine kinase gene,TK基因）,以这2片段为模板进行重叠PCR将两者连接起来,连接产物经酶切后与pcDNA3.1载体连接;将连接正确的质粒转染HEK293细胞同时用G418加压筛选获得稳定细胞系;加入药物更昔洛韦（GCV）检测TK基因的表达。成功构建了HIV-1 5＇LTR调控TK基因表达的稳定细胞系,在其培养过程中加入药物更昔洛韦时,细胞逐渐死亡。构建了以HIV-1 5＇LTR为靶点的药物筛选细胞模型,该模型利用TK基因作为报告基因方便灵敏,可用于筛选针对HIV-1 5＇LTR的潜在抗HIV药物。     

玉米酒糟中醇溶蛋白的结构特征研究

目的:通过实验和特征预测相结合的方法,分析酒糟中醇溶蛋白的物理化学性质及其结构,为玉米醇溶蛋白的生物学应用奠定基础。方法:将从玉米酒糟中醇提的玉米醇溶蛋白的SDS-PAGE条带进行ESI-Q-TOMS质谱分析,从得到的氨基酸序列,用生物信息学工具预测蛋白的疏水性、二级结构、三级结构等性质。结果:目的条带为玉米醇溶蛋白z1D alpha zein,相对分子质量为24 521,等电点为8.85,为疏水蛋白,其二级结构以α螺旋为主,三级结构成纺锤状。结论:为玉米酒糟中玉米醇溶蛋白的开发利用奠定了基础。     

Free radical copolymerization kinetics of γ-methyl-α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone (MeMBL)

The propagation kinetics and copolymerization behavior of the biorenewable monomer γ-methyl-α-methylene-γ-butyrolactone (MeMBL) are studied using the pulsed laser polymerization (PLP)/size exclusion chromatography (SEC) technique. The propagation rate coefficient for MeMBL is 15% higher than that of its structural analogue, methyl methacrylate (MMA), with a similar activation energy of 21.8 kJ·mol(-1). When compared to MMA, MeMBL is preferentially incorporated into copolymers when reacted with styrene (ST), MMA, and n-butyl acrylate (BA); the monomer reactivity ratios fit from bulk MeMBL/ST, MeMBL/MMA, and MeMBL/BA copolymerizations are r(MeMBL) = 0.80 ± 0.04 and r(ST) = 0.34 ± 0.04, r(MeMBL) = 3.0 ± 0.3 and r(MMA) = 0.33 ± 0.01, and r(MeMBL) = 7.0 ± 2.0 and r(BA) = 0.16 ± 0.03, respectively. In all cases, no significant variation with temperature was found between 50 and 90 °C. The implicit penultimate unit effect (IPUE) model was found to adequately fit the composition-averaged copolymerization propagation rate coefficient, k(p,cop), for the three systems.     

利用高通量测序快速检测疑似感染患者体内未知病原体

采用第二代高通量测序技术从复杂的疑似感染患者组织标本中直接快速检测未知病原体.方法:取临床和实验室均不能确诊的病人血液和淋巴组织,进行病毒DNA和RNA的提取,直接用于第二代高通量测序,将测序结果用于生物信息学分析,与本地化的病毒核酸数据库进行比对,寻找潜在的病毒序列.结果:生物信息学分析显示,3901条序列reads与人内源性病毒K113同源;当使用K113特异性引物对经过Dnasel处理的患者和正常个体进行荧光定量RT - PCR时,发现在患者体内K113病毒基因的表达远远高于正常个体,提示该患者可能存在K113病毒的感染.结论:第二代高通量测序可能用于快速检测未知病原体.