A new gene ontology-based measure for the functional similarity of gene products / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Although biomedical ontologies have standardized the representation of gene products across species and databases, a method for determining the functional similarities of gene products has not yet been developed.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We proposed a new semantic similarity measure based on Gene Ontology that considers the semantic influences from all of the ancestor terms in a graph. Our measure was compared with Resnik's measure in two applications, which were based on the association of the measure used with the gene co-expression and the protein-protein interactions.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The results showed a considerable association between the semantic similarity and the expression correlation and between the semantic similarity and the protein-protein interactions, and our measure performed the best overall.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>These results revealed the potential value of our newly proposed semantic similarity measure in studying the functional relevance of gene products.</p>

Sequencing and analyses of the adenovirus polymerase gene in fecal samples of captively bred Rhesus macaques / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>In an attempt to study the moleculr characterization and epidemiology of simian adenoviruses in nonhuman primate (NHP) populations.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We examined a colony of captively bred rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in China for the presence of adenoviral DNA in stool samples. This was done by using the PCR method that targeted the adenovirus polymerase gene, and the PCR positive fragments were cloned for sequencing and phylogenetic analyses.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the 57 animals analyzed, fecal samples from 12 animals were positive for the presence of adenoviral DNA. The results suggested that the viral DNA clones were primarily segregated into two large groups: SAdV-6 (2 non-redundant sequences) and SAdV-7 (9 non-redundant sequences). In addition, there were three clones with more similarity to SAdV-1, SAdV-3 and HAdV-52 respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our data confirmed the prevalence of adenoviral DNA in the feces of NHPs and revealed the adenoviruses in the gastrointestinal tract of the study animals. heterogeneity and phylogenetics of the adenoviruses in the gastrointestinal tract of the study animals.</p>

The significance of antimitochondrial IgA and IgG in the diagnosis of primary biliary cirrhosis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the sensitivity and the specificity of Anti-M2-3E ELISA for the detection of IgG- and IgA-specific isotypes of antimitochondrial antibody (AMA), and to investigate the significance of antimitochondrial IgA and IgG in the diagnosis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sera were collected from 107 PBC patients, 87 disease controls and 26 healthy controls, and the antimitochondrial antibodies (IgG and IgA) were detected using indirect immunofluorescence (IFL), Anti-PDC ELISA and Anti-M2-3E ELISA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The AMA IgG positive rate in PBC patients was 90.6% detected by Anti-M2-3E ELISA, which is significantly higher than that (81.3%) detected by IFL(t = 4.32, P < 0.05) and that (72.9%) detected by Anti- PDC ELISA (t = 6.03, P < 0.05). The AMA IgA was positive in 59 of the 107 PBC patients, and 99 of the 107 patients were positive for AMA IgG or/and IgA. 9 of the 20 IFL-negative patients were positive for AMA IgG as indicated by Anti-M2-3E ELISA, 11 of the 20 IFL-negative patients were positive for AMA IgG or/and IgA as indicated Anti-M2-3E ELISA. Compared to patients negative for IgG AMA, patients positive for IgG AMA had more severe histopathology and higher levels of ALP, IgG, and IgM.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The IgG and IgA Anti- M2-3E ELISAs are more sensitive for the AMA detection than IFN and the Anti-PDC ELISA. The presence of AMA IgG is the characteristics of severe PBC.</p>