Identification of certain cancer-mediating genes using Gaussian fuzzy cluster validity index.

In this article, we have used an index, called Gaussian fuzzy index (GFI), recently developed by the authors, based on the notion of fuzzy set theory, for validating the clusters obtained by a clustering algorithm applied on cancer gene expression data. GFI is then used for the identification of genes that have altered quite significantly from normal state to carcinogenic state with respect to their mRNA expression patterns. The effectiveness of the methodology has been demonstrated on three gene expression cancer datasets dealing with human lung, colon and leukemia. The performance of GFI is compared with 19 exiting cluster validity indices. The results are appropriately validated biologically and statistically. In this context, we have used biochemical pathways, p-value statistics of GO attributes, t-test and zscore for the validation of the results. It has been reported that GFI is capable of identifying high-quality enriched clusters of genes, and thereby is able to select more cancer-mediating genes.

Bacterias anaerobias: procesos que realizan y contribuyen a la sostenibilidad de la vida en el planeta / Anaerobic bacteria: processes they perform and their contribution to life sustainability on the planet

Objetivo. Se realiza una revisión sobre los aspectos degradativos de materia orgánica, obtención de energía y nutrientes de las bacterias anaerobias. La importancia de estos microorganismos es el papel que desempeñan en los procesos que contribuyen al mantenimiento de la vida misma. Dentro del metabolismo para la descomposición de macromoléculas, estos microorganismos realizan varios procesos: hidrólisis, acetogénesis y metanogénesis, entre otros, cobija reacciones que se realizan dependiendo de las características particulares de la bacteria y de las funciones que cumplen dentro del ciclo degradativo, para la obtención de nuevos productos dependiendo de las rutas bioquímicas o procesos fermentativos que allí se desarrollan.

Objective. A review of the degradation aspects of organic matter, obtaining energy and nutrients from anaerobic bacteria is performed. The importance of these organisms is the role they play in the processes contributing to the maintenance of life itself. Within the metabolism for the decomposition of macromolecules, these microorganisms perform several processes: hydrolysis acetogenesis and methanogenesis, among others, it covers reactions performed depending on the particular characteristics of the bacteria and of the roles in the degradative cycle for development of new products depending on the biochemical pathways or fermentation processes that take place there.

Protease inhibitors in potential drug development for leishmaniasis.

Leishmaniasis is a deadly protozoan parasitic disease affecting millions of people worldwide. The treatment strategy of Leishmania infection depends exclusively on chemotherapy till date. But the treatment of the disease is greatly hampered due to high cost, toxicity of the available drugs and more importantly emergence of drug resistance. Hence the potential new drugs are highly needed to combat this disease. The first and foremost step of the drug discovery process is to search and select the putative target in a specific biological pathway in the parasite that should be either unambiguously absent in the host or considerably different from the host homolog. Importantly, Leishmania genome sequences enrich our knowledge about Leishmania and simultaneously reinforce us to identify the ideal drug targets that distinctly exist in the parasite as well as to develop the effective drugs for leishmaniasis. Though the leishmanial research has significantly progressed during the past two decades, the identification of suitable drug targets or development of effective drugs to combat leishmaniasis is far from satisfactory. Enzymatic systems of Leishmania metabolic and biochemical pathways are essential for their survival and infection. Concurrently, it is noteworthy that Leishmania proteases, especially the cysteine proteases, metalloproteases and serine proteases have been extensively investigated and found to be indispensable for the survival of the parasites and disease pathogenesis. Herein, we have discussed the importance of few enzymes, particularly the Leishmania proteases and their inhibitors as promising candidates for potential development of anti-leishmanial drugs.