Evaluation method for compatibility of compounds in fluorescence resonance energy transfer model to screen β-secretase inhibitors / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

OBJECTIVE To develop a method to evaluate the compatibility of compounds in the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) model for β-secretase (BACE1) inhibitor screening.METHODS Two commercially available BACE1 inhibitor screening systems based on FRET were selected to evaluate the BACE1 inhibitory activities of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and Compound 1 according to the supplier's protocol.The inhibitory rates and slopes of the catalytic curves of the inhibitors were calculated.The effect of inhibitors on the fluorescence intensity of the systems were quantitatively calculated and the comparatively evaluated.RESULTS EGCG,a reported non-competitive inhibitor of BACE1,directly induced the reduction of fluorescence intensity of one of the systems.The slope of the line with the addition of EGCG (10.8±2.6) conformed to that of the line of EGCG inhibition (10.2±3.4),which indicated that EGCG was a pseudo-positive inhibitor of BACE1.Compound 1 had little effect on the fluorescence intensity of the systems,so the inhibitory activity of Compound 1 was confirmed.The compounds which showed inhibitory activity in preliminary screening should be checked in the blank control without BACE1 to calibrate the effect of compound on the system fluorescence intensity.The applicability of the tested compounds in the screening system could thus be evaluated to prevent pseudo-positive results.CONCLUSION This fluorescence calibration method with compound control can be universally used for assays based on FRET theory to evaluate the applicability of tested BACE1 inhibitors.

Evolutionary characterization of HA1 of influenza H1N1 hemagglutinin gene surveyed in 1981-2005 in China / 病毒学报

To understand the evolutionary characterization of HA1 of H1N1 influenza virus HA gene circulaing from 1981 to 2005 in China, viral RNAs of 370 H1N1 strains were extracted and transcribed into cDNA by reverse transcriptase and amplified by PCR. The products of PCR were sequenced. The sequences were analyzed through biometic software. The results showed that all the four antigenic sites were mutated, bigger change occurred on the Sb and Ca sites; the 130 loop of receptor binding sites(RBS) of HA1 amino acid deleted at the 134th site in 1991 firstly, then the number of the deleted strains were increasing, since 2000, all the strains had deleted at the 134th site, and simultaneously, the amino acid at 137th site was substituted by S for T. The change of HA1 glycosylation sites was found and 7 sites kept stable from 2000 to 2005. The H1N1 strains of the same year almost clustered in the same group on the phylogenetic tree and were irrelevant to virus isolated time and area. There appeared two groups of 2005 H1N1 virus strains that differed in time of virus isolation.

Development of methods for detection of H5N1 from human clinical specimens / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To establish a method for H5N1 RNA detection and laboratory diagnosis of suspected human avian influenza (H5N1) virus infected cases.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The typing and sub-typing primers were designed according to M and H5 and N1 gene respectively, and the RT-PCR and real-time PCR were developed using these primers.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The RT-PCR and real-time PCR could be used for H5N1 detection specifically, and there was no cross reaction with other influenza subtypes such as H1 and H3. The sensitivity for RT-PCR and real-time PCR was 1 TCID50 and 0.01 TCID50 respectively. Thirteen laboratory confirmed human H5N1 cases were detected from 42 suspected cases by using these methods.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The established RT-PCR and real-time PCR methods can be used for laboratory detection of suspected human H5N1 cases.</p>