Hepatitis B is a serious infectious disease worldwide, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the direct cause of this disease. In recent years, as an essential part of its evolutionary process, HBV mutation has been extensively studied domestically and globally. However, the study on the conserved sequences in HBV sequences is still in its infancy. In this study, we applied multiple EM for motif elicitation (MEME) algorithm to discover HBV motif and proposed a new metric, conservative index (CI), to carry out phylogenetic analysis based on HBV sequences. Then, the constructed phylogenetic tree was subjected to reliability assessment. The results demonstrated that the new metric CI combined with the MEME algorithm can effectively help to discover motifs in HBV sequences and construct a phylogenetic tree based on them and to analyze the evolutionary relationship between HBV sequences; in addition, the possible ancestral sequences of samples may be obtained by conservative analysis. The proposed method is valuable for the exploratory study on large HBV sequence data sets.
Computational Biology ; Conserved Sequence ; Evolution, Molecular ; Hepatitis B virus ; genetics ; Humans ; Nucleotide Motifs ; Phylogeny ; Reproducibility of Results

Objective To investigate changes of serum levels of interleukin(IL)-4,-6,-8 and tumor necrosis factor-?(TNF-?),and probe their clinical significance in children with Henoch-Schonlein purpura(HSP)/ HenochSchonlein purpura nephritis(HSPN).Methods Serum levels of IL-4,-6,-8 and TNF-? of 45 children with HSP/HSPN and 43 healthy children were examined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA),changes and correlation between the aforementioned cytokines in children with HSP /HSPN were analyzed.Results 1.Serum levels of IL-4,-6,-8 and TNF-? of children with HSP were higher than those of control group(P0.05);The serum level of TNF-? was positively correlated to the serum levels of IL-6,-8 of patients with HSP(r=0.670 P

Hepatitis B is one of the most serious global threats to human health. Phylogenetic analysis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) can reveal the evolutionary relationship between HBV sequences and thus provide a basis for the prediction and treatment of hepatitis B and other aspects. In this study, we performed sequence analyses on the HBV sequences of five clinical HBV samples and the HBV sequences retrieved from the GenBank, EMBL, and DDBJ to construct a phylogenetic tree and analyze sequence structures. The experimental results revealed that the C gene of one cloned sequence had a recombinant structure of HBV B/ C subtype. Moreover, the phylogenetic results proved the existence of a newly found subtype HBV/B6 in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province, China. The experimental conclusion represents certain value for phylogenetic studies of HBV in Yunnan ethnic minority groups.
DNA, Recombinant ; genetics ; Genes, Viral ; genetics ; Genotyping Techniques ; Hepatitis B virus ; classification ; genetics ; Humans ; Phylogeny

Objective To investigate the methods and clinical significance of breast cancer treated with photodynamic.Methods From June to December in 2005,photodynamic therapy was used in 12 cases confirmed intramammary lymph node metastasis before operation and 15 cases confirmed chest wall recur- rences by means of lymph node imaging.Results The intramammary lymph node metastasis whose diameter between 0.5～1.0cm measured by lymph node imaging preoperatively completely disappeared when rechecked 3 months postoperatively.Chest wall recurrence regions of breast cancer whose diameter less than 1.0 cm completely remitted.Conclusion Photodynamic therapy is helpful to eliminate the intramammary lymph node metastasis and to cure the postoperative chest wall recurrence of breast cancer.

Anthropometry ; Biomarkers ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized ; Child, Preschool ; Humans ; Infant ; Malnutrition ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Mass Screening ; methods ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Status ; Risk Assessment ; methods ; Risk Factors

Objective To analyze the substitutions at amino acid residues of neuraminidases ( NAs) in influenza B virus strains isolated in Jiangsu province from 2010 to 2012 and to further understand the genetic evolution of NAs in those influenza B virus strains .Methods Forty strains of influenza B virus isolated in Jiangsu province from 2010 to 2012 were screened out for this study .A two-step reverse transcrip-tion PCR ( RT-PCR) was performed to amply the gene fragments encoding the neuraminidases of influenza B virus strains.The PCR products were purified and then sequenced in an ABI 3730XL Genetic Analyzer.The evolutionary characteristics of NA gene were analyzed by using DNAStar , Bioedit, MEGA 5.0 and BEAST 1.8.0 softwares.Results The phylogenetic tree analysis of the NA genes showed that the NAs of 28 Vic-toria strains were derived from the Yamagata lineage .There were reassortments between the Victoria lineage-HA and theYamagata lineage-NA.Some of the strains added a glycosylation site at position 462.No substitu-tion was found in important enzyme active sites and neuraminidase inhibitor resistant sites .The Bayesian MCMC analysis showed that the estimated mean evolutionary rate for NA gene was 1.74×10-3(95%HPD:1.46×10-3-2.06×10-3) substitutions/site/year.The dN/dS ratio (ω), an indicator of selective pressure, was 0.24.Conclusion The important amino acid sites of NA were relatively conservative and the evolution -ary rate for NA gene was low .The dN/dS ratio was less than one , indicating that the NA gene was under pu-rifying selection .

Objective To investigate neuroprotective effect of AM-36 on secondary brain injury following traumatic brain injury(TBI)in rats.Methods A total of 38 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into an experimental group,a control group and a sham operation group,then sustained to moder- ate TBI.AM-36(0.1 ml/100 g)was administered intraperitoneally in the experimental group and isoton- ic saline solution was administered intraperitoneally in the control and the sham operation groups at 30 mi- nutes,24 and 48 hours after TBI,respectively.The brain water content was determined at 24 hours after TBI.Rats were sacrificed by decapitation at 24 hours or one week after TBI for observing histological changes in peripheral cortex,thalamus and hippocampus by means of Hematoxylin and Eosin staining and Fluoro-Jade(F-J)staining.Results The brain water content of bilateral hemispheres 24 hours after TBI in the experimental group was significantly decreased,compared to that of the control group.Histo- logical examination revealed less degenerating neurons(F-J positive neurons)in the cortex,thalamus, CAI and CA3 of the hippocampus in AM-36 treated rats 24 hours and one week after injury(P＜0.05). Conclusion Systemic administration of AM-36 at the early stage after TBI can decrease brain water content and exert neuroprotective effect on TBI.F-J staining can be used for histopathologic quantitation of neuronal damage,for it can accurately exhibit pathologic changes following TBI induced by fluid per- cussion.

Objective To investigate whether catalpol is the active component responsible for the Yin tonic effect of Radix Rehmanniae.Methods Young NH mice were injected with triiodothyronine to produce the hyperthyroidism model,while old mice were used as the model of natural aging.The single point radioligand binding assay was carried out to determine the ?-adrenergic receptor density and M-cholinergic receptor density.The learning ability(short term memory) was determined by the Y-maze avoidance test. Results In the ?-adrenergic receptor experiment,the densities were(15.7?5.2) and(20.9?7.2) fmol/mg protein in normal control group and in T3 control group(P

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of gefitinib retreatment beyond progression(GRBP)in non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)patients with rare EGFR mutations.Methods We retrospectively analyzed six rare-EGFR-mutation NSCLC patients from Jan 2011 to Dec 2015.Those patients had previous disease control and then disease progression according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1(RECIST v1.1)after taking oral gefitinib 250 mg once a day.After that,continuing gefitinib was decided by clinicians′ experience at the same treatment option.The primary endpoints were response rate(RR),overall survival(OS),the first and second progression-free survival(PFS-1 and PFS-2).Safety was assessed according to the NCI-CTCAE version 4.0.Results After initial treatment of gefitinib,4 patients achieved partial response(PR)and 2 patients showed stable disease(SD),with RR being 66.7％.The median PFS-1 and PFS-2 were 10 months(95％CI 6.6-13.4)and 9 months(95％CI 6.9-11.1),respectively.The median OS time was 28 months(95％CI 10.4-45.6).The most common treatment-related adverse events were fatigue,diarrhea,rash,itching and elevated transaminases.Conclusion In our study,gefitinib retreatment beyond disease progression is effective with a manageable tolerability profile.