Two giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) died of unknown causes in a Chinese zoo. The clinical disease profile suggested that the pandas may have suffered a viral infection. Therefore, a series of detection including virus isolation, electron microscopy, cytobiological assay, serum neutralization and RT-PCR were used to identify the virus. It was determined that the isolated virus was a canine coronavirus (CCV), on the basis of coronavirus, neutralization by canine anti-CCV serum, and 84.3% to 100% amino acid sequence similarity with CCV. The results suggest that the affected pandas had been infected with CCV.
Amino Acid Sequence ; Animal Diseases/*virology ; Animals ; Animals, Zoo/*virology ; Coronaviridae Infections/*veterinary/virology ; Coronavirus, Canine/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Fatal Outcome ; Female ; Male ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Sequence Alignment ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; Ursidae/*virology ; Viral Proteins/chemistry

Metabolomics represents an emerging and powerful discipline that provides an accurate and dynamic picture of the phenotype of bio-systems through the study of potential metabolites that could be used as therapeutic targets and for the discovery of new drugs. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of liver disease worldwide, and is a major burden on public health. It is hypothesized that an animal model of HCV infection would produce unique patterns of endogenous metabolites. Herein, a method for the construction of efficient networks is presented with regard to the proteins of bear bile powder (PBBP) that protect against HCV as a case study. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography, coupled with electrospray ionization/quadrupole-time-of-flight high definition mass spectrometry (UPLC-HDMS), coupled with pattern recognition methods and computational systems analysis were integrated to obtain comprehensive metabolomic profiling and pathways of the large biological data sets. Among the regulated pathways, 38 biomarkers were identified and two unique metabolic pathways were indicated to be differentially affected in HCV animals. The results provided a systematic view of the development and progression of HCV, and also could be used to analyze the therapeutic effects of PBBP, a widely used anti-HCV medicine. The results also showed that PBBP could provide satisfactory effects on HCV infection through partially regulating the perturbed pathway. The most promising use in the near future would be to clarify the pathways for the drugs and obtain biomarkers for these pathways to help guide testable predictions, provide insights into drug action mechanisms, and enable an increase in research productivity toward metabolomic drug discovery.
Animals ; Antiviral Agents ; chemistry ; metabolism ; pharmacology ; Bile ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Hepacivirus ; drug effects ; physiology ; Hepatitis C ; drug therapy ; virology ; Humans ; Male ; Metabolomics ; Proteins ; chemistry ; metabolism ; pharmacology ; Proteomics ; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization ; Tupaiidae ; Ursidae