Three amino acids of a heptapeptide-induced antibody are responsible for recognition of SV40 structural proteins

The prevalence of tobacco use in people with schizophrenia is much higher than in general population, which indicates a close relationship between nicotine addiction and schizophrenia. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the high comorbidity of tobacco smoking and schizophrenia remains largely unclear. In this study, we conducted a pathway and network analysis on the genes potentially associated with nicotine addiction or schizophrenia to reveal the functional feature of these genes and their interactions. Of the 276 genes associated with nicotine addiction and 331 genes associated with schizophrenia, 52 genes were shared. From these genes, 12 significantly enriched pathways associated with both diseases were identified. These pathways included those related to synapse function and signaling transduction, and drug addiction. Further, we constructed a nicotine addiction-specific and schizophrenia-specific sub-network, identifying 11 novel candidate genes potentially associated with the two diseases. Finally, we built a schematic molecular network for nicotine addiction and schizophrenia based on the results of pathway and network analysis, providing a systematic view to understand the relationship between these two disorders. Our results illustrated that the biological processes underlying the comorbidity of nicotine addiction and schizophrenia was complex, and was likely induced by the dysfunction of multiple molecules and pathways

Metabolomic Markers in Tongue-Coating Samples from Damp Phlegm Pattern Patients of Coronary Heart Disease and Chronic Renal Failure

In this paper, we used tongue coating to obtain metabolites in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and chronic renal failure (CRF). The metabolites were analyzed to discover the substance that serves as the underlying basis of the damp phlegm pattern. This analysis is based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory of “different diseases have the same pattern.” The metabolic spectrum was obtained through the Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry coupling techniques and analyzed by searching the METLIN and HMDB databases. Some metabolites related to amino acids and glucose metabolism were identified in the tongue-coating samples from damp phlegm pattern patients by comparing them to nondamp phlegm pattern patients and healthy subjects. In addition, there were five common metabolites in the tongue-coating samples from CHD damp phlegm pattern patients compared to CRF damp phlegm pattern patients, which allowed us to understand the theory of “different diseases have the same pattern.” In the future, the metabolites identified in this study may be used as noninvasive and convenient biomarkers to distinguish the damp phlegm pattern of CHD and CRF patients

Metabolomic Markers in Tongue-Coating Samples from Damp Phlegm Pattern Patients of Coronary Heart Disease and Chronic Renal Failure

In this paper, we used tongue coating to obtain metabolites in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and chronic renal failure (CRF). The metabolites were analyzed to discover the substance that serves as the underlying basis of the damp phlegm pattern. This analysis is based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory of “different diseases have the same pattern.” The metabolic spectrum was obtained through the Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry coupling techniques and analyzed by searching the METLIN and HMDB databases. Some metabolites related to amino acids and glucose metabolism were identified in the tongue-coating samples from damp phlegm pattern patients by comparing them to nondamp phlegm pattern patients and healthy subjects. In addition, there were five common metabolites in the tongue-coating samples from CHD damp phlegm pattern patients compared to CRF damp phlegm pattern patients, which allowed us to understand the theory of “different diseases have the same pattern.” In the future, the metabolites identified in this study may be used as noninvasive and convenient biomarkers to distinguish the damp phlegm pattern of CHD and CRF patients

Organellar Genome Assembly Methods and Comparative Analysis of Horticultural Plants

Although organellar genomes (including chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes) are smaller than nuclear genomes in size and gene number, organellar genomes are very important for the investigation of plant evolution and molecular ecology mechanisms. Few studies have focused on the organellar genomes of horticultural plants. Approximately 1193 chloroplast genomes and 199 mitochondrial genomes of land plants are available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), of which only 39 are from horticultural plants. In this paper, we report an innovative and efficient method for high-quality horticultural organellar genome assembly from next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. Sequencing reads were first assembled by Newbler, Amos, and Minimus software with default parameters. The remaining gaps were then filled through BLASTN search and PCR. The complete DNA sequence was corrected based on Illumina sequencing data using BWA (Burrows–Wheeler Alignment tool) software. The advantage of this approach is that there is no need to isolate organellar DNA from total DNA during sample preparation. Using this procedure, the complete mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of an ornamental plant, Salix suchowensis, and a fruit tree, Ziziphus jujuba, were identified. This study shows that horticultural plants have similar mitochondrial and chloroplast sequence organization to other seed plants. Most horticultural plants demonstrate a slight bias toward A+T rich features in the mitochondrial genome. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis of 39 horticultural plants based on 15 protein-coding genes showed that some mitochondrial genes are horizontally transferred from chloroplast DNA. Our study will provide an important reference for organellar genome assembly in other horticultural plants. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of the organellar genomes of horticultural plants could accurately clarify the unanticipated relationships among these plants