Gene specific co-regulation discovery: an improved approach

[Abstract]: Discovering gene co-regulatory relationships is a new but important research problem in DNA microarray data analysis. The problem of gene specific co-regulation discovery is to, for a particular gene of interest, called the target gene, identify its strongly co-regulated genes and the condition subsets where such strong gene co-regulations are observed. The study on this problem can contribute to a better understanding and characterization of the target gene. The existing method, using the genetic algorithm (GA), is slow due to its expensive fitness evaluation and long individual representation. In this paper, we propose an improved method for finding gene specific co-regulations. Compared with the current method, our method features a notably improved effciency. We employ kNN Search Table to substantially speed up fitness evaluation in the GA. We also propose a more compact representation scheme for encoding individuals in the GA, which contributes to faster crossover and mutation operations. Experimental results with a real-life gene mi-croarray data set demonstrate the improved effciency of our technique compared with the current method

Bioactive components of Gynura divaricata and its potential use in health, food and medicine：a mini-review

Background: G. divaricata (L.) DC belongs to genus the Gynura Cass which is a kind of perennial herb that has good health protection efficacy and is especially used widely in medicine and functional food. It is one of the most famous traditional Chinese medicinal herbs and is usually used to cure bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, kink cough, rheumatism, diabetes, and so on. It has a long history for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in the folk medicine. This review is aimed at gathering all information relating to G. divaricata and obtaining new insights for further studies on G. divaricata.Materials and Methods: PubMed, Springer Link, Web of Science, Science Direct and Research Gate were used for the literature search. The key search terms included G. divaricata isolation and identification, flavonoids and theircombinations without language restriction. The period for the search is from year 1979 to 2016.Results: The main chemical components were listed, and the folk application, the extraction and separation methods of main chemical components, pharmacological effects of G. divaricata were discussed, which further demonstrated the plant’s value as health food and medicine.Conclusion: The present review is of great significance to the development of new medicinal resources and health food of G. divaricata.Keywords: G. divaricata, diabetes mellitus; chemical components; folk application; pharmacological effect

Efficacy of pegylated interferon α2a in patients without HBeAg loss after the withdrawal of long-term lamivudine therapy

BACKGROUND: Improving the HBe seroconversion rate of patients without HBeAg loss after long-term lamivudine therapy has become an urgent clinical problem that we have to face. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on the mananement of these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) α2a in patients without HBeAg loss after the withdrawal of long-term lamivudine therapy. METHODS: Fifty patients with chronic hepatitis B without the loss of HBeAg after ≥96 weeks of lamivudine treatment were enrolled to withdraw from treatment to induce a biochemical breakthrough. Patients who achieved a biochemical breakthrough within 24 weeks received 48-weeks of PEG-IFN α2a therapy, and were then assessed during a subsequent 24-week follow-up period. RESULTS: Forty-three (86.0%) patients achieved a biochemical breakthrough within 24 weeks of lamivudine withdrawal. The rates of combined response (both undetectable HBV DNA and HBeAg loss) and HBsAg loss were alone 51.2% and 20.9%, respectively after 48 weeks of PEG-IFN α2a therapy, and 44.2% and 18.6%, respectively, at 24 weeks after treatment cessation. The end-of-treatment combined response rate was 65.4% among patients with a baseline HBsAg <20,000 IU/mL, which was significantly higher than 29.4% of patients with HBsAg ≥20,000 IU/mL (P=0.031). For patients with HBsAg levels <1,500 IU/mL at 12 and 24 weeks therapy, the end-of-treatment combined response rate was 68.2% and 69.0%, which were both significantly higher than patients with HBsAg ≥1,500 IU/mL (33.3% and 14.3%; P=0.048 and 0.001). The end-of-treatment combined response rate was significantly higher among patients with HBV DNA<10(5) copies/mL (76.2%) compared to patients with HBV DNA ≥10(5) copies/mL (27.3%) after 24 weeks of therapy (P=0.004). CONCLUSION: Retreatment with PEG-IFN α2a was effective and safe for patients without HBeAg loss after the withdrawal of long-term lamivudine therapy. HBsAg levels at the baseline, 12 and 24 weeks of therapy, and HBV DNA levels at 24 weeks of therapy, can predict the effect of PEG-IFN α2a after 48 weeks of therapy