Potential infections of H5N1 and H9N2 avian influenza do exist in Guangdong populations of China.

Background: Southeast China is one of the sites of influenza origin. During 2003--2004, nine avian influenza outbreaks took place in Guangdong Province. But no human case was reported.

Sequence analysis and structural prediction of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus nsp5.

The non-structural proteins (nsp or replicase proteins) of coronaviruses are relatively conserved and can be effective targets for drugs. Few studies have been conducted into the function of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) nsp5. In this study, bioinformatics methods were employed to predict the secondary structure and construct 3-D models of the SARS-CoV GD strain nsp5.

Variation analysis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus putative non-structural protein 2 gene and construction of three-dimensional model.

Background: The rapid transmission and high mortality rate made severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) a global threat for which no efficacious therapy is available now. Without sufficient knowledge about the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), it is impossible to define the candidate for the anti-SARS targets. The putative non-structural protein 2 (nsp2) (3CL(pro), following the nomenclature by Gao et al, also known as nsp5 in Snidjer et al) of SARS-CoV plays an important role in viral transcription and replication, and is an attractive target for anti-SARS drug development, so we carried on this study to have an insight into putative polymerase nsp2 of SARS-CoV Guangdong (GD) strain.

[Effect of dietary n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid ratio on spleen lymphocyte's function and fatty acid composition in mice].

Objective: To study the effect of dietary n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio on spleen lymphocyte's function and fatty acid composition in mice.

Methods: Male BALb/c mice were divided into 5 groups: the dietary S : m : p was 1 : 1.5 : 1 n-6/ n-3 PUFA ratio was 1, 7.