Overcoming Suppressive Tumor Microenvironment by Vaccines in Solid Tumor.

Conventional vaccines are widely used to boost human natural ability to defend against foreign invaders, such as bacteria and viruses. Recently, therapeutic cancer vaccines attracted the most attention for anti-cancer therapy. According to the main components, it can be divided into five types: cell, DNA, RNA, peptide, and virus-based vaccines.

[Evaluation of ecosystem cultural services of urban protected areas based on public participation GIS (PPGIS): A case study of Gongqing Forest Park in Shanghai, China].

Quantitative evaluation of ecosystem service value and its spatial mapping is an effective way to determine priority conservation areas of cultural ecosystem services (CES). We used a combination of questionnaires and structured interviews with public participatory GIS (PPGIS) in Gongqing Forest Park in Shanghai to connect non-monetary CES values with spatially explicit information. This method applied spatial indicators of abundance, diversity and rarity to quantitatively assess the value of CES and their spatial distribution, and identified priority CES areas.

Food restriction alters villi morphology in obese rats: gut mechanism for weight regain?

Weight regain after a long-term weight-loss program is a greater problem in obesity treatment than is weight reduction. Hence, the gut may elevate the absorption rate and nutrient transportation remarkably during chronic food restriction. The extension of gut absorption may be one possible reason for weight regain.

Comparative analysis of ovine adenovirus 287 and human adenovirus 2 and 5 based on their codon usage.

Ovine adenovirus 287 (OAdV287) emerges as one of the most promising gene vectors resulting from its unique biological characteristics. To obtain a more detailed knowledge about the codon usage of OAdV287, a comparative study based on the codon usage of OAdV287 and the prototypes of human adenovirus serotypes 2 and 5 (HAdV2/5) was carried out. Some commonly used indices measuring the codon usage patterns, including effective number of codons, relative synonymous codon usage, and statistical methods, were adopted.

Analysis of codon usage in type 1 and the new genotypes of duck hepatitis virus.

In this study, an abundant (A+U)% and low codon bias were revealed in duck hepatitis virus type 1 (DHV-1) and the new serotype strains isolated from Taiwan, South Korea and Mainland China (DHV-N). The general correlation between base composition and codon usage bias suggests that mutational pressure rather than natural selection is the main factor that determines the codon usage bias in these samples. By comparative analysis of the codon usage patterns of 40 ORFs of DHV, we found that all of DHV-1 strains grouped in genotype C; the DHV-N strains isolated in South Korea and China clustered into genotypes B; and the DHV-N strains isolated from Taiwan clustered into genotypes A.

Compare the differences of synonymous codon usage between the two species within cardiovirus.

Background: Cardioviruses are positive-strand RNA viruses in the Picornaviridae family that can cause enteric infection in rodents and also been detected at lower frequencies in other mammals such as pigs and human beings. The Cardiovirus genus consists two distinct species: Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) and Theilovirus (ThV). There are a lot differences between the two species.

Analysis of codon usage and nucleotide composition bias in polioviruses.

Background: Poliovirus, the causative agent of poliomyelitis, is a human enterovirus and a member of the family of Picornaviridae and among the most rapidly evolving viruses known. Analysis of codon usage can reveal much about the molecular evolution of the viruses. However, little information about synonymous codon usage pattern of polioviruses genome has been acquired to date.

Analysis of codon usage in Newcastle disease virus.

In this study, the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) values, effective number of codon (ENC) values, nucleotide contents, and dinucleotide were used to investigate codon usage pattern of each protein-coding gene and genome among 31 Newcastle disease virus (NDV) isolates. The result shows that the overall extent of codon usage bias in NDV is low (mean ENC = 56.15 > 40).

Analysis of codon usage in bovine viral diarrhea virus.

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is a widespread virus in beef and dairy herds. BVDV has been grouped into two genotypes, genotype 1 and genotype 2. In this study, the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) values, effective number of codon (ENC) values and nucleotide content were investigated, and a comparative analysis of codon usage patterns for open reading frames (ORFs) of 22 BVDV genomes, including 14 of genotype 1 and 8 of genotype 2, was carried out.

Preparation and characterization of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against FMDV serotype O with synthetic peptide antigen.

A short linear peptide was designed according to the antigenic site analysis of VP1 protein of foot-and-mouth virus (FMDV) serotype O and synthesized as the peptide immunogen. The peptide, which covers the region from amino acid 133 to 160 of VP1 of FMDV, was linked to the N-terminal cysteine and conjugated with the carrier protein of keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH). Normal 6- to 8-week-old BALB/c mice were immunized with the 20 μg dose conjugated peptide antigen four times.