Early dynamic changes of quasispecies in the reverse transcriptase region of hepatitis B virus in telbivudine treatment.

Background: Telbivudine (LdT) - a synthetic thymidine β-L-nucleoside analogue (NA) - is an effective inhibitor for hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication. The quasispecies spectra in the reverse transcriptase (RT) region of the HBV genome and their dynamic changes associated with LdT treatment remains largely unknown.

Methods: We prospectively recruited a total of 21 treatment-naive patients with chronic HBV infection and collected sequential serum samples at five time points (baseline, weeks 1, 3, 12, and 24 after LdT treatment).

Increased Serum Cystatin C Levels Were Associated with Depressive Symptoms in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Background: Existing studies have reported that patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have an increased risk of depressive symptoms. We aimed to evaluate the association between serum cystatin C levels and depressive symptoms in DM patients.

Methods: Serum levels of cystatin C were measured in 254 patients with DM at baseline.

Comparison of error correction algorithms for Ion Torrent PGM data: application to hepatitis B virus.

Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) technology is a mid-length read, low-cost and high-speed next-generation sequencing platform with a relatively high insertion and deletion (indel) error rate. A full systematic assessment of the effectiveness of various error correction algorithms in PGM viral datasets (e.g.

Validation of a multi-omics strategy for prioritizing personalized candidate driver genes.

Significant heterogeneity between different tumors prevents the discovery of cancer driver genes, especially in a patient-specific manner. We previously prioritized five personalized candidate mutation-driver genes in a hyper-mutated hepatocellular carcinoma patient using a multi-omics strategy. However, the roles of the prioritized driver genes and patient-specific mutations in hepatocarcinogenesis are unclear.