Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on HTAsiaLink network members.

Objectives: This study investigates the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on HTAsiaLink members at the organizational level and provides recommendations for mitigating similar challenges in the future.

Methods: A survey was disseminated among HTAsiaLink members to assess the COVID-19 impact in three areas: (i) inputs, (ii) process, and (iii) outputs of the Health Technology Assessment organizations' (HTAOs) research operations and HTA process in general.

Results: Survey results showed that most HTAOs hired more staff and secured similar or higher funding levels during COVID-19.

LncSTPred: a predictive model of lncRNA subcellular localization and decipherment of the biological determinants influencing localization.

Introduction: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in genetic markers, genome rearrangement, chromatin modifications, and other biological processes. Increasing evidence suggests that lncRNA functions are closely related to their subcellular localization. However, the distribution of lncRNAs in different subcellular localizations is imbalanced.

Presenilin 1 Is a Therapeutic Target in Pulmonary Hypertension and Promotes Vascular Remodeling.

Small muscular pulmonary artery remodeling is a dominant feature of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). PSEN1 affects angiogenesis, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. We aimed to determine the role of PSEN1 in the pathogenesis of vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension (PH).

Potential biomarkers: The hypomethylation of cg18949415 and cg22193385 sites in colon adenocarcinoma.

Overall cancer hypomethylation had been identified in the past, but it is not clear exactly which hypomethylation site is the more important for the occurrence of cancer. To identify key hypomethylation sites, we studied the effect of hypomethylation in twelve regions on gene expression in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD). The key DNA methylation sites of cg18949415, cg22193385 and important genes of C6orf223, KRT7 were found by constructing a prognostic model, survival analysis and random combination prediction a series of in-depth systematic calculations and analyses, and the results were validated by GEO database, immune microenvironment, drug and functional enrichment analysis.

Single Amino Acid Substitutions Surrounding the Icosahedral Fivefold Symmetry Axis Are Critical for Alternative Receptor Usage of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus.

The integrins function as the primary receptor molecules for the pathogenic infection of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in vivo, while the acquisition of a high affinity for heparan sulfate (HS) of some FMDV variants could be privileged to facilitate viral infection and expanded cell tropism in vitro. Here, we noted that a BHK-adapted Cathay topotype derivative (O/HN/CHA/93tc) but not its genetically engineered virus (rHN), was able to infect HS-positive CHO-K1 cells and mutant pgsD-677 cells. There were one or three residue changes in the capsid proteins of O/HN/CHA/93tc and rHN, as compared with that of their tissue-originated isolate (O/HN/CHA/93wt).

An energy model for recognizing the prokaryotic promoters based on molecular structure.

Promoter is an important functional elements of DNA sequences, which is in charge of gene transcription initiation. Recognizing promoter have important help for understanding the relative life phenomena. Based on the concept that promoter is mainly determined by its sequence and structure, a novel statistical physics model for predicting promoter in Escherichia coli K-12 is proposed.

Search for clinical predictors of good glycemic control in patients starting or intensifying oral hypoglycemic pharmacological therapy: A multicenter prospective cohort study.

Aims: Our aim was to search for clinical predictors of good glycemic control in patients starting or intensifying oral hypoglycemic pharmacological therapy.

Methods: A multicenter, prospective cohort of 499 diabetic subjects was enrolled in this study: patients with newly diagnosed diabetes (NDM group) or poor glycemic control with oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs) (PDM group). All subjects then started or intensified OADs therapy and followed up for 91 days.

Engineering Responses to Amino Acid Substitutions in the VP0- and VP3-Coding Regions of PanAsia-1 Strains of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O.

The presence of sequence divergence through adaptive mutations in the major capsid protein VP1, and also in VP0 (VP4 and VP2) and VP3, of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is relevant to a broad range of viral characteristics. To explore the potential role of isolate-specific residues in the VP0 and VP3 coding regions of PanAsia-1 strains in genetic and phenotypic properties of FMDV, a series of recombinant full-length genomic clones were constructed using Cathay topotype infectious cDNA as the original backbone. The deleterious and compensatory effects of individual amino acid substitutions at positions 4008 and 3060 and in several different domains of VP2 illustrated that the chain-based spatial interaction patterns of VP1, VP2, and VP3 (VP1-3), as well as between the internal VP4 and the three external capsid proteins of FMDV, might contribute to the assembly of eventually viable viruses.

Dose titration model and correlative factors analysis in Chinese patients with type-2 diabetes on basal insulin - results from an Observational Registry of Basal Insulin Treatment study.

Introduction: This study evaluates an insulin dose titration model and factors that impact insulin dose adjustment in Chinese adults with type-2 diabetes, who receive basal insulin in real-world settings.

Material And Methods: A total of 19,894 patients from the ORBIT study were included. These patients were divided into four groups, according to the type of insulin dose adjustment: no insulin titration (group A), self-titration (group B), physician-led insulin titration (group C), and combined physician and patient-led insulin titration (group D).

Nrf2 mediates the protective effects of homocysteine by increasing the levels of GSH content in HepG2 cells.

Homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH) are crucial reduction‑oxidation mediators. The underlying mechanisms governing the effects of Hcy on GSH generation in the progression of alcoholic liver disease has so far received little attention. The present study hypothesized that the antioxidant transcriptional factor nuclear factor (erythroid‑derived 2)‑like 2 (Nrf2) may participate in Hcy‑mediated regulation of GSH production in HepG2 human liver cancer cells.

Activation of ERK pathway is required for 15-HETE-induced angiogenesis in human umbilical vascular endothelial cells.

Angiogenesis plays a critical role in the progression of cardiovascular disease, retinal ischemia, or tumorigenesis. The imbalance of endothelial cell proliferation and apoptosis disturbs the establishment of the vasculogenesis, which is affected by several arachidonic acid metabolites. 15-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-HETE) is one of the metabolites.

Efficacy and safety of avandamet or uptitrated metformin treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled with metformin alone: a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial.

Background: At present, China has listed the compound tablet containing a fixed dose of rosiglitazone and metformin, Avandamet, which may improve patient compliance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Avandamet or uptitrated metformin treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled with metformin alone.

Methods: This study was a 48-week, multicenter, randomized, open-labeled, active-controlled trial.

Antitumor activity of adenoviral vector containing T42 and 4xT42 peptide gene through inducing apoptosis of tumor cells and suppressing angiogenesis.

The T42 peptide, generated from two active fragments of tumstatin, has been shown to have anti‑tumor activity. The adenoviral vector is the most frequently used vector in research and clinical trials for gene therapy. In the present study, the anti‑tumor activity of the T42 peptide and quadruple T42 (4xT42) peptide adenoviral vectors were elucidated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge.

Resiquimod and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid formulation with aluminum hydroxide as an adjuvant for foot-and-mouth disease vaccine.

Background: Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists reportedly have potent antiviral and antitumor activities and may be a new kind of adjuvant for enhancing immune efficacy. Resiquimod (R848) is an imidazoquinoline compound with potent antiviral activity and functions through the TLR7/TLR8 MyD88-dependent signaling pathway. Polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid [poly(I:C)] is a synthetic analog of double-stranded RNA that induces the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by the activation of NF-κB through TLR3.

Liposomes modified with P-aminophenyl-α-D-mannopyranoside: a carrier for targeting cerebral functional regions in mice.

Targeting of intracerebral functional regions has been limited by the inability to transport drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and by poor accumulation in these regions. To overcome these hurdles, liposomes modified with P-aminophenyl-α-d-mannopyranoside (MAN) were used as a fluorescent dye carrier through the BBB and used the specific distribution of liposomes (LIP) modified with MAN (MAN-LIP) to target various functional regions of the brain. An in vitro BBB model was established to evaluate the transendothelial ability of MAN-LIP, and liposomes uptake by C6 glioma cells was analyzed by flow cytometry and live cell imaging.

Using increment of diversity to predict mitochondrial proteins of malaria parasite: integrating pseudo-amino acid composition and structural alphabet.

Due to the complexity of Plasmodium falciparum (PF) genome, predicting mitochondrial proteins of PF is more difficult than other species. In this study, using the n-peptide composition of reduced amino acid alphabet (RAAA) obtained from structural alphabet named Protein Blocks as feature parameter, the increment of diversity (ID) is firstly developed to predict mitochondrial proteins. By choosing the 1-peptide compositions on the N-terminal regions with 20 residues as the only input vector, the prediction performance achieves 86.

Alternative way to test the efficacy of swine FMD vaccines: measurement of pigs median infected dose (PID50) and regulation of live virus challenge dose.

Foot-and -mouth disease to pigs is serious recently around the world. "Vaccination prevention" is still an important policy. OIE specifies 10,000 TCID50(0.

The efficacy of FMD vaccine reduced non-structural proteins with a mAb against 3B protein.

A monoclonal antibody, 3BIgG, against the prokaryotically expressed foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) non-structural protein (NSP) 3B was obtained. The 3BIgG-sepharose conjugant (3BmAb-6BFF) was prepared by adding the purified 3BIgG into epoxy-activated sepharose 6BFF, incubating with the inactivated FMDV, and then removing the sepharose by centrifugation. The vaccine was made from the supernatant emulsified with oil-adjuvant ISA206.

Prediction of subcellular localization of apoptosis protein using Chou's pseudo amino acid composition.

Apoptosis proteins play an essential role in regulating a balance between cell proliferation and death. The successful prediction of subcellular localization of apoptosis proteins directly from primary sequence is much benefited to understand programmed cell death and drug discovery. In this paper, by use of Chou's pseudo amino acid composition (PseAAC), a total of 317 apoptosis proteins are predicted by support vector machine (SVM).

Multicenter clinical study on the efficacy and safety of inhalable insulin aerosol in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Background: A new inhalable insulin aerosol (Inh-Ins) was developed in China. The aim of this multicenter clinical study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this new Inh-Ins as a treatment of type 2 diabetes. Regular porcine insulin (RI) was used as a control.

Prediction of apoptosis protein subcellular location using improved hybrid approach and pseudo-amino acid composition.

Apoptosis proteins are very important for understanding the mechanism of programmed cell death. The apoptosis protein localization can provide valuable information about its molecular function. The prediction of localization of an apoptosis protein is a challenging task.

Prediction of the subcellular location of apoptosis proteins.

Apoptosis proteins have a central role in the development and the homeostasis of an organism. These proteins are very important for understanding the mechanism of programmed cell death. The function of an apoptosis protein is closely related to its subcellular location.