Hepatitis: Zeng C

McBurney RN, Hines WM, Von Tungeln LS, Schnackenberg LK, Beger RD, Moland CL, Han T, Fuscoe JC, Chang CW, Chen JJ, Su Z, Fan XH, Tong W, Booth SA, Balasubramanian R, Courchesne PL, Campbell JM, Graber A, Guo Y, Juhasz PJ, Li TY, Lynch MD, Morel NM, Plasterer TN, Takach EJ, Zeng C, Beland FA. · BG Medicine, Inc., Waltham, MA 02451, USA. · Toxicol Pathol. · Pubmed #19171931 No free full text.

Abstract: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the primary adverse event that results in withdrawal of drugs from the market and a frequent reason for the failure of drug candidates in development. The Liver Toxicity Biomarker Study (LTBS) is an innovative approach to investigate DILI because it compares molecular events produced in vivo by compound pairs that (a) are similar in structure and mechanism of action, (b) are associated with few or no signs of liver toxicity in preclinical studies, and (c) show marked differences in hepatotoxic potential. The LTBS is a collaborative preclinical research effort in molecular systems toxicology between the National Center for Toxicological Research and BG Medicine, Inc., and is supported by seven pharmaceutical companies and three technology providers. In phase I of the LTBS, entacapone and tolcapone were studied in rats to provide results and information that will form the foundation for the design and implementation of phase II. Molecular analysis of the rat liver and plasma samples combined with statistical analyses of the resulting datasets yielded marker analytes, illustrating the value of the broad-spectrum, molecular systems analysis approach to studying pharmacological or toxicological effects.

Kelsey CR, Schefter T, Nash SR, Russ P, Barón AE, Zeng C, Gaspar LE. · Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. · Am J Clin Oncol. · Pubmed #16317267 No free full text.

Abstract: PURPOSE: To determine the degree of correlation between radiographic size and true gross pathologic size for subjects with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: This analysis included 18 patients with 27 tumors who underwent either partial hepatectomy or orthotopic liver transplantation for HCC at the University of Colorado Hospital between 1997 and 2002. Preoperative imaging was performed using computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). After surgical resection the size of each tumor on gross pathologic examination was recorded. The maximal measurement in one dimension on axial imaging and pathologic examination was extracted for statistical analysis. The clinical and pathologic sizes were compared using a percent size difference (%Deltasize) as an end point for each patient. A regression analysis was applied to study the association between pathologic and clinical size. RESULTS: The median radiographic size was 2.90 cm (range 1.2-4.9). The median pathologic size was 2.50 cm (range 1-4.8). The radiographic size was larger than or equal to the pathologic size in 22/27 tumors (81%) and smaller in 5/27 (19%) tumors. The median %Deltasize was 17.5% (range -20-144%). Overall, the radiographic and pathologic sizes were positively correlated (r = 0.8). This correlation was not affected by choice of imaging modality (CT versus MRI, P = 0.71) or time of preoperative imaging (0-4 weeks versus 4-8 weeks before surgery, P = 0.61). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that in most instances (81%), imaging by CT or MRI overestimates true gross pathologic size of HCC. Nineteen percent of tumors appeared smaller on preoperative imaging than on the final pathologic specimen. Radiation therapy utilizing a 0.5 or 1.0 cm margin around the radiographic tumor would have encompassed the gross pathologic tumor in 93% and 100% of cases, respectively.

Zhang Q, Wu G, Richards E, Jia S, Zeng C. · Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101300, China. · Virol J. · Pubmed #17892576 links to  free full text

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The highly heterogenic characteristic of viruses is the major obstacle to efficient DNA amplification. Taking advantage of the large number of virus DNA sequences in public databases to select conserved sites for primer design is an optimal way to tackle the difficulties in virus genome amplification. RESULTS: Here we use hepatitis B virus as an example to introduce a simple and efficient way for virus primer design. Based on the alignment of HBV sequences in public databases and a program BxB in Perl script, our method selected several optimal sites for HBV primer design. Polymerase chain reaction showed that compared with the success rate of the most popular primers for whole genome amplification of HBV, one set of primers for full length genome amplification and four sets of walking primers showed significant improvement. These newly designed primers are suitable for most subtypes of HBV. CONCLUSION: Researchers can extend the method described here to design universal or subtype specific primers for various types of viruses. The BxB program based on multiple sequence alignment not only can be used as a separate tool but also can be integrated in any open source primer design software to select conserved regions for primer design.