Methods in molecular biology
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The diversity and huge omics data take biology and biomedicine research and application into a big data era, just like that popular in human society a decade ago. They are opening a new challenge from horizontal data ensemble (e.g., the similar types of data collected from different labs or companies) to vertical data ensemble (e.g., the different types of data collected for a group of person with match information), which requires the integrative analysis in biology and biomedicine and also asks for emergent development of data integration to address the great changes from previous population-guided to newly individual-guided investigations. Data integration is an effective concept to solve the complex problem or understand the complicate system. ⋯ Current integration approaches on biological data have two modes: one is "bottom-up integration" mode with follow-up manual integration, and the other one is "top-down integration" mode with follow-up in silico integration. This paper will firstly summarize the combinatory analysis approaches to give candidate protocol on biological experiment design for effectively integrative study on genomics and then survey the data fusion approaches to give helpful instruction on computational model development for biological significance detection, which have also provided newly data resources and analysis tools to support the precision medicine dependent on the big biomedical data. Finally, the problems and future directions are highlighted for integrative analysis of omics big data.
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Exon-skipping therapy is an emerging approach that uses synthetic DNA-like molecules called antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to splice out frame-disrupting parts of mRNA, restore the reading frame, and produce truncated yet functional proteins. Phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO) is one of the safest among therapeutic ASOs for patients and has recently been approved under the accelerated approval program by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first ASO-based drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Multi-exon skipping utilizing ASOs can theoretically treat 80-90% of patients with DMD. Here, we describe the systemic delivery of a cocktail of ASOs to skip exon 51 and exons 45-55 in the mdx52 mouse, an exon 52 deletion model of DMD produced by gene targeting, and the evaluation of their efficacies in vivo.
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Post-bisulfite adaptor tagging (PBAT) is a highly efficient procedure to construct libraries for whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS). PBAT attaches adaptors to bisulfite-converted genomic DNA to circumvent bisulfite-induced degradation of library DNA inherent to conventional WGBS protocols. Consequently, it enables PCR-free WGBS from nanogram quantities of mammalian DNA, thereby serving as an invaluable tool for methylomics.
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Exon skipping is an emerging approach to treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), one of the most common lethal genetic disorders. Exon skipping uses synthetic antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) to splice out frame-disrupting exon(s) of DMD mRNA to restore the reading frame of the gene products and produce truncated yet functional proteins. ⋯ Although the success of multiple exon skipping in a DMD dog model has made a significant impact on the development of therapeutics for DMD, unmodified AONs such as phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) have little efficacy in cardiac muscles. Here, we describe our technique of intravenous injection of a cocktail of peptide-conjugated PMOs (PPMOs) to skip multiple exons, exons 6 and 8, in both skeletal and cardiac muscles in dystrophic dogs and the evaluation of the efficacy and toxicity.
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Preeclampsia is a relatively common pregnancy-related condition associated with serious maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. It is now well established that anti-angiogenic sFlt1 is upregulated in preeclampsia and binds PlGF and VEGF, causing an imbalance in angiogenic factors with subsequent endothelial injury and dysfunction. ⋯ There are several automated, commercially available immunoassays capable of measuring PlGF and the sFlt1/PlGF ratio for preeclampsia diagnosis. Here we outline the methodology for using the Roche Cobas ® e 411 immunoassay platform to determine the sFlt1/PlGF ratio.