RESULTS: In this study, we propose the Context Based Dependency Network (CBDN), a method that is able to infer gene regulatory networks with the regulatory directions from gene expression data only. To determine the regulatory direction, CBDN computes the influence of source to target by evaluating the magnitude changes of expression dependencies between the target gene and the others with conditioning on the source gene. CBDN extends the data processing inequality by involving the dependency direction to distinguish between direct and transitive relationship between genes. We also define two types of important regulators which can influence a majority of the genes in the network directly or indirectly. CBDN can detect both of these two types of important regulators by averaging the influence functions of candidate regulator to the other genes. In our experiments with simulated and real data, even with the regulatory direction taken into account, CBDN outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches for inferring gene regulatory network. CBDN identifies the important regulators in the predicted network: 1. TYROBP influences a batch of genes that are related to Alzheimer's disease; 2. ZNF329 and RB1 significantly regulate those 'mesenchymal' gene expression signature genes for brain tumors.
CONCLUSION: By merely leveraging gene expression data, CBDN can efficiently infer the existence of gene-gene interactions as well as their regulatory directions. The constructed networks are helpful in the identification of important regulators for complex diseases.
RESULTS: We propose a succinct representation of the distance matrices which tremendously reduces the space requirement. We give a complete solution, called SuperRec, for the inference of chromosomal structures from Hi-C data, through iterative solving the large-scale weighted multidimensional scaling problem.
CONCLUSIONS: SuperRec runs faster than earlier systems without compromising on result accuracy. The SuperRec package can be obtained from http://www.cs.cityu.edu.hk/~shuaicli/SuperRec .
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective study conducted at nephrology unit of a tertiary hospital in Kedah. All diabetic ESRD patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were identified and recruited for analysis.
RESULTS: The mean duration of DM to ESRD was found to be 14.37 ± 4.42 years. Mean duration for the onset of diabetic nephropathy was 8.73 ± 3.37 years. There was a relative short duration from diabetic nephropathy to ESRD noted, which was 5.63 ± 2.06 years. The mean duration of DM to ESRD for patients receiving RAAS blocker was found to be 18.23 ± 2.38 years as compared to 11.41 ± 2.94 years for those who did not (95% CI: -0.64 to -2.46). For different type of RAAS blockers, namely ACE inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), there was no significant difference observed pertaining to mean duration of DM to ESRD; 17.89 ± 1.97 years for ACEi and 19.00 ± 4.16 years for ARB (95% CI: -4.74 to 2.52).
DISCUSSION: Time frame from diabetic nephropathy to ESRF among Malaysian population was shorter as compared to findings from other countries with an average period of 15 to 25 years. RAAS blockers should be initiated early in diabetic patients.
Materials and Methods: TQ-NLC was radiolabeled with technetium-99m before the administration to the rats. The biodistribution and pharmacokinetics parameters were then evaluated at various time points. The rats were imaged at time intervals and the percentage of the injected dose/gram (%ID/g) in blood and each organ was analyzed.
Results: Oral administration of TQ-NLC exhibited greater relative bioavailability compared to intravenous administration. It is postulated that the movement of TQ-NLC through the intestinal lymphatic system bypasses the first metabolism and therefore enhances the relative bioavailability. However, oral administration has a slower absorption rate compared to intravenous administration where the AUC0-∞ was 4.539 times lower than the latter.
Conclusion: TQ-NLC had better absorption when administered intravenously compared to oral administration. However, oral administration showed greater bioavailability compared to the intravenous route. This study provides the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution profile of TQ-NLC in vivo which is useful to assist researchers in clinical use.