猕猴是人类的近亲,也是在研究中最广泛使用的非人灵长类模式动物。虽然猕猴在生物学和医学方面的应用已经有很长的时间,但人们对猕猴基因组序列多态性的了解却非常有限。
中国科学院昆明动物研究所宿兵实验室(博士研究生张雁峰等)和华大基因合作,采用二代测序的方法对中国猕猴进行了全基因组序列分析。测序深度为猕猴基因组11.56倍的覆盖率。通过和国外已测的印度猕猴基因组序列的比较,他们共发现了550万个单核苷酸序列多态性位点(SNP),其中294万个SNP是中国猕猴基因组中的杂合多态性,256万个SNP是中国猕猴和印度猕猴间的差异位点。同时,他们还发现了12万多个的基因组结构变异(Structural variation, SV)。
这项工作是首次对猕猴全基因组序列多态性的解析,所报道的海量序列多态数据将为以猕猴为对象的生物学和临床前医学研究提供具有重要价值的数据库。相关研究结果发表于基因组学的知名刊物《基因组生物学》(Genome Biology)。
原文出处:
Genome Biology doi:10.1016/j.addr.2011.05.005
Viral delivery for gene therapy against cell movement in cancer
Te-Lang Wu and Dongming Zhou
Viral delivery for cancer gene therapy is a promising approach, where traditional radiotherapy or chemotherapy to limit proliferation and movement of cancer cells has met resistance. Based on the new understanding of the biology of the viral vectors, therapeutic viral vectors for cancer gene therapy have been improved for greater safety and efficacy as well as transitioned from being non-replicating to replication-competent. Traditional oncolytic vectors have focused on eliminating tumor growth, while novel vectors simultaneously target epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cells, which could further prevent and reverse the aggressive tumor progression. In this review, we highlight the illustrative examples of cancer gene therapy in clinical trials as well as preclinical data and include proposals on methods to further enhance the safety and efficacy of oncolytic viral vectors in cancer gene therapy.