Nat Biotechnol：蛋白质药物治疗流感病毒

近日，一个国际研究小组已经制造出一种新蛋白可以对付致命的流感疫情。
 
研究论文发表在Nature Biotechnology杂志上，密歇根州立大学化学工程与材料科学助理教授Tim Whitehead说：论文揭示了如何使用人工改造过的基因当作抗病毒药物。

我们的这项最新研究结果已被对许多大流行性流感病毒证明有效，其中就包括几个甲型H1N1、H5N1病毒亚型。

团队通过DNA深度测序技术改善他们设计出来的蛋白质，这使得研究人员能同时制造出数蛋白质的百万个变异序列，保留蛋白质能发挥功效的有利的突变，进而优化蛋白质。

他说：重新设计我们的蛋白质可以使病毒的危害性降低，我们的工作证明构建治疗性蛋白质将推动有关蛋白质药物的生物制药行业的发展。

本研究为今后的所有流感病毒以及其他疾病如天花的治疗也奠定了基础。（生物谷：Bioon.com）

doi:10.1038/nbt.1540
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Allelic imbalance sequencing reveals that single-nucleotide polymorphisms frequently alter microRNA-directed repression

Jinkuk Kim^1,2,3 & David P Bartel^1,2

Genetic changes that help explain the differences between two individuals might create or disrupt sites complementary to microRNAs (miRNAs)1, 2, but the extent to which such polymorphic sites influence miRNA-mediated repression is unknown. Here, we describe a method to measure mRNA allelic imbalances associated with a regulatory site found in mRNA transcribed from one allele but not found in that transcribed from the other. Applying this method, called allelic imbalance sequencing, to sites for three miRNAs (miR-1, miR-133 and miR-122) provided quantitative measurements of repression in vivo without altering either the miRNAs or their targets. A substantial fraction of polymorphic sites mediated repression in tissues that expressed the cognate miRNA, and downregulation was correlated with site type and site context. Extrapolating these results to the other broadly conserved miRNAs suggests that when comparing two mouse strains (or two human individuals), polymorphic miRNA sites cause expression of many genes (often hundreds) to differ.