Genetic Algorithm for Web Data Mining

The use of various search engines could influence the number of search results in the World Wide Web. Therefore, this study attempted to discover any association between the word types or the information types used to search through the World Wide Web using the available search engines. By doing so, it could assist the process of data mining for information in the World Wide Web. This study used a prototype program based on genetic algorithm to manipulate the initial set of data. Three sets of inputs were used to generate new populations based on the individual fitness. New strains of individuals from a new population were used to test the results obtained from the World Wide Web. Eight search engines used for this study were tested with two groups of words. All the eight words were used as keyword search in all the eight search engines, and the numbers of web pages returned by each search engines were collected. The total web pages based on the selected new individuals were calculated and tabulated. In order to find any association between the search word and the search engines combinations, the individuals were ranked based on the most web pages to the least according to each of the eight words. Results obtained through the creation of new populations by the prototype program showed that the average fitness of each population improves as new populations were created and new strains of individuals were created through this evolution process. The test on results obtained from the Internet showed that certain class of words could be associated by certain combination of search engines

Iterative Collaborative Ranking of Customers and Providers

This paper introduces a new application: predicting the Internet provider-customer market. We cast the problem in the collaborative filtering framework, where we use current and past customer-provider relationships to compute for each Internet customer a ranking of potential future service providers. Furthermore, for each Internet service provider (ISP), we rank potential future customers. We develop a novel iterative ranking algorithm that draws inspiration from several sources, including collaborative filtering, webpage ranking, and kernel methods. Further analysis of our algorithm shows that it can be formulated in terms of an affine eigenvalue problem. Experiments on the actual Internet customer-provider data show promising results

Antibody-mediated therapy against HIV/AIDS: Where are we standing now?

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases are on the rise globally. To date, there is still no effective measure to eradicate the causative agent, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is being used in HIV/AIDS management, but it results in long-term medication and has major drawbacks such as multiple side effects, high cost, and increasing the generation rate of escape mutants. In addition, HAART does not control HIV-related complications, and hence more medications and further management are required. With this, other alternatives are urgently needed. In the past, small molecule inhibitors have shown potent antiviral effects, and some of them are now being evaluated in clinical trials. The challenges in developing these small molecules for clinical use include the off-target effect, poor stability, and low bioavailability. On the other hand, antibody-mediated therapy has emerged as an important therapeutic modality for anti-HIV therapeutics development. Many antiviral antibodies, namely, broad neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) against multiple strains of HIV, have shown promising effects in vitro and in animal studies; further studies are ongoing in clinical trials to evaluate their uses in clinical applications. This short review aims to discuss the current development of therapeutic antibodies against HIV and the challenges in adopting them for clinical use

Epstein-Barr Virus as a promising immunotherapeutic target for nasopharyngeal carcinoma treatment

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a pathogen that infects more than 90% of global human population. EBV primarily targets Blymphocytes and epithelial cells while some of them infect monocyte/macrophage, T-lymphocytes, and dendritic cells (DCs). EBV infection does not cause death by itself but the infection has been persistently associated with certain type of cancers such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL), and Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL). Recent findings have shown promise on targeting EBV proteins for cancer therapy by immunotherapeutic approach. Some studies have also shown the success of adopting EBV-based therapeutic vaccines for the prevention of EBV-associated cancer particularly on NPC. In-depth investigations are in progress to refine the current therapeutic and vaccination strategies. In present review, we discuss the highly potential EBV targets for NPC immunotherapy and therapeutic vaccine development aswell as addressing the underlying challenges in the process of bringing the therapy and vaccination from the bench to bedside

Review of current cell-penetrating antibody developments for HIV-1 therapy

The discovery of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996 has significantly reduced the global mortality and morbidity caused by the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). However, the therapeutic strategy of HAART that targets multiple viral proteins may render off-target toxicity and more importantly results in drug-resistant escape mutants. These have been the main challenges for HAART and refinement of this therapeutic strategy is urgently needed. Antibody-mediated treatments are emerging therapeutic modalities for various diseases. Most therapeutic antibodies have been approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mainly for targeting cancers. Previous studies have also demonstrated the promising effect of therapeutic antibodies against HIV-1, but there are several limitations in this therapy, particularly when the viral targets are intracellular proteins. The conventional antibodies do not cross the cell membrane, hence, the pathogenic intracellular proteins cannot be targeted with this classical therapeutic approach. Over the years, the advancement of antibody engineering has permitted the therapeutic antibodies to comprehensively target both extra- and intra-cellular proteins in various infections and diseases. This review aims to update on the current progress in the development of antibody-based treatment against intracellular targets in HIV-1 infection. We also attempt to highlight the challenges and limitations in the development of antibody-based therapeutic modalities against HIV-1

Pathogenic role of exosomes in Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-associated cancers

Exosomes are 40- to 100-nm membrane-bound small vesicles that carry a great variety of cellular cargoes including proteins, DNA, messenger RNAs (mRNAs), and microRNAs (miRNAs). These nanovesicles are detected in various biological fluids such as serum, urine, saliva, and seminal fluids. Exosomes serve as key mediators in intercellular communication by facilitating the transfer and exchange of cellular components from cells to cells. They contain various pathogenic factors whereby their adverse effects have been implicated in multiple viral infections and cancers. Interestingly, accumulating evidences showed that exosomes derived from tumour viruses or oncoviruses, exacerbate virus-associated cancers by remodelling the tumour microenvironment. In this review, we summarize the contributing factors of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) products-containing exosomes in viral pathogenesis and their potential implications in EBV-driven malignancies. Understanding the biological role of these exosomes in the disease would undoubtedly boost the development of a more comprehensive strategy to combat EBV-associated cancers and to better predict the therapeutic outcomes. Furthermore, we also highlight the potentials and challenges of EBV products-containing exosomes being employed as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for EBV-related cancers. Since these aspects are rather underexplored, we attempt to underline interesting areas that warrant further investigations in the future

Bactericidal properties of plants-derived metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs)

Nanoparticles (NPs) are nano-sized particles (generally 1–100 nm) that can be synthesized through various methods. The wide range of physicochemical characteristics of NPs permit them to have diverse biological functions. These particles are versatile and can be adopted into various applications, particularly in biomedical field. In the past five years, NPs’ roles in biomedical applications have drawn considerable attentions, and novel NPs with improved functions and reduced toxicity are continuously increasing. Extensive studies have been carried out in evaluating antibacterial potentials of NPs. The promising antibacterial effects exhibited by NPs highlight the potential of developing them into future generation of antimicrobial agents. There are various methods to synthesize NPs, and each of the method has significant implication on the biological action of NPs. Among all synthetic methods, green technology is the least toxic biological route, which is particularly suitable for biomedical applications. This mini-review provides current update on the antibacterial effects of NPs synthesized by green technology using plants. Underlying challenges in developing NPs into future antibacterials in clinics are also discussed at the present review

Canine plasma and tissue fatty acid profiles and their correlation with hair coat conditions

This study was initiated to study the probable relationships between the fatty acid profiles of the plasma, skin, liver and brain and to determine their correlations with hair coat conditions in owned and stray dogs. A total of35 dogs were used in this study. Twenty-three owned dogs obtained from the University Veterinary Hospital (UVH dogs) were subjected to blood sampling and hair coat scoring only. Twelve euthanized dogs were sourced from a local animal shelter (LAS dogs) and blood, brain, liver and skin samples were obtained. Hair coat scores were performed under standardized conditions and was found that the UVH dogs (median score = 4.1) had significantly better scores compared to LAS dogs (median score = 3.1, P<0.05). The UVH dogs had significantly lower (P<0.05) n-6:n-3 ratios and lower plasma arachidonate content. The skin and plasma fatty acid profiles correlated well with each other but no correlation was evident between the brain and plasma fatty acid profiles. Increased amounts of plasma and skin n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids were associated with better hair coat conditions. However, plasma n-6 fatty acids seemed to .have a stronger positive correlation to hair coat scores in dogs (p = 0.683, P<0.05) compared to plasma n-3 fatty acids (p = 0.512, P<0.05) and fatty acid profiles from other tissues. In summary, this report underscores the importance of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids to the hair coat condition of dogs kept under humid tropical conditions