title: Using combinatorial bioinformatics methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses and to accelerate development of effective vaccines.
abstract: The standard World Health Organization procedure for vaccine development has provided a guideline for influenza viruses, but no systematic operational model. We recently designed a systemic analysis method to evaluate annual perspective sequence changes of influenza virus strains. We applied dnaml of PHYLIP 3.69, developed by Joseph Felsenstein of Washington University, and ClustalX2, developed by Larkin et al, for calculating, comparing, and localizing the most plausible vaccine epitopes. This study identified the changes in biological sequences and associated alignment alterations, which would ultimately affect epitope structures, as well as the plausible hidden features to search for the most conserved and effective epitopes for vaccine development. Addition our newly designed systemic analysis method to supplement the WHO guidelines could accelerate the development of urgently needed vaccines that might concurrently combat several strains of viruses within a shorter period.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Jen
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuan-Chih
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University and Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ching-Chuan
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Jen
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: National Taichung Wen Hua Senior High, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sheng-Cheng
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan. Electronic address: wst917@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shulhn-Der
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control; D009975:Orthomyxoviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D007252:Influenza Vaccines
keywords: biological sequences; phylogenetic tree; vaccine development