Search

Complex diseases, such as stroke and cancer, have two or more genetic influences and are affected by environmental factors, which complicate them. Due to the complex characteristics of these diseases, we must search and study comprehensive literature-based article resources. Some disease-related literature databases have been developed through specialized journal issues or major websites. Most of them, however, are scattered throughout a website, and users encounter difficulties in finding accurate and comprehensive information easily and quickly. We developed StrokeMed, an integrated literature database for stroke and the differentiation of stroke syndrome. The system allows users to explore PubMed search results, categorized by MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), and the differentiation of stroke syndrome in Oriental medicine. StrokeMed collects data from important sites, such as PubMed, Scirus, and Scopus, automatically to maintain higher-quality and updated content. Currently, the system indexes more than 20,000 PubMed abstracts that are related to stroke, stroke etiology, and Oriental medicine. The system provides valuable literature information to the scientific and medical fields in stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and is associated with risks for type 2 diabetes mellitus, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, stroke, and certain forms of cancer. The glutamate decarboxylase 2 (GAD2), insulin-induced gene 2 (INSIG2), ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1), melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R), fresh touring origination (FTO), and uncoupling protein-1 (UCP-1) genes have been investigated for their association with obesity. Since the A-3826G SNP in the UCP-1 gene was first shown to be the key genetic determinant of obesity and body fat accumulation, many studies have been performed in various populations to measure the association of the G allele of this SNP with obesity phenotypes. The association of the A-3826G SNP with obesity has been controversial, however, suggesting that one SNP does not sufficiently explain the effects of genomic variation on body fat accumulation. In this study, 9 SNPs were newly identified in the 5'-flanking region of the UCP-1 gene by direct sequencing of genomic DNA from 21 Korean subjects, and 6 haplotypes were obtained by SNP genotyping and haplotype reconstruction. According to our haplotype analysis, ht2 of the G allele of A-3826G, was significantly associated with overall fat measures after age and body weight were adjusted. Ht6 of the A allele of A-3826G, was significantly linked to reduced fat accumulation. These results provide an explanation for the controversies that have been reported in many obesity association studies and suggest that haplotype associations between polymorphic loci and neighbor loci that harbor functional sequence variants can be exploited to identify disease-predisposing alleles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke, also called an attack on the brain, is a complex disease that results from the interaction of many genetic and environmental factors. StrokePortal is a comprehensive resource for information on stroke that integrates and provides essential findings regarding stroke pathology, diagnostics, and treatments, based on Oriental and Western medicine. The stroke information was collected from various sources, such as journal articles, books, websites, and news stories, and it was refined, classified, and stored into a relational database system by automatic classification and manual curation. To provide the stored information effectively to users, a specialized retrieval system, based on web interfaces, was implemented. StrokePortal provides cutting-edge information to experts; interested people, including patients and their families; and investigators to broaden their knowledge of effective treatments for patients and offer many preventive measures. It provides a specialized feature with which users can upload their information and opinions to StrokePortal, which will enrich and mature the content even further. StrokePortal is freely accessible at http://genomics.kribb.re.kr/StrokePortal/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]