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Bioinformatic methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association (2016) 115, 59
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.jfma-online.com
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Bioinformatic methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses To the Editor, The recent report on “bioinformatic methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses” is very interesting.1 Hu et al1 “designed a systemic analysis method to evaluate annual perspective sequence changes of influenza virus strains” and further used a tool, “PHYLIP 3.69,” for epitope search; they concluded that the proposed combinatorial bioinformatics method was effective. In fact, the usefulness of bioinformatic tools in treating infectious and tropical diseases has been confirmed.2 Focusing on the present report, the selected tools seem to be appropriate and good for prediction purpose. However, several tools are available for tracing annual perspective change and finding epitopes. Specifically focusing on annual perspective change, Google Flu Trends, a tool that is widely used presently, should be mentioned.3 This tool (Google Flu Trends) can be easily assessed using Google and the updated current situation can be seen.3 Nevertheless, any computational bioinformatic tool has its limitation.2 Focusing on PHYLIP, there are many upgraded applications to increase the ability of this tool. A good example is WebPHYLIP, which allows Internet manipulation of PHYLIP.4
References 1. Hu YJ, Chow KC, Liu CC, Lin LJ, Wang SC, Wang S. Using combinatorial bioinformatics methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses and to accelerate development of effective vaccines. J Formos Med Assoc 2015; 114:774e8. 2. Wiwanitkit V. Utilization of multiple “omics” studies in microbial pathogeny for microbiology insights. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 2013;3:330e3. 3. Martin LJ, Xu B, Yasui Y. Improving Google Flu Trends estimates for the United States through transformation. PLoS One 2014;9: e109209. 4. Lim A, Zhang L. WebPHYLIP: a web interface to PHYLIP. Bioinformatics 1999;15:1068e9.
Viroj Wiwanitkit* Surin Rajabhat University, Surin Thailand *Corresponding author. Surin Rajabhat University, Maung Surin District, Surin Province 33000, Thailand. E-mail address: [email protected] 10 June 2015
Conflicts of interest: The author has no conflicts of interest relevant to this article. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfma.2015.06.008 0929-6646/Copyright ª 2015, Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. All rights reserved.
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.jfma-online.com
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Bioinformatic methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses To the Editor, The recent report on “bioinformatic methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses” is very interesting.1 Hu et al1 “designed a systemic analysis method to evaluate annual perspective sequence changes of influenza virus strains” and further used a tool, “PHYLIP 3.69,” for epitope search; they concluded that the proposed combinatorial bioinformatics method was effective. In fact, the usefulness of bioinformatic tools in treating infectious and tropical diseases has been confirmed.2 Focusing on the present report, the selected tools seem to be appropriate and good for prediction purpose. However, several tools are available for tracing annual perspective change and finding epitopes. Specifically focusing on annual perspective change, Google Flu Trends, a tool that is widely used presently, should be mentioned.3 This tool (Google Flu Trends) can be easily assessed using Google and the updated current situation can be seen.3 Nevertheless, any computational bioinformatic tool has its limitation.2 Focusing on PHYLIP, there are many upgraded applications to increase the ability of this tool. A good example is WebPHYLIP, which allows Internet manipulation of PHYLIP.4
References 1. Hu YJ, Chow KC, Liu CC, Lin LJ, Wang SC, Wang S. Using combinatorial bioinformatics methods to analyze annual perspective changes of influenza viruses and to accelerate development of effective vaccines. J Formos Med Assoc 2015; 114:774e8. 2. Wiwanitkit V. Utilization of multiple “omics” studies in microbial pathogeny for microbiology insights. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 2013;3:330e3. 3. Martin LJ, Xu B, Yasui Y. Improving Google Flu Trends estimates for the United States through transformation. PLoS One 2014;9: e109209. 4. Lim A, Zhang L. WebPHYLIP: a web interface to PHYLIP. Bioinformatics 1999;15:1068e9.
Viroj Wiwanitkit* Surin Rajabhat University, Surin Thailand *Corresponding author. Surin Rajabhat University, Maung Surin District, Surin Province 33000, Thailand. E-mail address: [email protected] 10 June 2015
Conflicts of interest: The author has no conflicts of interest relevant to this article. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfma.2015.06.008 0929-6646/Copyright ª 2015, Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. All rights reserved.