Biomedical subjects

Weizhong He

Publications and source records attributed to Weizhong He.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

KDE Bioscience: platform for bioinformatics analysis workflows.

Bioinformatics is a dynamic research area in which a large number of algorithms and programs have been developed rapidly and independently without much consideration so far of the need for standardization. The lack of such common standards combined with unfriendly interfaces make it difficult for biologists to learn how to use these tools and to translate the data formats from one to another. Consequently, the construction of an integrative bioinformatics platform to facilitate biologists' research is an urgent and challenging task. KDE Bioscience is a java-based software platform that collects a variety of bioinformatics tools and provides a workflow mechanism to integrate them. Nucleotide and protein sequences from local flat files, web sites, and relational databases can be entered, annotated, and aligned. Several home-made or 3rd-party viewers are built-in to provide visualization of annotations or alignments. KDE Bioscience can also be deployed in client-server mode where simultaneous execution of the same workflow is supported for multiple users. Moreover, workflows can be published as web pages that can be executed from a web browser. The power of KDE Bioscience comes from the integrated algorithms and data sources. With its generic workflow mechanism other novel calculations and simulations can be integrated to augment the current sequence analysis functions. Because of this flexible and extensible architecture, KDE Bioscience makes an ideal integrated informatics environment for future bioinformatics or systems biology research.

Biological Science Disciplines↗

PubMed2003

Can renin status predict the antihypertensive efficacy of eplerenone add-on therapy?

Since neither angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) nor angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) can completely suppress aldosterone levels, there is a need for alternative/supplementary antihypertensive medications, such as the selective aldosterone blocker eplerenone (Inspra). This multicenter study measured the safety and efficacy of add-on eplerenone therapy to reduce blood pressure not controlled by ACE-I or ARB monotherapy. An ad hoc analysis evaluated whether active plasma renin or serum aldosterone levels could predict blood pressure response to eplerenone therapy. Patients (N = 341) with a diastolic blood pressure > 95 mmHg on a fixed dose of ACE-I or ARB were randomized to 8 weeks of double-blind treatment with eplerenone 50 mg qd or placebo. If blood pressure remained uncontrolled following 2, 4, or 6 weeks of treatment, the eplerenone dose was increased to 100 mg qd. In a combined cohort analysis of these patients, the placebo-adjusted change in systolic and diastolic blood pressure was -5.9/-2.4 mmHg (p< 0.001 and p = 0.006, respectively). While adding eplerenone to an ACE-I or ARB is safe and effective for blood pressure reduction, there was no baseline value or range of values of active plasma renin, serum aldosterone, or their ratio that predicted a favorable response to either of these drug combinations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Efficacy of eplerenone added to renin-angiotensin blockade in hypertensive patients.

The efficacy and tolerability of eplerenone, a selective aldosterone blocker, was assessed when added to existing antihypertensive therapy with an ACE inhibitor or an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). Hypertensive patients (n=341) whose blood pressure (BP) was not controlled despite ACE inhibitor or ARB were randomized (double-blind) to receive 50 mg eplerenone (increasing to 100 mg if required) once daily or placebo for 8 weeks. Diastolic and systolic BP and adverse events were recorded. By study end (week 8), mean seated diastolic BP was significantly reduced from week 0 among patients receiving eplerenone/ARB (-12.7+/-0.81 mm Hg) compared with those receiving placebo/ARB (-9.3+/-0.83 mm Hg). The change in mean seated diastolic BP was -9.9+/-0.88 mm Hg in eplerenone/ACE inhibitor patients and -8.0+/-0.86 mm Hg in placebo/ACE inhibitor patients (P=NS). Systolic BP levels were also significantly lower at week 8 for eplerenone/ACE inhibitor (-13.4+/-1.35 mm Hg) and eplerenone/ARB (-16.0+/-1.37 mm Hg) patients, respectively, compared with placebo/ACE inhibitor (-7.5+/-1.31 mm Hg) and placebo/ARB patients (-9.2+/-1.41 mm Hg). Adverse events were generally nonsevere and not significantly different between eplerenone and placebo. This study demonstrated that in patients whose BP was not controlled with an ACE inhibitor or ARB, the addition of eplerenone over an 8-week period significantly lowered systolic BP in both groups and diastolic BP in ARB patients. Selective aldosterone blockade with eplerenone, therefore, may be useful add-on therapy in hypertensive patients inadequately controlled on ACE inhibitor or ARB alone.

Abdominal Pain↗