The current trend of avian influenza viruses in bioinformatics research

Abstract

Objectives: Since the first human infection from avian influenza was reported in Hong Kong in 1997, many Asian countries have confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses. In addition to Asian countries, the EU authorities also held an urgent meeting in February 2006 at which it was agreed that Europe could also become the next target for H5N1 avian influenza in the near future. In this paper, we provide the general and applicable information on the avian influenza in the bioinformatics field to assist future studies in preventive medicine. Methods: We introduced some up-to-date analytical tools in bioinformatics research, and discussed the current trends of avian influenza outbreaks. Among the bioinformatics methods, we focused our interests on two topics: pattern analysis using the secondary database of avian influenza, and structural analysis using the molecular dynamics simulations in vaccine design. Results: Use of the public genome databases available in the bioinformatics field enabled intensive analysis of the genetic patterns. Moreover, molecular dynamic simulations have also undergone remarkable development on the basis of the high performance supercomputing infrastructure these days. Conclusions: The bioinformatics techniques we introduced in this study may be useful in preventive medicine, especially in vaccine and drug discovery.