Laminin-database v.2.0: an update on laminins in health and neuromuscular disorders.

The laminin (LM)-database, hosted at http://www.lm.lncc.br, was published in the NAR database 2011 edition. It was the first database that provided comprehensive information concerning a non-collagenous family of extracellular matrix proteins, the LMs. In its first version, this database contained a large amount of information concerning LMs related to health and disease, with particular emphasis on the haemopoietic system. Users can easily access several tabs for LMs and LM-related molecules, as well as LM nomenclatures and direct links to PubMed. The LM-database version 2.0 integrates data from several publications to achieve a more comprehensive knowledge of LMs in health and disease. The novel features include the addition of two new tabs, 'Neuromuscular Disorders' and 'miRNA--LM Relationship'. More specifically, in this updated version, an expanding set of data has been displayed concerning the role of LMs in neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the putative involvement of microRNAs. Given the importance of LMs in several biological processes, such as cell adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, migration and cell death, this upgraded version expands for users a panoply of information, regarding complex molecular circuitries that involve LMs in health and disease, including neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders.

Laminin database: a tool to retrieve high-throughput and curated data for studies on laminins.

The Laminin(LM)-database, hosted at http://www.lm.lncc.br, is the first database focusing a non-collagenous extracellular matrix protein family, the LMs. Part of the knowledge available in this website is automatically retrieved, whereas a significant amount of information is curated and annotated, thus placing LM-database beyond a simple repository of data. In its home page, an overview of the rationale for the database is seen and readers can access a tutorial to facilitate navigation in the website, which in turn is presented with tabs subdivided into LMs, receptors, extracellular binding and other related proteins. Each tab opens into a given LM or LM-related molecule, where the reader finds a series of further tabs for 'protein', 'gene structure', 'gene expression' and 'tissue distribution' and 'therapy'. Data are separated as a function of species, comprising Homo sapiens, Mus musculus and Rattus novergicus. Furthermore, there is specific tab displaying the LM nomenclatures. In another tab, a direct link to PubMed, which can be then consulted in a specific way, in terms of the biological functions of each molecule, knockout animals and genetic diseases, immune response and lymphomas/leukemias. LM-database will hopefully be a relevant tool for retrieving information concerning LMs in health and disease, particularly regarding the hemopoietic system.

CTdatabase: a knowledge-base of high-throughput and curated data on cancer-testis antigens.

The potency of the immune response has still to be harnessed effectively to combat human cancers. However, the discovery of T-cell targets in melanomas and other tumors has raised the possibility that cancer vaccines can be used to induce a therapeutically effective immune response against cancer. The targets, cancer-testis (CT) antigens, are immunogenic proteins preferentially expressed in normal gametogenic tissues and different histological types of tumors. Therapeutic cancer vaccines directed against CT antigens are currently in late-stage clinical trials testing whether they can delay or prevent recurrence of lung cancer and melanoma following surgical removal of primary tumors. CT antigens constitute a large, but ill-defined, family of proteins that exhibit a remarkably restricted expression. Currently, there is a considerable amount of information about these proteins, but the data are scattered through the literature and in several bioinformatic databases. The database presented here, CTdatabase (http://www.cta.lncc.br), unifies this knowledge to facilitate both the mining of the existing deluge of data, and the identification of proteins alleged to be CT antigens, but that do not have their characteristic restricted expression pattern. CTdatabase is more than a repository of CT antigen data, since all the available information was carefully curated and annotated with most data being specifically processed for CT antigens and stored locally. Starting from a compilation of known CT antigens, CTdatabase provides basic information including gene names and aliases, RefSeq accession numbers, genomic location, known splicing variants, gene duplications and additional family members. Gene expression at the mRNA level in normal and tumor tissues has been collated from publicly available data obtained by several different technologies. Manually curated data related to mRNA and protein expression, and antigen-specific immune responses in cancer patients are also available, together with links to PubMed for relevant CT antigen articles.