How can I extract the abstract from efetch (Biopython, Entrez)?

Question

I am new to python and would like to extract abstracts from pubmed using the entrez system from the bio package. I got the esearch to give me my UIDs (stored in my_list_ges) and I can also download an entry using efetch. Now, however, the result is a list of dictionaries and the entries look like a dictionary but I cannot access them:

Entrez.email= "my-email@provider.sth"
handle=Entrez.efetch(db="pubmed",id=my_list_ges[0],rettype="null",retmode="xml")
record = Entrez.read(handle)
abstract=record["Abstract"]
handle.close()

The result is a TypeError:

TypeError: list indices must be integers, not str

And I get a KeyError when trying to retrieve 'Abstract' from the first record:

>>> record[0]["Abstract"]
KeyError: 'Abstract'

This is weird, because in the result of the esearch I could easily access my UIDs by a dictionary

The structure of record[0] is:

{u'MedlineCitation': DictElement({
        u'OtherID': [],
        u'OtherAbstract': [],
        u'CitationSubset': ['IM'],
        u'KeywordList': [],
        u'DateCreated': {u'Month': '03', u'Day': '17', u'Year': '2016'},
        u'SpaceFlightMission': [],
        u'GeneralNote': [],
        u'Article':
        DictElement({
            u'ArticleDate': [
                DictElement({u'Month': '03', u'Day': '16', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'DateType': u'Electronic'})],
           u'Pagination': {u'MedlinePgn': 'e0151666'},
           u'AuthorList': ListElement([
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': "O'Neill",
                u'Initials': 'KE',
                u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}], 
                u'ForeName': 'Kathy E'
                }, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Bredenkamp',
                u'Initials': 'N', u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}],
                u'ForeName': 'Nicholas'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}), 
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Tischner',
                u'Initials': 'C',
                u'Identifier': [], 
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}],
                u'ForeName': 'Christin'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Vaidya',
                u'Initials': 'HJ',
                u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}],
                u'ForeName': 'Harsh J'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Stenhouse',
                u'Initials': 'FH',
                u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}], u'ForeName': 'Frances H'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Peddie',
                u'Initials': 'CD',
                u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}],
                u'ForeName': 'C Diana'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Nowell',
                u'Initials': 'CS',
                u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}],
                u'ForeName': 'Craig S'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Gaskell', 
                u'Initials': 'T', 
                u'Identifier': [], 
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}],
                u'ForeName': 'Terri'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'}),
            DictElement({
                u'LastName': 'Blackburn',
                u'Initials': 'CC',
                u'Identifier': [],
                u'AffiliationInfo': [{
                    u'Affiliation': 'MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Institute for Stem Cell Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, SCRM Building, 5 Little France Drive, Edinburgh, EH16 4UU, UK.',
                    u'Identifier': []}], u'ForeName': 'C Clare'}, attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y'})],
            attributes={u'Type': u'authors', u'CompleteYN': u'Y'}),
        u'Language': ['eng'],
        u'PublicationTypeList': [StringElement('Journal Article', attributes={u'UI': u'D016428'})],
        u'Journal': {
            u'ISSN': StringElement('1932-6203', attributes={u'IssnType': u'Electronic'}),
            u'ISOAbbreviation': 'PLoS ONE',
            u'JournalIssue': DictElement({
                u'Volume': '11',
                u'Issue': '3',
                u'PubDate': {u'Year': '2016'}}, attributes={u'CitedMedium': u'Internet'}),
            u'Title': 'PloS one'},
        u'ArticleTitle': 'Foxn1 Is Dynamically Regulated in Thymic Epithelial Cells during Embryogenesis and at the Onset of Thymic Involution.',
        u'ELocationID': [StringElement('10.1371/journal.pone.0151666', attributes={u'ValidYN': u'Y', u'EIdType': u'doi'})],
        u'Abstract': {u'AbstractText': ['--Unnecessarily long abstract removed --']}}, attributes={u'PubModel': u'Electronic-eCollection'}),
        u'PMID': StringElement('26983083', attributes={u'Version': u'1'}),
        u'MedlineJournalInfo': {
            u'MedlineTA': 'PLoS One',
            u'Country': 'United States',
            u'NlmUniqueID': '101285081',
            u'ISSNLinking': '1932-6203'}}, attributes={u'Owner': u'NLM', u'Status': u'In-Data-Review'}),
 u'PubmedData': {
    u'ArticleIdList': [
        StringElement('10.1371/journal.pone.0151666', attributes={u'IdType': u'doi'}),
        StringElement('PONE-D-15-47173', attributes={u'IdType': u'pii'}),
        StringElement('26983083', attributes={u'IdType': u'pubmed'})],
    u'PublicationStatus': 'epublish',
    u'History': [
        DictElement({u'Month': '', u'Day': '', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'ecollection'}),
        DictElement({u'Month': '10', u'Day': '28', u'Year': '2015'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'received'}),
        DictElement({u'Month': '3', u'Day': '2', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'accepted'}),
        DictElement({u'Month': '3', u'Day': '16', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'epublish'}),
        DictElement({u'Minute': '0', u'Month': '3', u'Day': '17', u'Hour': '6', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'entrez'}),
        DictElement({u'Minute': '0', u'Month': '3', u'Day': '18', u'Hour': '6', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'pubmed'}),
        DictElement({u'Minute': '0', u'Month': '3', u'Day': '18', u'Hour': '6', u'Year': '2016'}, attributes={u'PubStatus': u'medline'})]}
}

It seems to me that `Abstract` is not directly in `record[0]`, it's in one of the nested records, specifically, `record[0]['MedlineCitation']['Abstract']`. — Paul, Mar 18 '16 at 16:10

daedalus · Answer 1 · 2016-03-19T11:04:07.033

I find it is much easier to return a Medline record and parse that. I insert my full working code for a related query: query = "Tischner[AU] Cortex-specific down-regulation". The key point in the code below is that fetch_rec() function uses rettype='Medline', retmode='text' and then parses the resulting records using BioPython's Medline module.

from StringIO import StringIO
from Bio import Entrez, Medline

def search_medline(query, email):
    Entrez.email = email
    search = Entrez.esearch(db='pubmed', term=query, usehistory='y')
    handle = Entrez.read(search)
    try:
        return handle
    except Exception as e:
        raise IOError(str(e))
    finally:
        search.close()

def fetch_rec(rec_id, entrez_handle):
    fetch_handle = Entrez.efetch(db='pubmed', id=rec_id,
                                 rettype='Medline', retmode='text',
                                 webenv=entrez_handle['WebEnv'],
                                 query_key=entrez_handle['QueryKey'])
    rec = fetch_handle.read()
    return rec

def main(query, email):
    rec_handler = search_medline(query, email)

    for rec_id in rec_handler['IdList']:
        rec = fetch_rec(rec_id, rec_handler)
        rec_file = StringIO(rec)
        medline_rec = Medline.read(rec_file)
        if 'AB' in medline_rec:
            print(medline_rec['AB'])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    email = "my-email@provider.sth"
    query = "Tischner[AU] Cortex-specific down-regulation"
    main(query, email)

It will print out the abstract you seek, but with a change in the query parameter, this script may be adapted to any search. There are more efficient ways of extracting large numbers of records, but for a small search this will do.

Thanks gauden, this is working for me. However, I want to download sth like half a million entries. For fewer entries this is perfect, though. — MaxS, Mar 19 '16 at 15:58
I understand, @MaxS. There are simple ways of downloading in batches but it would need re-writing the fetch function. I will try to find time to update this to take care of that use-case, if only for others to use in the future. — daedalus, Mar 19 '16 at 17:11
thanks, very nice. The way Paul was adressing the question worked with my code. I used esearch and efetch and increased the retmax agument to 100 000 and interated over retstart — MaxS, Mar 19 '16 at 17:26
I completely agree and I intend to follow that pattern. It would be interesting to compare which approach is faster, though over a million records the time spent downloading small batches of records within the limits of the terms of use would be greater than any time spent parsing. Worth checking. I will play with it :) — daedalus, Mar 19 '16 at 17:32

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '16 at 16:20

I don't know much about what the "right" thing to do in this situation is (not familiar with biopython), but the reason you are getting the KeyError in that the 'Abstract' key is nested in the 'MedlineCitation' dictionary:

record[0]['MedlineCitation']['Article']['Abstract']

Should give you something like:

{'AbstractText': ['--Unnecessarily long abstract removed --']}

How can I extract the abstract from efetch (Biopython, Entrez)?

2 Answers2